"Menzies said the fundamental problem with the CBC is that it’s not so much a public broadcaster as it is a publicly funded commercial broadcaster that is competing with private news organizations for eyeballs and advertising dollars."
Here's my plan for the #CBC in the age of streaming. Keep #RadioCanada as is. Keep the news. #Telefilm becomes the home for funding new video; the #NFB produces videos in house and CBC TV becomes the distributer.
#CBCRadio as is; #RadioCanada as is; CBC News as is [0]; #CBC TV as a repertory broadcaster, more like #PBS; CBC Internet as a repository of Canadian taxpayer-subsidised videos.
No more direct competition with private networks for viewers and advertising; no more US game shows; no more CBC Sports; no quest to create a new hit show that also vaunts the Canadian identity.
[0] Maybe a few minutes on the hour every hour on CBC TV, similar to CBC Radio?
"During the 2015 election, the Liberals promised to end a Canada Post program, which was then underway, converting addresses from door-to-door home delivery to community mailboxes." A bad — but politically popular — decision of the Trudeau ministry.
For more radical change, @acoyne proposed many years ago that we give #CanadaPost to the postal union and let them find solutions.
Imagine if Republicans actually got on board with this awesome idea instead of painting it as the destruction of America like they undoubtedly will. Conservatives have lost their way and their minds, truly. https://www.threads.net/@potus/post/C607StBrwUy
@dmacphee The headline is misleading. It doesn't surprise me that the Fraser Institute, the Montreal Economic Institute or the Macdonald Laurier Institute say foolish things about #ClimateChange, but environmental issues are a very small part of what they do. It's like describing U of T as a place to play soccer.
As for @acoyne personally, he believes climate change is real and that humans are responsible. He's told the public we should have a #CarbonTax for 20 years or more.
It's always interesting when someone whose politics you think you know supports something unexpected: the NRA member who opposes capital punishment, the socialist who favours free trade, the pro-life feminist. How often are beliefs only found in a set because of a historical coalition, not any deeper principle? Do you hold any beliefs at variance with your political in-group?
@bluGill@laimis
I think some useful lessons can be drawn from the Canadian experience with immigration policy.
Immigrants can integrate well into their new home, and even high levels of immigration can enjoy wide public support, but the necessary precondition is that immigration must be in accordance with a system established by law. If the public feels immigration is mostly uncontrolled, then they turn against it.
I wish we could take the cameras out of the House of Commons. It was bad enough when politicians were playing for a clip on the evening news; now they're angling for a clip they can share on social media.
Parliament would work better if the real audience speakers were addressing were the other MPs in the House.
@jerome Sure, #PierrePoilievre shouldn't have called the PM a wacko, and he should have withdrawn the remark once the Speaker asked him to do so. It's a lowering of the discourse, unworthy of any MP, let alone the leader of the opposition.
But let's acknowledge that debate in the House of Commons has been deteriorating for sixty years at least. It's not so much a matter of individuals, there's a structural problem. I think the underlying cause is that they play to the cameras.
Mr. Clark and PM Trudeau had learned their parliamentary craft before cameras came in and the point became to gain a 30 second clip on the evening news.
I'm not saying that parliamentary debate in Canada was some Socratic ideal in the past, but it really was better.
"In February 1849, the Rebellion Losses bill formally turned up in the House of Assembly, then located in Montreal, the capital being a moving target in those days, alternating between French and English cities. The debate on compensation was, on the surface, about the money. Really, it was about anglophone prejudices and fears, about losing power, about having to live in a world that was making less sense."
I supported the #TransMountainPipelineExtension project in principle [0], but not at any cost. For this reason, it was always unwise for the government to be main funder of the project, let alone the sponsor. $34B is a huge amount of money; will the economic benefit of the project come close?
[0] The world does need to act against #ClimateChange, but fossil fuels are so widespread and fungible that unilaterally cutting supply is ineffectual -- we need to reduce demand.
I've been somewhat surprised by how slowly organisations already present on #Threads have been at sharing their posts with the #Fediverse. If you're trying to broadcast news about your sports team (for instance), why not make a simple choice that increases your broadcasting range?
So I'm delighted to see that @theagendatvo has joined the Fediverse in the last few days. Welcome, Mr. Paikin and #TheAgenda.