Greedy CBC leader gets slammed by Conservative MPs in committee
Episode Stats
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Summary
Wyatt Claypool explains why the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation should be defunded, and why the CBC is the most trusted source of credible news in Canada. Also, why does the CBC rank so highly in terms of trust in the eyes of Canadians?
Transcript
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Hello everyone, Wyatt Claypool here. I obviously do not like the CBC and would like them to be
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defunded, as is implied by my very elegant sticker here from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,
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but if there is one person in Canada that I can guarantee wants to see the CBC get defunded more
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than me, that would be the current CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Catherine
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Tate, because her tenure at the CBC has driven down its popularity to all-time lows and really
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opened a lot of Canadians up to the idea of just slashing all of their taxpayer funding, which is
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$1.4 billion a year right now. They'll try and finagle the numbers a bit and say, well, it's only
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70% of our budget. I'm like, well, of course it's only 70% of your budget. It would be impossible
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not to generate at least some amount of ad revenue with spending that much money. Really,
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it's demonstrating that they cannot turn a profit at all with all of the money that they're given.
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The CBC, in fact, has a bigger per capita budget than Fox News does in the United States. It's
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absolutely wild, but the person who seems to not understand how much people don't like the CBC
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is Catherine Tate herself. Or maybe she does and she's acting like this, like my theory implies.
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She wants everyone to hate the CBC and is acting this way to make sure that we defund it when
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Polyev becomes prime minister. But here is her saying that everyone loves us and the viewership's great.
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Okay. Support and trust in CBC Radio Canada. Is it, are Canadians supportive of CBC Radio Canada?
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As we've seen in multiple third-party surveys, and I'm talking about non-CBC surveys,
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CBC Radio Canada remains the most trusted source of credible news in this country.
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That's just not true. The viewership numbers of the CBC, like, debunks that because people do not
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watch the CBC. I'm about to bring up the source to show you just how few people watch the CBC.
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But the reason the CBC ranks high in terms of trusted news is because it's usually a poll of
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only mainstream news sites. You don't add in any alternative media sites. And also, most people
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don't watch that much Canadian news in general because global CTV news, city TV are also trash
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fires. Like, to be fair, it's not like they're fully fake news and everything they're telling you is
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wrong. 95%, 90% of what these outlets tell you is correct. It's the spin. It's the framing of the
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story. That is why people don't trust them. Because if you watch the CBC, you'll always think the
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liberals are right. And technically, they don't lie. They just don't give you the full context.
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But the reason that CBC ranks high in trust is because even if more people watch global or CTV news
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than they watch the CBC, most people, if you poll them, who probably aren't watching news in general,
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if you ask them, what news site do you trust the most? And CBC is like the main one in Canada in
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terms of name recognition. So they say, CBC, even though more people watch CTV news and the other
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outlets in comparison. Anyways, I'll let Catherine Tate finish up here before I pull up the numbers.
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The Polaro survey also indicated that CBC Radio Canada is the most admired media brand in the
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country. There are many surveys that indicate that CBC and Radio Canada remain very much loved among
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Canadians. Very much loved. Well, how much do Canadians love them? Because a great way of quantifying love
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would be how many people are actually watching it. I tend to spend money and view things that I love.
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But so let's just pull up this article here from the, I believe, what website is this? I should be
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giving them a plug. Ottawa Life. I'll link this article in the description below because there's a
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lot of details I'm not going to go over here. And, you know, people deserve clicks for compiling all this
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data. So right here it says, even with billions in extra revenue since 2015, CBC's audience
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has continued to dwindle. The network currently holds a 4.4% audience share for primetime TV,
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meaning 95% of Canadians are opting out of CBC content. Its local TV newscasts have fared even
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worse, with just 319,000 combined viewers across 27 programs representing less than 1% of Canadians.
