Conservative party leader candidate Maxime Bernier is calling for a phase-out of the Canadian broadcast regulator’s role as telecom watchdog as part of his plan to deregulate the industry.
The full text.
Conservative party leader candidate Maxime Bernier is calling for a phase-out of the Canadian broadcast regulator’s role as telecom watchdog as part of his plan to deregulate the industry.
The full text.
The right idea – simply love it.
A long time coming.
Good move. I wish he’d have the gumption to promise to defund the CBC too. I’d vote for him if he did. Heck, I’d even donate money to his campaign.
The CRTC was created to protect Canadian culture. The literati in the country were alarmed by the average canuk’s appetite for all things American. They created a monster that limited grown and competition all the while rewarding their friends. The oligarchs in television come immediately to mind. You could not and cannot to this day start a 5000 watt radio station out of your garage without first going cap in hand to beg the CRTC – who most certainly will refuse granting a license. They are there to protect their friends.
There are many other things the CRTC does but they all amount to nothing other than to stifle the marketplace all in the name of promoting kanadian kulture.
So good luck with this one Max it ain’t happening
Bernier’s “let the chips fall where they may” views on canning the marketing boards
are also on target in my opinion. If he is being really honest, not just vote whoring
to win the party leadership. The rest so far seem typical pathetic red tories.
Guess time will tell.
I would have a leap of faith and assume that Bernier would seriously consider shutting down the CBC. He actually sounds like a Conservative who wants to get government out of the way of business. You don’t see many politicians like that in Canada. I might have to renew my long lapsed membership.
Ditto here, well a remote maybe, as the marriage redefinition depravity still rankles me.
Don’t rush into it. I joined a few months before the last election. The fundraising by email and phone is unrelenting.
Simply ask them to take you off of the call list. If they persist call the party.
He is conservative to his core fiscally and libertarian on social issues. Has been forever.
Gord;
That is good to hear because I share Sarge’s concern. While I never considered O’Leary a serious candidate I loved his BNN comment about any politician not being eligble for office unless he had ran a business and made payroll for at least 2 years. Amazingly the Liebels to have a few of those in their government.
Professional politicians have failed in almost all aspects of their endeavors over the decades.
I remember when Cancon was inflicted upon us. PET mandated that 60% of all the songs on the radio had to be either composed or performed by Canadians. One consequence was that a lot of cover versions of music that was released elsewhere were recorded. Most of them, not surprisingly, were dreadful.
It didn’t make any sense to do that. The original songs, which inspired those cover versions, could be easily heard on any number of American radio stations. The CRTC couldn’t control the ionosphere or propagation conditions.
I lived in Saskatchewan during the early 1980s and, at the time, we got our American cable TV signals from North Dakota. The companies, however, could only receive those signals at the border–no satellite downlink allowed. That meant that those signals could be easily disrupted by lightning or other channels when the TV frequency bands opened up.
The cable companies appealed to the CRTC to change that and, thereby, provide a better service to customers. However, the CRTC, which seemed to be run by eastern elitists, turned them down. Many of those elitists live in large cities close to the international border and those areas had little problem in getting good signals of American stations. We prairie hicks, many of whom didn’t vote Liberal, had to make do with the often scratchy reception. (Political punishment, maybe?)
Eventually, the CRTC backed down, but that might have been because Mulroney became prime minister.
I don’t know if Bernier,whom I like for CPC leader,is vote whoring or not,but should he ever win the PM’s Office, the first item on his agenda will be a weekend visit to that famous Lodge in New Brunswick.
There he will meet the people who count in this Country,and will be told in no uncertain terms his limitations.
IF the CRTC works in their favor,it stays, same as the Marketing Boards. The PM of Canada does have some leeway, but not if it does harm to the old guard.
The situation is the same in every “advanced” Country on the planet, we love to fantasize about our precious freedoms, but they exist at the pleasure of the power elite in every Country. Democracy is a great tool for that elite,it gives us peasants the illusion that we actually have some influence in matters,and keeps us from hauling out the pitchforks and sharpening the guillotines.
I always laugh when I hear the disillusioned fantasists when they realize that their new messiah is very much like the last guy.
At this point, Bernier appears to be the best candidate available, maybe someone more salable to the masses will come out and he’ll be shuffled aside, but for now, I’d vote for Bernier.
Bernier can KMA.
The Lib-lites just finished a strong Conservative majority and did F*CK ALL with it. Now I’m supposed to fall for this weak play at sucking in true Conservatives to believe the CPC would NOW act conservative? I call bullsh*t!
The CPC cares about votes and power, NOTHING else, just like all the other parties. They will NEVER defund the CBC because they will NEVER risk taking the political hit required.
