Canada brings down ax on TV, film funding

[DonCoquixote]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118052073

"MONTREAL -- Canuck pubcaster CBC, federal film and TV funder Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board of Canada will all be subject to swingeing 10% budget cuts in the next three years.

The ax dropped Thursday as part of the national budget announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government. "

OK, Canada, I ask this question with all due respect: what the Blazes is happening up there? Harper has at best 40 percent of the vote, yet he gets to pull crap like this and try to build the oilpipeline of ecological doom?

No, I am not trying to be snide, I was just surprised.

[SharonAnn]

1. Shades of GWB and Wisconsin governot Scott, et al.

[DonCoquixote]

2. Yes, but

Canada is supposed to be above this..

[geardaddy]

15. lol

governot

If that was intential, it was brilliant.

[Fix The Stupid]

3. Sorry, but the CBC needs to be reigned in.

All we asked is that they open the books. See how the money is spent - they won't.

I don't know about you, but i have taken at least a 10% hit in my income...the cost of living has dramatically increased and the wages do not keep up.

They are given annually around $1 billion of Taxpayer $. I have no problem with that, but why do they need to rely on advertising too? Kind of a "have your cake and eat it too" situation.

How is that fair to any other station in Canada who has to operate on the revenue they can bring in via advertising?

We've all taken hits and cut back something in our lives - the CBC should be no different.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Gee, conservative talking points have infiltrated Canada too!

It's the "I'm cutting back so government programs--except the ones that benefit me--should be cut back" meme.

I would bet that CBC (like PBS in the United States) is a tiny portion of the national budget, and I mean really tiny. Our Corporation for Public Broadcasting costs as much as two days of the Iraq War.

I was very sad when Newsworld International, which used mostly CBC newscasts and features, went off the air here in the States. They were the only news source I could trust during the Iraq War because they didn't have a dog in the fight. I found them willing to give voice to people who are not often heard in their own words.

In other words, instead of worrying about a tiny part of the federal budget, you should be glad that you have a high-quality news source that isn't sponsored by agribusiness and the oil companies.

When the Republican Congress began simultaneously complaining about "liberal bias" (i.e. telling the truth about conservatives) and threatening to cut their budget, PBS took a much more cautious approach. Its news programs may be more in-depth than what we see on our commercial stations, but they repeat the same press release conventional wisdom that we see on the commercial stations.

So is Harper's government really worried about the budget, or is it trying to stifle an organization that has been critical of it?

And cutting the National Film Board of Canada, one of your cultural treasures?

That's conservatives for you: war, corporate welfare, and highways are just fine, but anything to do with the education and culture might make people too smart or empathetic to swallow conservative swill.

[laundry_queen]

7. There are plenty of them here.

Right wing talking points, that is. Cracks me up.

There was a commentator on CBC last night that said, "Conservatives cutting funding for the CBC is as predictable as leaves falling in autumn."

Happens every time there is a Con government.

Yep, anything to do with education and culture are always on the chopping block with the right, for the reasons you state.

[Fix The Stupid]

8. I'm about as liberal as they come...

Doesn't change what I wrote.

How about disputing what I said instead of attacking?

Thanks

[Spazito]

9. LOL, I bet your preference is the pathetic Sun Network...

the only Canadians that have a problem with CBC and it's funding are the same ones who supported the C.R.A.P. (Conservative/Reform/Alliance Party).

[Fix The Stupid]

12. lol.. The sun...

Yeah, right wing rag. Total garbage.

This is personal to me and here is why.

I cannot receive CBC where I live. It's that simple.

I love hockey and I will not be able to watch a single playoff game - here's why.

When the transition to digital broadcasting was completed last year, CBC decided that all of the viewers south of London just did not matter to them and did not 'boost' their "over the air" signal to accommodate them. Lots of people cannot watch CBC since the analog to digital conversion...

So.. that begs the question.... I pay for the CBC with my Tax dollars - why should I have to also pay Rogers/Shaw/Bell/Starchoice to receive it?

And c'mon, open the books - it's a public company, paid for by our tax dollars - every $ should be accounted for.. why is that a "right wing" attitude?

