The CBC is even more relevant now than it was in the past...

A recent poll indicates that only one-in-five Canadians know what Vimy Ridge is, or what it meant to Canada as an emerging nation. As pathetic as this is, it can only get worse if the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) disappears.

Granted under the existing management and 'nouveau-speak' producers, there is much room for improvement, especially in the relevancy department, but overall who else is there to speak for Canada or serve the tastes of classical music lovers? Certainly not the lowest-common-denominator-fluff offered by commercial stations, with 10 - 12 commercials every ten minutes.

As JOHN DOYLE of the Globe and Mail observes:

 Fact is, the CBC is ever more relevant in the current Canadian broadcasting landscape. A landscape that the CRTC has allowed to come into existence. A landscape in which only three main commercial players exist – Bell, Shaw and Rogers.

Those three look increasingly arrogant, reeking of hubris, and each is, in its own way, in a narcissistic bubble. Each owns multiple outlets and each looks on the competition, other media and the public with scorn. Commercial broadcasting in Canada is protected to the point of being coddled by regulation. And this has created a mood of self-satisfaction, which makes the CBC’s alleged sense of entitlement look puny.

Vastly profitable, thanks to protection, and continuing to fetishize the old and easy business model of buying and simulcasting U.S. network shows, only one thing scares the big three – Netflix. Looking at Netflix, the big three ask, where’s our cut? They exist like three Mafia gangs who have carved up a neighbourhood and are spooked by the arrival of a new player who offers the same narcotic, but cheaper...more.

Harper would dearly love to get rid of the CBC, but then again, there are a lot of Canadians who would like to get rid of Harper (and the 'Canada One' airplane) too.