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February 9, 2012
Despite electing a majority Conservative government, Canadians trust the NDP
more to protect the CBC according to a survey done by the Friends of Canadian
Broadcasting.
Results from Kamloops lean even more heavily towards the NDP than the Canadian
average: almost 60 per cent of Kamloopsians trust the NDP to protect the CBC
while less than 50 per cent do nationally. Trust for Conservatives to do the
same is only 15 per cent in Kamloops.
I asked Ian Morrison, spokesman for the group, why Kamloops would elect
Conservatives while trusting the NDP more. “As you can see from the survey,
there is widespread distrust of the Harper government on issues of cultural
sovereignty,” he told me.
Morrison points to statements made by Stephen Harper before he was prime
minister. In 2004, he told a Winnipeg audience that some aspects of the CBC
could be commercialized.
Since forming a majority government, Harper has been notably silent in his
defence of the CBC. Kamloopsians wish our MP Cathy MacLeod would speak up.
According to survey results, 53 per cent hope she fights for the proposed CBC
station in Kamloops even as her government plans to cut funding.
One of the dangers of defending the CBC is that many of her supporters would
like to see our public broadcaster gone. Of course, MacLeod’s support of the CBC
would rattle Conservatives in Kamloops, some of them on city council who
supported an odd motion last year.
They almost passed a motion to reduce CBC’s operating budget by 60 per cent.
Some of those councillors were re-elected. The motion was odd, not just because
it doesn’t reflect the opinions of constituents but because it presumes to tell
the federal government how to run its business.
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he survey reveals how of touch those councillors are. The majority of
Kamloopsians disagree with cuts to the CBC: 57 per cent say that funding
should be increased, not decreased. Again, Kamloopsians are above the
national average in this regard. Only 15 per cent think it should be
reduced.
It’s not surprising that three-quarters of Kamloopsians are in favour of the
proposed new CBC radio station in Kamloops. Why wouldn’t we want the rest of
Canada know what’s happening and connect to the rest of the country through
a national radio network? Why wouldn’t we want to receive the coverage that
almost every other city the size of Kamloops takes for granted?
Considering that Kamloops has never had a CBC TV or radio station,
Kamloopsians are surprisingly aware of what they are missing. One of the few
negative things that came out of the survey was our disapproval of CBC’s
local coverage. More than one-third said that CBC does a poor job of
covering of news and cultural events in Kamloops. National disapproval was
10 per cent less.
Morrison was at a loss to explain how we could be aware of the lack of a
service we never had. Perhaps we see stories being told about other places
and wonder: “why not here?” Maybe we are tired of being off the map as when
CBC’s The National reported last week that Barriere was “north of Kelowna.”
Maybe the little lobby group Save Our CBC Kamloops (SOCK) has raised
awareness of our lack of CBC services. SOCK has made an impression with
Friends, apparently. “I am a member of SOCK’s Toronto chapter,” joked
Morrison.
Perhaps Kamloopsians are tired of having their city being treated as a
backwater by national media and are now prepared to shine on a national
stage.
David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at
dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca
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