an institution in Canada

I was reading today an interview with Hubert Lacroix President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CBC. In March the Federal Minister of Finance will table in the House of Commons the Government's budget for the year, we are told that very deep cuts are coming and the CBC as the State Broadcaster is facing a 10% cut in its budget.  This time around Mr. Lacroix says that after this most recent series of cuts the public will notice some drastic changes in the way CBC's radio and television network operate. The cuts are so deep that either the French Radio Service could disappear or the English Service or 2 full days of television broadcasting. It is unlikely that one or the other of the radio service would disappear completely for reasons of Canadian National politics but this illustrates the seriousness of the matter.

Since we returned to Canada in August 2011 we have already noticed how the CBC is not the way it use to be, the programming has suffered and it is certainly not the same standard it once was as the premier broadcaster and the image of Canadian Culture to the world. The CBC and Radio Canada was lots of great radio and television programming, many famous hosts known across the country by listeners a National following from coast to coast. The CBC brought us Canadian content and told us about our country Canada like no private broadcaster in Canada could. Currently the CBC receives about 1.1 billion dollars annually from the Federal Government not exactly a fortune given their mandate spanning the airwaves of the second largest country in the world.

Currently a lot of our politicians appear to have no time for the CBC and do not seem to know of its contribution to the Nation or they think it is passé, belonging to another era, would anyone call the BBC passé? There is no debate about the CBC's future or debate is stifled under the speeches of fiscal constraint, it appears that talk of deficit and cuts and being responsible is the only talk in town, it has been whipped up into mass hysteria, though on the other hand we are also told how sound our banking system is and how good our financial position.

How much of these speeches is manufactured for cynical political aims remains to be seen. I suspect like many Canadians that the fact that the CBC as a broadcaster cannot be controlled or dictated to by the politicians is the real reason for the trouble. Though with the disappearance of this great National institution or its belittling we as Canadians loose.

The promotion of our National Culture is one area where private industry cannot replace the role of a State Broadcaster looking after Canadian interest as the CBC-Radio Canada has done so well since 1920. A private company has no interest in promoting arts and culture because it never makes money and private broadcaster are not interested in broadcasting outside their market area. The CBC- Radio Canada is recognized as our greatest National Cultural Institution.

Unfortunately despite having lots of friends supporting the CBC, our government has decided otherwise and is not listening. Private industry will do it all for us apparently, I have heard private radio and seen the re-runs on TV and it is not worth the time of day. We live in sad times in Canada. To quote Graham Spry of the Canadian Radio League who testified in Parliament in the 1930's, the founding of the CBC was a choice between private interests and the people's interest, it should be the same today.

What no Television

We are now at the 5 month mark since our return from Italy. Our intention was when we returned to buy a new television, we even made a date to go to the store and look at models, the latest technology with gadgets etc.... This was in August, we were still unpacking and moping for la bella Italia, boxes everywhere and chaos. So we postponed our trip to the shop and then simply forgot about it. It turns out that we did have a large flat screen TV in Rome but never watched it, we always had other things to do or things to go and see, so the television just sat there. Now last weekend we were in Montreal and our hotel room had a large screen TV, we turned it on mostly for the puppies as background noise when we were not in the room to distract them. I did watch a bit of news but overall I found the contents of what was being presented on various and numerous channels totally vapid and of no interest to me what so ever.
The talking heads in most cases, no in all cases had no idea what they were talking about, just flapping their gums about this and that and finding themselves very funny, I just found them boring, sorry Radio-Canada and CTV. Most announcers on television are so pretentious and so full of their own importance its comical, they are also desperate to look just like everyone else on the street, faux common bond. They are dying to tell you what is new and hip and why you should do like they do, because their mothers or someone in their family think its great. They got their finger on the pulse of things, really?  All this to say that I would not buy a television set based on what I saw on television. I found most announcers and assorted talking heads good reasons not to get involved with the thing to begin with.

At Christmas lunch at one point the conversation turned to a series on television, I had never heard of it
neither had Will.  We told family that we did not own a television set and did not plan at this point to get one. We got strange looks, in North America the television culture is deeply ingrained and is part of everyday life, no one really thinks of doing without a television.  We have come to realize that we are a breed apart, too much travel, too much living abroad, too many different experiences. We are on a sort of permanent jet lag. So we will continue to do without a television for the foreseeable future.