"Friends" say they have no political affiliation yet it becomes transparently obvious that they are merely a lobby group to defend Public Broadcasting's need to rely on Government grants. They also conveniently fail to point out that the Federal Government funding allows the CBC to make hundreds of millions in ad revenues; as if we really need public cash to produce "Hockey Night in Canada." Then on top off CBC Fed funding, Independent producers supply hundreds of millions of dollars to CBC on-air product by accessing every cable fund and a myriad of Publicly funded independent productions. So yes, the Friends distort the total Federal Taxpayer cash that shows up on CBC French and English Television screens. It is the blatant anti-Tory, anti Harper phony political attacks that prove the "Friends" are indeed pushing a political agenda that espouses and anybody but Harper agenda. The truth will set you free. What would truly make the CBC a worthy service would be to become commercial free. I think the CBC is essentail to Canada. Moving sports programming to a seperate CBC Pay-TV channel would be a start. CBC Sports is a cash cow and would give competition to Rogers Sportsnet and TSN. If CBC drops out of commercial TV; a special tax like the BBC tax on everyone who owns a TV set is totally rational and removes all political influence by Parliamentarians off the table. The best in the world of public Broadcasting is the BBC in television, and CBC Radio is already "King of the World". CBC dropping USA game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy in prime time is a great start. Now they can move CBC News hour closer to prime time, or deliver a real Canada Soap Opera daily 7 to 8 pm as Australia does so well. Tories need to balance the books. Savaging them with obfusicated facts is counter-productive and un-Canadian.

Harper is from Alberta - the Alberta government has 'The Public Affairs Bureau'. The Public Affairs Bureau has been effective in keeping the Tories in power for too many years by carefully controlling information released to the public. On Saturday, July 23, The Alberta Party leader, Glenn Taylor was quoted in The Edmonton Journal: "The Public Affairs Bureau has become a taxpayer-funded public relations firm for the provincial government. It has become more about selling public policy to Albertans than helping Albertans engage in defining and putting forward public policy." Harper is utilizing (but of course, not openly) this well defined and refined method to sell his weird ideas to Canadians. It is true - Harper obviously doesn't like public broadcasters because they aren't governed by their corporate masters like most private news media...and because public broadcasters tend to focus on actual journalistic principles - like publishing 'the truth'. Please support the CBC. Canada (and democracy) needs MORE, not less, public broadcasters that are free to publish the truth about what our government is really doing.

I think Mr Harper wants to reduce support for the CBC because he doe s not like the CBC. CBC tells the truth and the truth is not always welcome news to the government of Canada. I support Friends of Canadian Broadcasting in its efforts to keep the CBC vibrant and alive!