When I see the Conservative Party openly and repeatedly attacking the media for being the dishonest, bigoted, lying anti-right propaganda machine they are, then maybe I’ll pay some attention to them. Till then, their actionless words uttered while feasting at their spots at the trough, mean absolutely nothing to me.
“The rest so far seem typical pathetic red Tories.”
So far you are exactly right. Bernier may be the only one worth considering at the moment. Well, maybe Kenney.
However, I think Don’s comment and Observer’s last three paragraphs are exactly where it is at.
We got sucked in with Harper and he got told (paraphrased), “Yes, the Wheat Board can go and oh, if you must, yes, the firearms registry can go also. But nothing else goes, got it? Now go be a good boy, pretend you are a conservative and let us call the shots”.
It doesn’t really matter much who will be the Conservative leader as slowly but surely we are loosing all our freedoms and becoming Eloi like the Europeans.
Make no mistake about it Bernier will be in Rogers/Bell’s pocket. Nothing is going to change.
Maybe Harper didn’t get much done but changing Ottawa is not easy. Changing government is much easier. The ADM’s are never open to change and they are the real power in Ottawa.
The cbc is not going away -ever.
Ken;
Your WBC and firearms registry bones are much appreciated. 🙂
Harper might not have turned out to be much of a ‘politician’ but he did chart a course for a more independent Canada through trade deals and the confidence he gave Canadian business to invest money and expand. He benefited from rising oil prices which financed a number of his deals but in the end the oil collapse was the chink in his armour that allowed the ‘buzzards’ in. Oil pipelines to tide water were the ultimate threat to many USA interests that meant he had to go.
Americans said no to Keystone XL but continue to build pipelines across America. They continue to buy oil from despots around the world. IMHO the USA and Quebec must have their energy policy written by the same think tank. Discussion point: What is the best way to subjugate Canada long term?
One thing Harper did do was slowing down the stealing in quebek.
I applaud the idea but it will never happen. Bernier wouldn’t be able to get rid of Trudeaus CRTC anymore than he would be able to get rid of the Trudeaopian CBC, never happen. The cult of Trudopia is too well protected, the Trudeau Courts and the corrupt Media monopolies would never allow an end to the Trudopian communications rackets, no more than the Courts and State Media of Fidel Castro or a counrty like Iran would allow change, it would take a counter revolution. One cannot legislate away the Trudopian stain the same way Canada was legislated into a vague memory. The Trudeau led revolution of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and the hideous nasty beast it left behind isn’t going anywhere, no matter what politicians have to say. Berniers rhetoric regarding the cultural police may appeal, as it should, but ultimately it is flaccid and meaningless.
Of all the candidates who have announced or seem ready to announce, Maxime Bernier is the only one who makes the case for economic and personal liberty. As a majority of Canadians are terrified of both of these concepts, he is unlikely to win the leadership and less likely to win a general election, but he is refreshing and compelling voice.
Most of the comments above reflect the pathetic nihilism of a great deal of contemporary conservatism. Yes, the CPC does care about “votes and power”. It’s not clear to me how, short of a military coup, one effects any change in the country *without* “votes and power”. Without those, we would still have the Wheat Board, the long-gun registry, and the nightmare of government by the “Council of Canadians”.
Governments in most western democracies are led by brokerage parties, coalitions of disparate interests that have more in common with one another than they do with the other brokerage parties. The Liberals understand this, and the NDP only slightly less so. Even the Greens cobble together supporters who may disagree strongly on a variety of issues but put those aside in the hope of bringing Elizabeth May to power. It seems, however, that too many conservatives prefer to confine their political activity to whining in coffee shops and on-line, nursing their disgust and refusing to sully their ideological purity by joining or supporting a political party or even voting in what they regard as a meaningless exercise. The disease is so far advanced in the United States that conservatives have found themselves with no meaningful alternative to the corrupt and authoritarian Hillary Clinton than the incoherent, liberal, crony capitalist Donald Trump.
The Conservative Party of Canada (or any party on the right that might replace it) will accomplish nothing if it cannot maintain a coalition of the centre-right, including social and fiscal conservatives, advocates of personal liberty and responsibility, etc. At this point in our history, conservatives can get involved and try to work out some of our differences and learn to tolerate the rest. We can approach Canadians with a positive message of fairness, good and restrained economic management, lower taxes, smaller government, free speech, property rights, and other issues on which we might be able to persuade a majority of Canadians that these are in their best interests. Otherwise, we can turn away, pour another rye-and-ginger, and warn of the coming Apocalypse (for which some people seem to hope).