I couldn’t agree more, Stephen. I have already written PM Harper, with a cc to James Moore, to strongly encourage them to cut back funding to the tax-dollar-bloated CBC, especially as they’ve become nothing more than the PR arm of the l/Liberal$ (fat lot of good that did the LPC — but it did help them for years …) and the entitlement culture.

To digress for a moment, I want to pay tribute to Preston Manning (see also Rex Murphy’s paen to him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4BLVLTSbc). I cross-posted this at SDA a few minutes ago:

[begin quote]

OK, if my comment is like a Chinese water torture drip, sor-ree!
It needs, nevertheless, to be said that all
cultures are not
equal [which dovetails nicely with the above thesis that our majority Conservative government should be influenced more by the conservative movement -- by those Canadians who have stuck with and supported this movement -- than by the Opposition NDP or by those who belong to the entitlement culture].

Might I remind everyone that Preston Manning, the best Prime
Minister Canada never had, along with Robert Stanfield, is a
professing and practising Christian, which is one reason why
the legacy/consensus media treated him with such disdain and contempt
when he was in Ottawa.

Isn’t it instructive that the people who fought for — and won –
the abolition of slavery, at great personal cost, were also
professing, practising Christians in England: Gladstone and
Wilberforce?

Now we see the whole political landscape of Canada changed vastly
for the better of the ordinary Canadian, who is not a member of one
of the chattering class’s special interest groups, by the blood,
sweat, tears, and sacrifice of Preston Manning and those politicians
he mentored.

Well-done, Mr. Manning, thou good and faithful servant.

[end quote]

I am not suggesting, BTW, that politicians’ faith views should be foisted on Canadians — that nasty “secret agenda” leftards seem so afraid of — but neither should they be fodder for ridicule and mockery. Politicians’ spiritual/philosophical beliefs usually form the foundation of their political principles and values, and it’s most unfortunate that, in Canada, holding Christian values has become the justification for many in the chattering classes to deride and hold in contempt those who do.

It’s clear that Preston Manning did not foist his Christian beliefs on Canadians but, at the same time, it’s also clear that his Christian convictions were foundational to the political movement he fostered — and which is now coming to full fruition. There should be no shame in this.

It’d be insane to stir up a hornet’s nest and cut funding to the CBC so soon after the election.

Probably the best time to do it.

Worst time would be a six months before an election.

I really don’t think PMSH needs advice, lectures or prodding from anyone about the conservative movement.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. I’m thinking death by a thousand cuts. You don’t slash a huge amount of funding to the CBC all at once, you focus the cutbacks, a little here, a little there.

For the CPC to do nothing to reduce the $1.2-billion/year taxpayers “donate” to the CBC would be a betrayal of not only the millions of Canadians who don’t even watch the CBC but the millions of Canadians who disagree with their politics, which the CBC pushes at us ad nauseum every day.

If the CBC won’t balance their coverage of issues of importance to Canadians — which is their mandate — they need to have their funding reduced. They don’t deserve $1.2-billion a year of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars — especially as their viewer share is only about six per cent.

Well alright then…

Removal of clause five in the omnibus crime bill,
criminalizes the “hyperlink”
,would be a good start.

Actually, no. And, I’m one of PM Harper and his CPC’s biggest supporters.

Now that the CPC has a majority, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t pass legislation to forward conservative values and implement conservative policies. Otherwise, why bother voting for the CPC? I voted for the CPC candidate in my riding, knowing full-well that he didn’t have a chance of winning.

What do you mean, Stephen, by “alright then”?! ‘You agree with wilson or is it just another way of saying, I’m not going to argue with you.

I find it incredible that commenter batb would say the first action item is to defund CBC and then links to a you tube clip of Rex Murphy’s tribute of Preston Manning broadcast on CBC!
I shake my head and move on:)

The reality is that there are a lot of Canadians who like CBC Radio, but few who would be animated enough to react to a cut of CBC TV. The best course of action would therefore be to privatize CBC TV and keep CBC radio as it is for now, and to announce this on the current budget – to give four years for the change to be accepted.

Yup. Privatize CBC television (on top of the $1.2-billion/year from the taxpayers, they also bring in million$ in advertising revenue — which means that they compete unfairly with private stations that have only advertising revenues to keep them afloat) and keep CBC radio as it is.

I could live with that!

Excuse me, tf. Rex Murphy’s the best CBC TV can do. I accessed his commentary through another blog, however, and then got the link from YouTube.

