Again, in terms of the crisis we are facing, I think the Conservative government has misplayed this by making it somehow an ideological issue in terms of the request from CBC. It never should have been a public versus private debate. Now when we see the private broadcasters in trouble at the local level...and they are coming. They've had lobbyists meeting with the government. There is talk about a special fund for them. They floated a trial balloon about having the government buy a whole whack of advertising on their stations to keep them afloat. Imagine that one in terms of accountability. They're asking for policy change here to give them a new cashflow. But at the end of the day, we go back to our fundamental contract with the CBC, which Canadians have had for years, to fund the CBC adequately so it can do its job, and the CBC is failing in that job now because it can no longer serve the regions because it doesn't have the mandate.
What would it take in order to have CBC television not have to compete in advertising dollars against the private broadcasters? What would it take to put CBC on an equal footing so it can do its job without having to go head-to-head in the downward spiral of the ratings war?