The Chretien Liberals Slowly Starve the CBC to Death
Since Confederation and before, living in the shadow of the Americans has posed many challenges to Canadians. In the 20th century, as the U.S. emerged as a global superpower, these challenges were multiplied. While the threat of direct American military invasion decreased (hawkish American cries of "Manifest Destiny" or "54-40 or Fight" ended by the beginning of the 1900s), economic and cultural domination of Canada by the U.S. became the norm.
Canadians have always faced incredible cultural aggression from the U.S. And while other countries with similar challenges (large territory and small populations) have successfully established thriving domestic cultural industries - Australia being one of the most noted examples - it has been more difficult for Canada. The main reason is that it has always been cheaper to import mass-produced American cultural products, whether radio, television, films, books or magazines, than to produce Canadian products.
One of the Canadian institutions designed to promote the production of Canadian cultural products was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). When the Chretien Liberals came to power in 1993, the CBC was reeling from a series of contradictory proclamations about its future made by the previous Conservative government. Despite steadily climbing costs, the CBC had also endured almost a decade of budget freezes.
During the 1993 election campaign, the Liberals declared the CBC was an important national institution and campaigned on a pledge in their Red Book to ensure stable multi-year financing for the publicly financed broadcaster.
Instead, within two years of coming to power, the Liberals had cut $400 million, over one quarter of the CBC's total budget. CBC President Anthony Manera resigned in 1995 when presented with the cuts, saying it would be impossible for the corporation to fulfil its mandate. Manera described the cuts as a crippling blow to public broadcasting in Canada, one from which it would be difficult to recover.
The Liberals moved quickly to replace Manera with Perrin Beatty, a former Mulroney-era cabinet minister, who promised spending could be slashed while maintaining the same level of service to Canadians. He eliminated 2,000 jobs and began the process of decreasing regional programming in both television and radio.
Yet despite the cuts, which basically decimated regional programming, there is widespread support amongst Canadians for a public broadcaster. This is probably because the main factor which led to the CBC's creation in the 1930s - the desire for a Canadian voice as opposed to total domination of Canadian broadcasting by American programming - still exists today.
In 1928, the federal government established a Royal Commission to "investigate the broadcasting situation" and make recommendations to the government on how such a system should operate in Canada. This was the first Royal Commission to hold extensive hearings throughout the country, and at the end of the process the Commissioners concluded that there was "unanimity on one fundamental question - Canadian radio listeners want Canadian broadcasting." At the time, there was no truly national radio network. Dozens of stations operated in communities across Canada, some run by small clubs or associations, some by groups of merchants and others by CN. All stations used recorded music and imported American radio programs because they were cheaper to use than producing and airing local programs.
In 1929, the Aird Report was tabled in the House of Commons, outlining the Royal Commission's recommendations. The report clearly stated that it would be impossible, because of the size of the country and its small population, to finance a comprehensive national broadcasting service from commercial revenue. The report recommended the establishment of a national broadcasting company, which would get the majority of its revenues from government subsidies.
Despite widespread private sector opposition to the report's recommendations, particularly from companies who profited from distributing American radio material, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was born in 1932 and became the CBC in 1936.
Still today, it is Canadian capitalists who profit from selling American programming who are the biggest opponents of public broadcasting in Canada. The loudest critics of the CBC are the Aspers, who have been vocal advocates for dismantling the CBC entirely. The Chretien government does not seem to be openly heading in that direction - rather they seem content to let the CBC slowly starve to death from lack of funds.