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That is what we call indicting. Nobody watches these people. Even with them spamming local news
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sites all across the country, so every major city will have one in certain provinces will have their
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own CBC. Still, nobody is watching them because you get better information by just being on X or being
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on Facebook before C18 came into effect. You get just politicians tweeting stuff out, just local
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journalists tweeting stuff out, independent people tweeting stuff out. You get a better
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version of the news from actually just following a CBC journalist on Twitter than actually watching
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that CBC journalist then present the news in the filtrated form on the CBC. So the funny thing is
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there are talented people who work for the CBC. Let's not pretend that everything they do is bad.
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There is some good stuff. It's hard not to do the weather correctly, although they try by constantly
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mentioning climate change. But the thing is that the CBC's taxpayer funding is actually what hurts
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them the most. Because when you're taxpayer funded, the quality doesn't have to be good. Shows don't
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have to be interesting. CBC, I think it's Power Play, Power in Politics. I forget. One of them's on CTV.
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CBC's politics panel shows are dull. Nobody should watch them because it's three lobbyists who are
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associated with three of the parties who can't say anything because they're political masters,
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not in terms of the party, but the interests, the lobby groups they work for, obviously don't want
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them to say anything spicy on television because they're supposed to be very accessible. Here's a
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great clip from this committee where Damian Kirk and several of these other conservative MPs start
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asking her questions about just what kind of, you know, goodwill and trust the CBC has been
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garnering these days. I'm going to jump between Damian Kirk and Andrew Scheer here. And I believe
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also Jamil Giovanni was at this committee as well, Ms. Tate, about talking about the $18 million in
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bonuses that were awarded. Oh, and yeah, by the way, Catherine Tate still wants her bonus despite
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viewership going down consistently. And she claims, well, on some platforms it's up.
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Okay. But overall it's way down. She still wants her millions of bonuses, hundreds of thousands
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to individuals of the CBC. Now, Ms. Tate, in your opening statement, you asked for more money.
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Yet the last time more money was awarded to the CBC, it went to bonuses. As a show of leadership from
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the top, can you, and I'm going to, this was asked to you before and you didn't answer clearly. So I'm
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going to give you another opportunity here today. Will you categorically reject any bonus that is
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offered to you as your tenure, as the CEO of CBC comes to a close?
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Madam Chair, there were a number of questions in that question, if I may.
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The idea, if the committee wishes, I can reread the motion.
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It is about cuts to CBC and the impact of defunding the CBC. That's one of the
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things that was clear. It was not about bonuses.
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What? Okay. It is about bonuses. Damien Couric, who's also a fantastic MP, you should go follow him
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on social media. I think he's the MP in Alberta for Battle River. That was a very clear question and
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is within the purview of defunding the CBC. He is basically asking a question about the
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mismanagement of money by the CBC executive. The lack of trust also has to do with this.
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Everything technically outside of just saying, defund the CBC, should we or shouldn't we? Just
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that basic question. Technically, everything outside of that is not about the exact question.
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But what Damien Couric is getting at is, you know, what gives you the right to demand taxpayer money when
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you're not using it properly. Now, maybe this is why people don't trust you.
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Because if you recall, the state was here not too long ago talking about bonuses. So I think we
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should read that. I will read it provided now, including how the liberal threat to cut funding
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led to hundreds of CBC Radio Canada job cuts and the effects on smaller communities as promised by the
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leader of the official opposition and the consequences of defunding the CBC.
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So that's the question purview you must stay in, even though the CBC has been having to cut jobs
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anyways, despite having more money than ever because of their mismanagement and giving out bonuses to
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executives who sit around doing nothing, just ensuring that content keeps being awful. So how is
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that any different? But the liberals don't want us to talk about any of the actual corruption and
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mismanagement issues inside the CBC. They just want a fear monger to the small base of people in this
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country who will vote against the Conservatives because we got to maintain the CBC. It's Canadian
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Thank you, Madam Chair. And look, I think that it is clear that Ms. Tate, in her opening statement,
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asked for more money. And Conservatives do not believe that if the leader at the top of the
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organization is unwilling to make a commitment to say that they won't accept a bonus to what could
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be the tune of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' money at a time when people are being laid off.
