Majority Of Canadians Are Ok With The Conservatives Defunding The CBC

Erin O’Toole had run in the 2020 Conservative leadership election on a platform that included fully defunding the CBC (outside of programming for the territories) but then lost his nerve going into the 2021 federal election and pivoted his position on the CBC to just wanting a review of the corporation to be undertaken. 

It was not a surprise to see O’Toole weaken that position ahead of the election, seeing as he weakened almost every conservative position he had previously taken, but it goes to show a deeply ingrained anxiety among Conservatives when taking tough stances. 

Ironically it seems like Conservatives initially pledge to do Conservative things like defunding the CBC but then lose their nerve when legacy media corporations like the CBC assert that those positions are unpopular. In reality, Conservatism is much more popular than the legacy media and political establishment would have people believe, even when it comes to defunding the CBC.

Disclaimer: Public polling companies have a history of oversampling more left-wing voters so results should always favour Conservatives more than the numbers typically show, especially in online polls.

The fact that the Angus Reid poll showed that 64 percent of respondents would support or be interested in supporting the Conservative Party if they adopted a policy to completely defund the CBC, demonstrates that Canadians are awake to the foolishness of funding government media.

CBC’s flagship news show “The National” brings in less than 500,000 viewers every night, in a country of 38 million people, with a yearly government grant of over $1.1 billion.

Canadians realize that the CBC is a make-work program for journalists who don’t want to have to create their own news networks or publications, and the government is ok with funding it because it pushes Liberal propaganda. 

If the Conservative Party is to win the next election, unlike Erin O’Toole, they need to adopt a hardline policy in favour of defunding the CBC. The Canadian people want it, and continuing to fund the CBC’s anti-Conservative propaganda out of cowardice demonstrates a lack of courage needed to govern.