I think the hard reality we all have to face with the public broadcaster is that the responsibility of that broadcaster, very simply put, is to reflect the reality of the nation. We know that the Broadcasting Act of 1968, for example, contained a clause that was intended to cast the CBC in the role of promulgator and booster of federalism in this country. That was subsequently changed in the 1991 act, and there was much consternation about it at the time.
I'm one of those people who feels that the change, however motivated—and I have to tell you that I strongly suspect the motivation for it—was the right thing to do. We're back to this distinction between a state broadcaster and a public broadcaster. Citizens in a free and open democracy such as ours have the right to expect of its national public broadcaster, and of any broadcaster, balance in coverage.
I'm addressing, in a certain way, the question Mr. Fast raised as well. It's difficult to do. It's immensely difficult to do, to stand above the fray, as it were, and try to be objective about it. We're all human beings. We're going to make mistakes every day of our lives trying to do that. But I think that's what the striving has to be. The minute CBC/Radio-Canada becomes an instrument of the government of the day is the day we might as well fold its tent and say goodbye to it, very simply put.