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The last time the CBC asked for more money, they paid out more bonuses. Ms. Tate, to you today,
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out of respect for the organization that you've led over the last number of years,
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will you reject, if offered, a taxpayer-funded bonus?
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Madam Chair, I've appeared at this committee now five times, and I believe that I have more than...
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Well, you've got nothing better to do, lady. What are you going to do? Go burn money in your office?
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So that's a no. So it's a no. She can't actually say that she doesn't want the bonus, even though,
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like, again, I'm not going after anyone for making money. That's perfectly fine. Make money. But not
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when you're making money off of the back of terrible content and taxpayer, like, endless taxpayer
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funding. Here's Andrew Scheer, who I don't even need to introduce this clip. He just does a flat-out
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amazing job of just taking down how dishonest and ineffective Catherine Tate has been as the CEO.
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I'll get right to it. Ms. Tate, would you categorize your term at the CBC as a success?
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So you believe that you've left it in a better place than how you found it?
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Okay. So if I just go through a few things, and I just have to say, you must have quite
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the echo chamber there if you believe that, because, you know, when we're talking about
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how out of touch the CBC can be with Canadians, you only need to look at the bonuses that you
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paid out during an affordability crisis to executives and senior management while laying off
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the frontline staff, something that even Peter Mansbridge called the CBC out for. When we look
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at all the metrics, all the key performance indicators, ad revenue overall down, trust is
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down, despite polls that the CBC might have commissioned for itself. Independent third-party
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organizations that analyze this indicate that trust in the CBC fell 17%.
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And he is right there. What Catherine Tate was saying at the very start of this video,
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where she was saying, well, you know, trust is up and third-party organizations say that
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we're actually still the most trusted name in news. One, again, it's probably just basically
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showing that they have higher name recognition than the other outlets because, you know, you
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can't have not high name recognition with $1.4 billion a year, but they're still commissioning
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Nobody thought the CBC was literally doing the poll themselves. They're going to hire,
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they're going to contract someone else to do the polls.
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And if you ask questions in a weaselly enough way, you'll always come out with the outcome
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you want. I am very pro-poll, but when you look at the poll questions often, you can tell
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if the question was off or not, and we should discount it. Because so often, the question
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will lead people to the answer. Well, what outlet do you associate closest with Canada's heritage?
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And then people will say CBC. Because it's the oldest, obviously, and it's been around the
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longest. My goodness. In just four years, viewership is down less than 3% in primetime
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markets. That means during primetime when... Oh, yeah. And so when I went over that statistic
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before, where it's 4.4%, that was like two years ago. It's fallen off even harder. And
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think about it. They're also even running the CBC, the gem now, and they still can't get good
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viewership, even though you can watch them on demand. When Canadians are getting into the living
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rooms to watch what is on TV, 97% of Canadians say no to the CBC, tune it out, and move on
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to other things. Based on all of that, Ms. Tate, I just want to say, on behalf of the Conservative
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Party, I want to thank you for your efforts in helping us promote the campaign to defund the
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CBC. Because I think... Again, I don't usually watch these clips very far in. So when at the
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very start of this video is saying that she's been almost campaigning on getting the CBC defunded
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through her bad behavior and poor management. I didn't even know that Andrew Scheer brought that
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up too. But good on Andrew Scheer for saying this. Andrew Scheer is so much better. He's always been so
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much better as this kind of attack dog type person. When he was the leader of the party between
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2017 and 2019, I think his advisors and consultants did him such a big disservice.
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Andrew Scheer is actually a lot of fun as a politician. He's really... He's good at being
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that attack dog who's smiling all the way through, kind of like an Ezra Levant type figure. But when
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he was the leader, I found that all of his advisors sucked all the value out of him by telling him to be
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more flat and professional and just positive without going on too many... Not being too aggressive.
