I'm just thinking out loud here, but what about the possibility of using some of the very popular programs--I'll use Hockey Night in Canada as an example--to self-promote? One of the problems with this multi-channel universe is simply getting attention to what's available on the CBC. If you have a very popular program like Hockey Night in Canada, it seems to me to be a wonderful vehicle--perhaps not for commercial advertising, if that's what you're trying to avoid--to promote the CBC itself to an audience that is probably harder to get to. The people who are going to be watching CBC drama probably know where to find it, but it's not a big audience, and therefore this becomes an access issue. For what's it's worth, I've always thought that was part of the lost opportunity that's available to the CBC when they have a popular program like that.
I'm curious about governance. It is critically important, because I think we have to significantly increase public support, and concurrent with that public support come increases of confidence in the governance model. How do we go about the process of choosing the board for the CBC? I know you say that we would have some authority in this committee, but those of us who are members of the committee would, I think, appreciate and recognize that all committees have many more assignments and responsibilities than they really ever get to deal with thoroughly and fully. In theory, I suspect, people looking from the outside in would say that the heritage committee could look at those appointments. They would have a mental image of the thoroughness of that oversight exercise, but we know on the committee that we are four years behind on most things we're trying to do most of the time.
How could you style that process so that we could have some--I don't know what it would be--panel of experts? When we make judicial appointments, we have the Canadian Bar; we have other outside experts who could do this. Is there some way that you could propose, in addition to the oversight that we would offer? I think our oversight is critical, but I don't think it's enough to elevate the thinking about that board to the point that it is the kind of board I think you have in mind when you make that proposal.