Ezra Levant
Toronto Sun
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is a bloated waste of taxpayer money, said Ezra Levant. It may have made sense to fund a national broadcaster back in the 1930s, when the CBC was founded with a mandate to build a national radio network. You could even make a case for its continued existence 25 years ago, when it provided TV coverage of public affairs that was available nowhere else. But today, “500 channels, from the History Channel to A&E to Bravo, clean the CBC’s clock.” The CBC has actually been “reduced to airing Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.” For that, we spend more than $1 billion a year?
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Yet even as its importance has plummeted, “its self-importance has skyrocketed.” In a debate with me this week, CBC anchors claimed that the vital service they provide is to act as a filter or curator of the news, highlighting what is most important for Canadians to know—as decided by them, of course. That argument is a repellent mixture of authoritarianism and outright “snobbery.” Canada has managed to privatize its other state-owned companies with great success: the gas company Petro-Canada, the airline Air Canada, and even the national train service. “The CBC had its moment. That moment is gone. Time to sell it.”
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