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It's like, no. Aggressive Andrew Scheer is great. Aggressive John Rustad is great. Aggressive
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Pure Poly is great. Conservative politicians being aggressive while also having that levity to them
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is always the best path forward. I think outside of the Conservative Caucus, you have been the most
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successful person in creating the demand to defund the CBC. $1.4 billion of taxpayers' money doesn't go
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for an online streaming service. It goes to a whole host of products in which Canadians are choosing
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other sources of information and entertainment. So again, I don't really have a question there.
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I just wanted to say thank you for your efforts to help us defund the CBC.
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I must say that it really does shock me the extent to which certain members of this committee
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and SUPS in, or whatever you call it, seem to make me the target and throw insults to my tenure.
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It's almost like you're the leader. It's almost like the buck stops with you. I don't get this. Whenever
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someone's in trouble, suddenly they're like, why are you singling me out? The person who singled myself
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out for the top job in the organization, I can't believe you. I'm offended right now. I dare say,
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sir, I must clutch my pearls because of what you said.
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Also, I hate the bilingualism of government where everyone always has to say,
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Radio Canada, just say CBC. We know what you're talking about. We know it encompasses CBC North and
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CBC Quebec and the Francophone version. Just say CBC.
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...order to discredit the organization. The organization has stood for 90 years,
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and we know 79% of Canadians say they believe that CBC Radio Canada should continue. And so to have this
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be somehow, you know, a proof that we should be defunding the CBC is ridiculous.
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Who cares if it's been around for 90 years? How long was the... Yeah, like... Okay.
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Khmer Rouge existed for a long time. I don't think that anyone brought that up in
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any meetings on banning this Khmer Rouge from Cambodia. Well, you know, they have been an
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institution for over 30 years. I just want to point out that those were not insults.
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It may be insulting to hear that bad revenue is down, but that is just a fact. It may be
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insulting to hear that 97% of Canadians choose to watch other things on TV other than the CBC,
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but that is just a fact. It is just a fact that trust in the CBC has fallen by 17% in just four
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years. When I had a chance to ask you about trust in the CBC, one of your responses back was that
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corrections were up, that the number of corrections that the CBC News issued is up,
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and that was a proof, some kind of evidence that the CBC could be trusted. I look at it the other way.
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When you have a falsehood broadcast on the national news and then a correction that follows up a few
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days later or on an online post, that that doesn't instill confidence and trust in the CBC. It points
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out that the CBC allows things to get to air before doing proper vetting validation and fact-checking.
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And it may be insulting to hear the dollar amounts about executive bonuses, but I'll tell you who was
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really insulted. The frontline workers that were laid off when the CBC was claiming it didn't have
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enough money to keep that entire workforce and then reads in the paper or reads on a news source other
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than the CBC, because they probably weren't watching either, that senior management and executive all got bonuses.
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Great, great, great. You know, honestly, fantastic content right there from Andrew Scheer. I like to
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see stuff like this. Damian Couric, Andrew Scheer, Larry Brock, Michael Cooper. There's a lot of CBC
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MPs out there who are like fantastic at their jobs. One MP I tend to plug a lot because I think he does a
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fantastic job as well is Kevin Vong. He's an independent MP. And some of these people,
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just as singular MPs with their offices are able to actually shift public opinion so much on issues,
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it's actually quite startling how so many other MPs from all the parties tend to be pretty sluggish and
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don't get anything done and basically just sit out there and throw up their hands for votes. Like,
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yes, nay, yay, abstain. Or it's like, come on, guys, you should try and model yourself into a useful
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figure in our parliament. You know, it's what I tried to do. I tried to run for the conservatives
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in Signal Hill. Didn't work out because I got kicked out because certain people didn't want
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me to win, but whatever. Water under the bridge. Anyways, but no, I'm trying to be somewhat,
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you know, I don't even know what the word is. Not cynical. I don't know. So facetious about it,
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regardless. I guess that should be it for me today, guys. Defund the CBC. That's my final message here.
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Same as always. If you guys want to contribute and help out the channel, make sure you're subscribed.
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the money I had to pay back then. Anyways. So that's it for me today, guys. See you guys later.