Sure I watch CBC. I pay for it! I like to see what they’re up to every once in awhile, which has convinced me that its wings should be clipped — at least, on the taxpayer dime. If they want to pay their own way, no hay problema.

My viewing time’s limited, however, now that SunTV is on the air, and I wish I had the freedom to contribute to whichever broadcaster I wish to, rather than being forced to monetarily support a television station which, nine times out of 10, I have no time for.

In a perfect world, Rex Murphy would be on the SunTV roster!

Minister Moore came out in support of the CBC, most likely with PMSHs blessing.
Canadians gave PMSH a ‘no surprises’ mandate.

batb,
PMSH will ‘pass legislation to forward conservative values and implement conservative policies’.
That’s a given.

Well said Mr Taylor.I just faved your site so ill be around for the next four years during this mandate.

There is absolutely no shame in having faith, or holding a strong belief, religious or otherwise. Some of my best personal and professional relationships are with people who openly and sincerely profess a religious faith. Especially when their faith is a source of strength and integrity, and when they embrace the part (common to all serious religions) about loving thy neighbour , tolerance, acceptance and doing unto others, etc.

Isn’t it instructive that the people who fought for — and won –

Wilberforce?

No doubt. These champions also had one important trait you may have missed – they were progressive. Abolition of slavery was a progressive ideal. Wildly progressive.

If Christianity gets a hard knock these days, it’s in part due to “Christians” (quoted because I don’t think they’re in the majority of Christians. Or worthy of the title) whose voices only seem to be raised about lower taxes and cutting “entitlements” and fighting Islam and expanded personal liberty, while cutting others’ rights. Sorry, can someone show me where Christ encouraged all of that? It’s not in my Bible.

This century’s “slavery” is the ending of starvation, untreated illness, ignorance, and poverty. As citizens of one of the richest nations on earth, we demand, consume and waste far more than our share. Our measure of national health is the Dow-Jones average. Even within our own country, while most of us do well, there’s still a few doing insanely well, while others suffer. Are today’s Christians actually ready to lead on this?

The majority of first-world, successful democratic countries have a ‘national’ broadcaster, as well as a private broadcast industry. In every case that I’m aware of, the national broadcaster sets the bar fairly high for quality of content and integrity, and the private industry has to keep their standards up in consequence. In countries where there isn’t a prominent national broadcaster, the broadcast journalism standards are uneven, news and documentary budgets are much lower, and viewer dissatisfaction and distrust is higher.

I have no objection to people demanding things of the CBC, but to seriously de-fund them would be akin to jabbing yourself in the eye. Although some conservatives seem to enjoy just that sort of thing.

[SUN TV... gaaah! Everytime I tune in, there's some wanna-be demagogue demanding something or other. And the set/graphics - looks like a bad cross between the PTL Club, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and a WNED pledge night. Bring back the movies already!]

kenn2, I really appreciate much of what you’ve written, but I am concerned about this idea that there are Christians who are “cutting others’ rights.” Could you be more specific? Those who seem to be doing their best to “cut others’ rights” are Canada’s so-called “human rights commissions” brought to us, originally, by the Liberal Party of Canada, and many of our unions, who use their dues to support left-liberal causes and political parties, usually the NDP, without consent from their membership.

A Chinese proverb strikes me as true: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Too often the “entitlements” doled out by government of which you speak, ostensibly to help those who are down and out, often create instead life-long dependencies which are unhealthy and unhelpful. Fighting Islam, the terrorist kind, is a bad thing?

These Christian champions I have mentioned were and are progressive, because Christianity, itself, is progressive, contrary to the sad and tired stereotype, promoted by the leftists and atheists, that Christianity is a stale and stand-still faith which limits people’s freedoms.

As for ending starvation, untreated illness, ignorance, and poverty, the Christian Church throughout the world is at the forefront of alleviating these deprivations — and always has been. Hospitals began as Christian hospices, where nuns and monks cared for the poor, the destitute, and the dying. Today, Mother Teresa and her Sisters of Charity, around the world, care for the poor and those dying of AIDs. We just don’t hear about this Christian outreach much in our media, which is where 80% of Canadians get their information. A friend of mine, with whom I hitchhiked part of the way through Europe many years ago, became a war photographer and spent much of his time in war-torn Africa and the Middle East through the ’80s and the ’90s.

I got a letter from him back in the ’80s, after he’d just got back from Uganda, where Idi Amin was terrorizing the country. My friend had had his kneecap shattered by a bullet and described Uganda as an Hieronymous Bosch painting: the horror, the horror. He said the one oasis of peace and sanity was an orphanage run for blind children by impoverished nuns. (My friend wasn’t and still isn’t a religious man, but he did say he appreciated my prayers for him. He’s still alive!)

