Thank you very much.
I hope the Conservatives are paying attention to that answer, because for some reason.... I don't know what it is, or where the block is—not the Bloc here but the block of absorbing the information that's being presented. For some reason, this question is constantly being asked about ratings. We know that the ratings are up, and we know that CBC is doing quite well when it comes to connecting with Canadians.
It's interesting. The Conservatives are okay with the fact that a lot of our media now in Canada has been purchased by American companies. Here we have, like many G20 countries, a public broadcaster that is owned by the people of this country and supports Canadian content.
I said at the first meeting you ever came to that I grew up watching CBC. A lot of the characters from my childhood were from CBC and TVOntario, which I'm a very big supporter of as well. It's our heritage in this country. TV shows from the 1970s and 1980s wouldn't have had a chance on American networks if they hadn't been supported by the Canadian taxpayer.
I cannot understand why Conservatives are so anti-CBC, one of the last true Canadian national networks that works directly with Canadians, that's funded by taxpayers and is publicly owned. I just can't understand why they would be so against it, yet, when it comes to the trend line that's taking place in this country, when it comes to media as a whole, for some reason, they seem okay that American corporations can own Canadian companies and media now. It's very challenging.
You know, one of the misconceptions they put out there is that they can keep Radio-Canada and get rid of English CBC.
I guess the question to you is this: Are these stand-alone organizations, or are they interconnected at many different levels? Can you separate the two sections of the broadcasting and just hope they survive or hope one survives?