Thank you, Chair.
Again, thank you to our participants today. I enjoyed all the conversations.
I enjoyed Ms. Hilderman's comments about the MP exit interviews. As a grad student, I made extensive use of the transcripts, so I do appreciate Samara's work.
I also appreciated your comments in your opening statements about the other issues, about new technologies, about a digital world. I'm somewhat perplexed by Professor Adams' focus on the major broadcasters as almost a centrality, the comment that thou shalt have a major debate on the major networks.
Canadians are less and less turning to the major broadcasters. During the last campaign, CBC was running Coronation Street in place of the debates. Canadians aren't turning to the news outlets as their major source of information. Groups such as Abacus Data, for example, showed that more and more Canadians are turning to Facebook and to online sources. I think 51% of Canadians are now turning to digital sources.
For millennials, my generation, which will make up the largest voting bloc in the next election, somewhere around 12% to 20% turn to the TV news as their source for information. Facebook is their biggest outlook. Instead of saying thou shalt have a network debate, you could just as easily say thou shalt have a Facebook debate to appeal to the generation that will be making up the major voting bloc.
It is not that the networks don't play a role; absolutely they do, including CPAC. Mr. Fox, the IRPP report notes the role of CPAC. I think that's something that's very much worth considering.
I guess this is more of a comment, but I welcome your reflection on the role of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as platforms for future debates, which would really address a segment of the population that is growing and is, truthfully, not as politically engaged as it ought to be, despite an uptick in the last election.
I'm not sure if anyone has a comment on that.