Supporting CBC

Darn. Another unfulfilled dream. Shelagh Rogers from CBC’s The Next Chapter has retired and now I’ll never get to be interviewed on her radio show. Never mind. At least I got to listen and that’s been a huge gift. Through her guests and their book reviews I’ve been exposed to an incredible library of Canadian literature. 

I chatted recently over Zoom with a former close friend of mine. We’ve led very different lives since university and I was stunned when she suggested that the CBC was a propaganda tool of the government. Our disparaging views on the public radio service in Canada motivated me to immediately send a donation to the Friends of the CBC. 

Over the years, CBC has offered me and my family the kind of radio programming that has stimulated conversation while expanding our understanding of national and world affairs. Whether cooking, washing dishes, or puzzling, CBC radio programming has offered insight into worlds beyond my kitchen. What I’ve learned through the radio over the decades, might qualify as the equivalent of another university degree—without the stress of exams or essays. 

Through radio programmes like The Next Chapter, or Eleanor Wachtel’s Writers and Company (another book-centered program that will be dearly missed), Quirks and Quarks with Bob McDonald (a science-centered show), Ideas with Nahlah Ayed, Q with Tom Power, and many, many more shows that offer astute and diverse insights into worlds beyond my own, I’ve grown more appreciative of our diverse humanity and of the gift that is Canada.

Yes, CBC is government funded, but it is not government controlled. There’s a difference. A not-for-profit public broadcaster does not spew propaganda nor does it have to bow to the for-profit commercialism of private broadcasters. CBC is a gift that Canadians living in a democratic country must never take for granted. Yes, I support the CBC. I encourage you to listen and support them, too.