‘Gotcha.

PM Harper isn’t a trash and burn kind of fellow. He didn’t get to this place without making careful strategic moves. The NDP as Official Opposition will expose themselves as radicals by comparison and that should make common sense Conservative values the obvious choice for the majority.

He has four years to apply Conservative values which will include publicly funded institutions like the CBC becoming cost effective or go on it’s own the way of the Dodo bird. What’s not exactly above board is the fact we pay the salary of people like Peter Mansbridge but are not allowed to know what that salary is. That in itself is telling.

I’m not sure why implementing some conservative initiatives would surprise anyone. I guess PMSH has to continue to operate as though he wasn’t a conservative.

re-opening the abortion and gay-marriage debates (though I think it’s a scandal how both were rammed down Canadians’ throats by the Liberal$); I’m talking about taking a good look at programs and policies which actually limit Canadians’ freedoms rather than enhance them, like curtailing the powers of human rights (sic) commissions and reducing the $1.2 billion/year “subsidy” to the CBC which has been losing viewership to other free-enterprise broadcasters for years.

CBC now has only 6% of the viewer share in Canada — and it doesn’t honour its mandate, which is to provide balanced coverage of issues of importance to all Canadians. It is self-righteously and smugly left-wing and has been taking potshots at small- and big-c Conservatives for as long as I can remember (and I’ve got a long memory …).

When SunTV is funded by the government to the tune of $1.2 billion/year, their sets will be as upscale ad The National’s, with I’m-Peter-Mansbridge-and-you’re-not.

As it is, SunTV’s yearly budget is what the CBC has to spend in one day: ‘Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

BTW, I don’t want to see SunTV funded by the government … but I do want to see the huge subsidy the CBC gets whacked back. CBC gets advertising revenues, as well, and therefore unfairly competes with private broadcasters who have to rely on advertising revenues alone, in order to survive without government subsidies thrown in.

What’s not exactly above board is the fact we pay the salary of people
like Peter Mansbridge but are not allowed to know what that salary is.

I love how the CBC gets both sides of the hand from the right: waah you
get gov’t funding, and aha – you won’t disclose salaries and internal
finance. Does CTV publish theirs? Do they have an audit page like this?

And of course the right has no interest in dissecting just how/where the CBC budget gets spent; you just like yelling the annual budget number… not all of which comes from the gov’t btw, but that doesn’t stop you or SUN from crowing the total.

You’d probably be surprised how little Mansbridge makes, compared to what he could get in private industry. Still more than me, though.

Part of a sentence is missing above:

I’m not talking about re-opening the abortion and gay-marriage debates (though I think it’s a
scandal how both were rammed down Canadians’ throats by the Liberal$) …

… and a hell of a lot more than me!

“Does CTV publish theirs? ” They don’t have to because they’re not taxpayer funded. They’re a private company and are only obligated, I would imagine, to open their books to their shareholders.

As it is, SunTV’s yearly budget is what the CBC has to spend in one day: ‘Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

Not at all. First, you have no proof of this, second you apparently don’t comprehend all that comes out of the CBC for that budget. You’re comparing apples to grocery stores.

Also, money doesn’t always buy good taste. Take Donald Trump… (please)

(Stephen -what’s with the f’d up textbox and double line-returns?)

Gee, kenn2, I’m so sorry you don’t like SunTV … so sad.

I don’t really care about the sets. I agree, they’re pretty tacky. However I do like their straightforward reporting and hearing from Canadians I always knew were there but had been left out of the media loop for years.

There are many points of view in Canada, with intelligent and thoughtful people representing each perspective. How come the CBC insisted on largely highlighting only the left-lib one? How do I know they did? Because of all the years I watched it. In over 30 years, I heard only that perspective, very seldom one that I knew about, experienced, and believe in.

Too often the “entitlements” doled out by government of which you speak,
ostensibly to help those who are down and out, often create instead
life-long dependencies which are unhealthy and unhelpful.

If you’ve drunk the koolaid on “lifelong dependency” and “these people don’t wanna work”, there’s not much I can say that would sway you. You would have opposed universal healthcare too, right?

Fighting
Islam, the terrorist kind, is a bad thing?

Nice. How about we fight Catholicism, the pedophile kind first? Blaming Catholicism for deviant priests is no different from blaming Islam for anti-Western terrorists. Both are untrue. Pick up a Koran, maybe, and find out what all the fuss is about. And before you start highlighting scary quotes, try reading Leviticus and not cringing.