[Spazito]

17. Well, seeing as you are a big booster of private, for-profit networks...

as per your original post, it 'puzzles' me why in this post you seem to be against paying anything to receive the private, for-profit services.

If you have an issue with the changeover to digital, take it up with the current government. With CBC having taken substantial cuts every time the CONS get it passed in their 'protect the rich' budgets, it seems you might be 'suffering' from those cuts. Again, try appealing to the current government to restore funding and then the CBC might have the funds to boost their 'over the air' signal.

[Lucy Goosey]

4. Harper has 40% of the vote, but more than 50% of the seats in Parliament.

All of the opposition MPs will vote against this budget, but it will pass, because the Conservative majority.

[Blue_Tires]

6. This never would have happened if the Leafs weren't mired in suck this year

Last edited Fri Mar 30, 2012, 02:50 PM - Edit history (1)

[Spazito]

10. With a parliamentary system supporting multiple parties, this is what can happen...

The left vote is split between 4 parties, the right is not split at all so, depending on the dispersal of votes, winner take all in each riding, 39% can result in a majority government which is what happened in this case.

Harper is a bush wannabe and his sycophantic supporters are all too often rabid extremists not unlike repub supporters have become.

[Fix The Stupid]

14. And this is what scares me about the COns...

They are desperate to turn our political system into a US style...

They actually have MP's who want to raise the abortion issue again.. do you friggin believe that?

Abortion is settled in Canada - if you don't like it, don't have one - couldn't be any more simple than that.

They want to raise all these wedge issues - it's disgusting to me. It's like a dog-whistle to their supporters or something.

And really, let's be honest here, the left in Canada needs to be united - if only to stop Harper in the next election. The Liberals are lost and the NDP is gaining ground - if only the PTB in the Liberal party would realize this and join with the NDP, Canada would be far better off...

Disagree?

[arthritisR_US]

16. Boy do I agree! Living in Alberta is like

living in redwingistan. People bitching and belly aching and yet they have voted them in for 30 years! Now the con's are being challenged by a further right wing party, the 'wildrose'. What a flippin joke

[Spazito]

18. Agree, they are disgusting...

and the left needs to get it's act together with a merger otherwise the C.R.A.P. will continue to win with a pathetic minority of votes and make decisions 60+% of voters are against.

The NDP and the Liberals need to merge. We certainly don't want the left, the NDP pulling the same stunt the Alliance/Reform party did to steal the Conservative party, right?

[Fix The Stupid]

19. Absolutley.

And let's call it what it is... The REFORM party - any sane Progressive conservatives left that steaming pile of dung a long time ago...

Reality is the left needs to unite. This absolutely frightens the Liberals though...I mean aren't they Canada's natural governing party?, lol...

Time for them to wake up. I don't think the NDP would lose as much as the Liberals - it would be seen as the NDP taking the high road to defeat Harper and the cons and that is a good thing.

[Spazito]

20. Hmmm, you are confusing me...

On the one hand, you have posted you want all public funding taken away from CBC, essentially destroying it yet another post states you are "as liberal as they come". Neither the Liberal Party nor the NDP party has destruction of the CBC in their policy positions, only C.R.A.P. does.

From the tone of your posts re the Liberals, it seems clear that is not the party you support yet, again, you have shown you prefer the destruction of CBC through withdrawal of public funding which is NOT an NDP wish.

Do you see why I am confused?

As to calling C.R.A.P. the "REFORM" party, that is inaccurate whereas the C.R.A.P. is what they are.

[Fix The Stupid]

22. Show me where I said I want 'all public funding taken away from the CBC'?

Maybe I wasn't clear...but I never said, and I quote you, "you have posted that you want all public funding taken away from CBC"...

No - I want accountability for the $billion they get annually. Quite a far cry from calling for their funding to stop cold turkey.

And yes, it isn't fair to other broadcasters - If CBC was like PBS - with no advertising, commercials, etc, then that makes sense. But to have them subsidized to such a huge amount AND they get to claim advertising revenue just isn't fair or right.

The CBC has a great news program(s) though - I hear and see a lot of people from outside this country that prefer to watch the CBC as opposed to their regional/national news. It's almost comical - watch a few minutes of the news on NBC/CBS/Fox and then watch the CBC - one is a propaganda machine and the other is the CBC...

