Canadian politics: the CBC, part one

Self-tutoring about the CBC in Canadian politics: the tutor begins….

The following is according to my understanding.

I came upon a very fine article (see it here) about the questionable way the deficit is treated in Canadian politics. It’s a CBC article, by a senior writer.

I realize some people question the validity behind the CBC sometimes. However, I grew up listening to CBC radio. I still turn to Radio-Canada, online, for news in French. Moreover, in my experience, even people who thought it should be defunded, still listened to CBC radio.

Reading the article mentioned above, I was reminded that very few Canadians seem to be talking about Canada’s deficit in a serious way, if at all. Nonetheless, a notable exception is Aaron Wherry, the writer of the article, who obviously understands the situation about the deficit, cares about it, and shares his knowledge. One might opine that’s what every Canadian should be doing about important issues: caring enough to have ideas about them, and sharing said ideas.

The article begins by exploring a case of a cultural development I’ve witnessed in Canada: an unanswered question. When I was a kid in the Maritimes, you couldn’t just ignore serious questions from people; you had to answer them. Here, on the west coast, things were different: I realized that people ignored inconvenient questions all the time. Wherry points out an exchange, in Parliament, during which no questions were answered. One might wonder if the right not to answer questions should extend to Members of Parliament.

Wherry then gets to the heart of the matter, after which his article – “The political fight over the deficit is still a phoney war” – is named. It’s the fact that perhaps neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives seem willing to commit to a timeline for balancing the budget.

The reason for the apparent lack of commitment towards ending the deficit is, somewhat ironically, likely the same reason some people want to defund the CBC: neither one seems “necessary” to people. In a democracy, as in a market economy, people want what they want, and governments and business should acquiesce, so the thinking goes.

Yet, the deficit is necessary to think about. Perhaps, therefore, a news outlet that focuses on it might be as well.

Aaron Wherry’s article seems food for thought to feed numerous future posts:)