Re Christian outreach, Yes, all true, all wonderful, but it’s not enough, and when the Canadian right downplays their stinginess with pablum like

On the left, socialism is charity without consent.

On the right, philanthropy is charity without coercion.

… I know they don’t give a rats’ ass. Charity is wonderful, and insufficient, and at best just a bandaid , and it’s well established that it it takes planning and concerted action to make changes, to really teach someone to fish AND to make sure they actually have access to fish.

Charity is the individual’s sympathetic response to misfortune. Only large-scale, directed action can effect significant change. Government is our best agency for effecting change.

Like with slavery, the challenges in front of us are hard and most people are against making the necessary adjustments.

So I say again, are today’s Christians really willing to lead on this, as with slavery? Doesn’t seem like it.

“Government is our best agency for effecting change. ”

Whoa. You’ve drunk the Kool-Aid that government (collective us, BTW) provides better aid than individuals and private agencies.

Our best agency for effective change is each individual heart and pocketbook. As a friend of mine used to say, I’d much rather go to bed with a real, live human being, my husband, than with a government program.

Avoiding the Islamic thing, I see. Some prejudices die hard, I know.

All the evidence you need is in your own posts. It required governments’ commitments, and a civil war to end slavery.
Why do you ignore this?

Our best agency for effective change is each individual heart and pocketbook.

Wrong. That didn’t end slavery, or get women the vote, or provide healthcare for all. All the real, meaningful changes we’ve made have required commitment, leadership, and recognition that even though many are not onside, there is a clear moral call for action and that the need outweighs the objections.

Why is it easier for you to condone the vast expenditure of money and thousands of lives to foreign interventions (euphemistically called “wars”), than it is to see money and effort dedicated to making the lot of your fellow (wo)man better?

The world currently produces enough food to feed EVERYBODY. Why are many still starving? Why can’t a janitor or waitress working fulltime support a family? Why, in a recession, do corporate execs get bonuses? Why do companies get tax breaks and subsidies without having to promise a single new job? Why have we been buying oil from despotic states like Libya? Why did the west send money and support to bin Laden and Saddam Hussein? When is the last time you read from the New Testament?

You’re totally on quicksand with this.

Avoiding the Islamic thing, I see. Some prejudices die hard, I know.

All the evidence you need is in your own posts. It required governments’ commitments, and a civil war to end slavery.
Why do you ignore this?

Our best agency for effective change is each individual heart and pocketbook.

Wrong. That didn’t end slavery, or get women the vote, or provide healthcare for all. All the real, meaningful changes we’ve made have required commitment, leadership, and recognition that even though many are not onside, there is a clear moral call for action and that the need outweighs the objections.

Why is it easier for you to condone the vast expenditure of money and thousands of lives to foreign interventions (euphemistically called “wars”), than it is to see money and effort dedicated to making the lot of your fellow (wo)man better?

The world currently produces enough food to feed EVERYBODY. Why are many still starving? Why can’t a janitor or waitress working fulltime support a family? Why, in a recession, do corporate execs get bonuses? Why do companies get tax breaks and subsidies without having to promise a single new job? Why have we been buying oil from despotic states like Libya? Why did the west send money and support to bin Laden and Saddam Hussein? When is the last time you read from the New Testament?

You’re totally on quicksand with this.

The government subsidy to the CBC amounts to about $30/year per Canadian.

$ 30. Thirty loonies. Fifteen doubloons. 300 dimes. 20 medium double-doubles.

Well, I guess by comparison, Faux News North SUN News is free. As long as you all continue to run out and buy those funky “chi” energy bracelets they hawk every 9 minutes.

I will support cuts to the CBC funding the very moment subsidies and tax cuts to the tarsands are ended. You know where to reach me.

Of course I’m on quicksand with this. I didn’t make the world and I can’t fix the world — and neither can you.

When did I last read the New Testament? Why, yesterday, to be precise.

Jesus could have “fixed” the world and all of its problems had he chosen to. He didn’t. He asked some co-operation from us. He said to his disciples, when they were pushing him to fix all of the social problems of the day, including saving Israel from its subjugation to Rome, “the poor you will have always with you, but you will not always have me.”