I think a lot of you have jumped the gun and any instance where you can scream "troll!" get's you excited.

Guess what? I am not a right wing troll...

- Take my Canadian Healthcare away and be prepared to die.
- decriminalize all drugs
- Cut the military in half (at least half)
- enough with the militarization of the police
- More unions (see what happened to Caterpillar in London? scumbag owners)
- scrap that stupid F35 deal
- Free education
- Bring all troops home now - only when we are attacked do our soldiers get deployed
- total overhaul of the tax system - rich don't pay enough
- free abortions - guess what? there are too many people - anything we can do to stifle population growth should be on the table - if you are pregnant and have no desire for the child, abortion should be the easy option.
- scrap the separate school board - one education system - PUBLIC!

How does that measure up to your liberal yard stick?,lol.

[Spazito]

23. When you posted...

"How is that fair to any other station in Canada who has to operate on the revenue they can bring in via advertising?"

You made a direct comparison between the CBC and private, for-profit networks hence my comment on destruction of the CBC by removal of public funding. It is because funding has been cut that they have had to resort more and more to advertising to make up at least a modicum of the lost funding.

If one is a big supporter of the CBC, as I obviously am by my posts, one usually advocates against funding cuts and not saying "the CBC needs to be reigned in" and this very interesting tidbit as well:

"All we asked is that they open the books". Who is the "we" referenced in that statement?

As to iterating in a post what you believe, that is all well and good but this is the internet, one can say anything and it is proof of nothing. Advocating for the CBC to be reigned in is in conflict with the position that "I am about as liberal as they come..." anyone I know who is 'about as liberal as they come' support funding the CBC, fight against cutting the funding so your position on that is, imo, an anomaly worthy of discussion and explanation, again imo.

[Fix The Stupid]

24. I'm a little confused.

If wanting accountability for the $billion the CBC gets every year does not fit in with your definition of 'liberal', then I have to plead guilty to being a bad liberal on this one.

How is this any different than demanding to know what the military spends their tax $ on? I see no difference. If you are receiving public funds then your books should be wide open to scrutiny. Anything less will lead to situations like the ORNGE scandal.

Only when things are 100% transparent can you trust anyone or entity with our tax dollars.

How can this possibly be argued?

And yes, the knuckledraggers of the CRAP party hate the arts, not going to argue that one bit. - this is where that US style of politics is rearing it's ugly head. See my sig-line. These are nothing but talking points the cons use to rile up their base. I hate to see my Canada go down this road - we are better than that.

And I kind of see your point on the 10% thing - if the cons are constantly cutting the CBC and they are just using the current economic situation to FURTHER slash the CBC, than that isn't right either. But, times are tough, and people like you and me cannot always take the brunt of the "hurt" as it always seems like we are...it needs to be spread around in a little more equitable fashion.

[Spazito]

25. Who was the "we" you made reference to in your original post?

I know of no Liberal, NDP, Green or Bloc member or supporter asking for that, the only ones I see demanding this is members and supporters of the C.R.A.P. hence my question and why I feel the need to repeat it as it is still unaswered.

Do you support the CBC as it currently stands, a Crown corporation and NOT a private, for-profit network?

Oh, and one only has to look for CBC's financial statements and/or the auditor general's report to see their finances, seems like transparency to me. I did and, voila, the following:

http://cbc.radio-canada.ca/search/default.asp?c_40=&c_15896=&q=2011+Financial+statements&wcard=off

Were I to choose between increased taxes for the wealthy or cuts to the CBC, I would choose increased taxes for the wealthy, how about you?

As to you other comments re the obscene damage C.R.A.P. is doing to Canada and their agenda, I have no disagreement.

[laundry_queen]

28. They won't raise the wedge issues.

Harper will stop those MPs from raising that particular issue. And I'll tell you why.


A good chunk of the Con vote is comprised of people who aren't religious. All the Con voters I know despise the religious right and actually ridicule the republicans in the US.

The only reason a lot of those people vote conservative is they want to pay less taxes (yes, they are pretty selfish as well), and they dislike scandals. With this robocall thingy, my far-right brother said if it turns out the party had anything to do with it (and he thinks it looks like they might have) the cons will never have his vote again. They are very much people who believe in the whole work hard, pull yourself up stuff, but the difference between the US and here is they aren't religious. I know plenty of con voters (I'm surrounded by them in fact) and not one of them is anti-abortion. Not. One. The cons would lose tons of votes if they 'went there', IMO.

