The Editor,
Re. "Privatize CBC - it's no big deal" (Face to Face, The Tri-City News, Nov. 18).
Let's quit kicking the CBC. It was established by a Conservative prime minister in 1936. It is threatened by an ideological prime minister 75 years later as well as by the Sun media chain, Quebecor and its public mouthpiece Ezra Levant.
The great majority of Canadians actually support the CBC and Face to Face columnist Andy Radia's reference to "a growing chorus of negative public opinion" is misinformation. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Tri-City MP James Moore, Canada's heritage minister, bludgeon funding for the CBC while asking to it do more in order to justify Conservative party clams that it does not do enough, something akin to Mr. Radia's misguided criticisms.
In handing over internal funding documents to Parliament, the CBC crosses constitutional boundaries and becomes not a public broadcaster but the State broadcaster, thus losing its independence from the government, perhaps veering towards something closer to a Soviet Pravda.
The real trouble with the CBC is that the Conservative party does not understand the word "culture." It does not believe culture and sovereignty are linked. Take away culture and you have no sovereignty - in other words, no Canada.
The prime minister is blind to this problem because he is, in effect, in denial, not understanding that he is undermining his own position as prime minister. Canadians have a responsibility to inform the PM that he is meddling with what is both his and ours. If I were prime minister, I would prefer a Canada with the CBC over having no country to call home.
Joerge Dyrkton, Anmore