I agree that we have enough food in the world to feed everybody and the reason so many are starving is because of people’s black and greedy hearts. Corruption starts in our hearts. I lived in a Caribbean country where I saw the effects of greed and corruption every day: the top 20% used 80% of the country’s wealth and resources, leaving the bottom 80% to get along on 20%. It was disheartening. My family and I were there to help the bottom 20% and “success” was calculated in very small measures.

I have many of the same questions that you do. What are your solutions? And, BTW, what am I ignoring on the Islamic thing — and evidence of what is in [my] own posts?

(added an underline to help you out)

All the evidence you need is in your own posts. It required governments’
commitments, and a civil war to end slavery. Why do you ignore this?

(on top of the $1.2-billion/year from the taxpayers, they also bring in million$ in advertising revenue — which means that they compete unfairly with private stations that have only advertising revenues to keep them afloat)

The only western country that spends LESS per-capita than Canada on public broadcasting is the US. Most countries spend approx $80/person/yr. So, we should actually be spending a bit more (~$35-40) so that the CBC does not have to also draw revenue away from commercial broadcasters.

We don’t want the CBC to compete unfairly, after all…

Government commitment is elected representatives’ commitments, which begin in their hearts and are undergirded by their foundational faith/philosophical values.

I’m still not clear what your beef is about my views on Islam — and that would be radical Islam — you know?, the guys who want all the infidels — that’s you and me, my family and your family (unless they’re extremist Muslims?) — dead.

Remember back a few years when the cbc was not going to renew the contract for the other guy on Coaches Corner and the outrage of the public.  Well he won and got a new contract for 500.00./yr.  I am sure that Mansbridge make a lot more than that guy.

Since the ruling that the Conservatives were in ”contempt of parliament”  by a jury rigged kangaroo court process in the last parliament, the first item on the agenda should be to repeal this piece of self-serving Liberal crap.  Face facts, the opposition parties in the last parliament did it because they could.  Now we can undo it, so  let’s get this abomination off the books.
Then we need to start looking for ways to cut spending.  First place is the CBC.  That organization made itself part of the Liberal Party and now should suffer the same fate.  Right now, the CBC is fat, dumb and happy – except that their buddies the Liberals lost.  Cut $1-billion from their budget and you’ve already found a quarter of the cuts promised.

If you can’t prove it, you’re not sure of anything, sorry.

BTW, Sports is not news. Sports draws advertisers; if you got NHL you have advertisers. So, it would be the safer bet to say that Ron Maclean makes more than Peter Mansbridge, all in.

http://christwire.org/2011/05/osama-lived-his-last-days-as-a-hipster/

 Totally irrelevant link.

Why did you include it? It weakens your case about your beef with my views on Islam — the extremist kind of which there is plenty.

Oh, I get it. Because the link has “Christ” in it, you assume I’ll it lap up … WRONG. Christwire’s post, except as in interesting take on the squalor of Bin Laden’s life, is of no interest to me at all. ‘Never heard of him and won’t be adding him to my bookmarks.

 ”Most countries spend approx $80/person/yr. — uh huh, and how are these countries doing financially and politically? Are “most” of these countries socialist wealth distributors that are going  bankrupt amidst often-violent political upheaval? They’re hardly models for Canada to follow.

We sure as Hell don’t want the CBC to compete unfairly — although it’s something they seem to be very good at — especially given it’s on the taxpayer dime.  As it is, they’re brazen trough guzzlers — and they don’t deliver their mandate, which is to provide balanced coverage of issues of importance to all Canadians. “Balanced” in the CBC vernacular means a panel of someone slightly left of centre, someone very left of centre, and someone out in left field.

And this is why SunTV, on their minuscule budget, will eventually overtake them as increasing numbers of Canadians realize that there’s news and commentary beyond the Conservative Bashing Cabal.

 ”Most countries spend approx $80/person/yr. — uh huh, and how are these countries doing financially and politically? Are “most” of these countries socialist wealth distributors that are going  bankrupt amidst often-violent political upheaval? They’re hardly models for Canada to follow.

We sure as Hell don’t want the CBC to compete unfairly — although it’s something they seem to be very good at — especially given it’s on the taxpayer dime.  As it is, they’re brazen trough guzzlers — and they don’t deliver their mandate, which is to provide balanced coverage of issues of importance to all Canadians. “Balanced” in the CBC vernacular means a panel of someone slightly left of centre, someone very left of centre, and someone out in left field.

And this is why SunTV, on their minuscule budget, will eventually overtake them as increasing numbers of Canadians realize that there’s news and commentary beyond the Conservative Bashing Cabal.

What’s new?

The majority of first-world, successful democratic countries have a ‘national’ broadcaster