[Chan790]

11. This is good news for me.

I work in the film industry in the US, I have friends in the film industry here in DC and in NYC. We've been losing work to Canada for years (more than half of the NYC/DC/Boston/Chicago street-shots you see are now shot in Toronto with quick-cuts to or splicing in local landmarks (ie. the Statue of Liberty or US Capitol) to establish locale) because the Canadian government subsidizes production at twice the rate the US federal government or any US state will, even after we proved that we create dozens of jobs and economic-stimulus for every dollar we spend; good spending and union-jobs at-that.

Stephen Harper, you're a dickhead of massive proportions but right now I could kiss you. You've just put hundreds of Canadians out of work and created thousands of US jobs.

[Snake Alchemist]

13. Yeah, I don't understand the opposition to the end of subsidies? nt

[Canuckistanian]

21. Almost every Government department is being cut that much

It's pretty much universal.

That said, Harper and his cronies HATE arts and culture funding. And they've been crowing about shutting down the CBC for years now - because it "competes" with commercial networks.

And they're de-funding science research big time, especially where climate science is concerned. They've already shut down an Arctic monitoring station and have gagged environmental scientists. And anyone who speaks ill of the Tar Sands will find themselves under close scrutiny and ridicule.

This is the most RW extreme government we've ever had and it scares me just thinking what they'll attack next.

[DonCoquixote]

27. I used to ponder a parlimentary system

Because I did like the idea of there being more of a choice between "Coke and Pepsi" especially when Democratic Pepsi keeps getting watered down to right wing Coke. However, Harper has shown a flaw, the left up there, as is down here, divides, to the point where centre-left and far-left fight, all the while the right wing (thanks in part to the Jesus freaks) sits back and lights cigars. Not that ours is a better system, it just shows that right-wing rats will keep gnawing through the wall until they get through.

[Spazito]

29. When it was the right that was split more than the left...

I was delighted with the parliamentary system and it's multi-party structure because it resulted in the Liberal party winning majority government status, it was only when the situation was reversed and resulted in the current disaster did I realize the dangers are equal or greater than the opportunities offered.

It has been a learning experience for me, that's for sure.

[laundry_queen]

31. On the bright side

usually the right completely does the whole self-sabotage thing and before you know it, the left will be back in power with a majority of their own. And unlike our southern neighbours, the left usually restores most of what the right has cut.

Just sucks we're going to have to deal with 5 years of this shit to get to the other side.

[DonCoquixote]

32. I hope so, but

I notice that no matter how much the right screws up, they seem to get a helping hand. Just like there was no way in Hell W. should have been elected in 2004, there is no way harper should still be in power. I fear that perhaps the powerbrokers figured out all they have to do is rattle the jesus freaks and throw out money, and we on the left take care of the rest.

[laundry_queen]

34. Well.

So far, at least our voting system is not hackable like yours is. That seems to help. Pen and paper, man. Oh, that and no large corporate donations. The Canadian public, when it gets fed up, has no issues throwing the bums out.

[DonCoquixote]

35. True

But frankly, the corporations are gearing up, and the fact that that pipeline was so much as questioned seems to show that now, they will pull out the big guns. Bottom line, the left needs to be unified come election day.

[laundry_queen]

36. Yes, they do. nt

[Canuckistanian]

33. We do have a real problem here

Sometimes, the parties splinter, splitting votes against the opposition.

For the 80's and 90's, the conservatives were split into two parties - the Conservative and the Alliance parties. Then they merged.

Now, we have the Liberals (leftish) and the New Democrats (very left) AND the up-and-coming Green party.

So that's how Harper got in with only 35% of the electorate. The multi-party system only works for the majority when coalitions can be formed.

But Canadian parties don't want to form coalitions. Either they merge or they keep fighting each other.

[BOG PERSON]

26. as if canadian tv wasnt already cheap-looking enough!

[Spazito]

30. LOL, seeing as most "canadian tv" consists of purchased American programming...

I see little to argue with in your post.