Source : National Post

I like to think I have a pretty good sense of humour.

But I did not think there was anything even remotely funny about the way a CBC employee, dressed up as warrior princess, recently humiliated the possible future leader of Canada's opposition party.

In fact, to my mind it raises some serious questions about the way the CBC operates.

You probably know the incident I am talking about. Stephen Harper was holding an event to announce his intention to run for the leadership of the newly formed Conservative party. Suddenly, actress Mary Walsh of the CBC television program This Hour Has 22 Minutes waltzed in and began to plant kisses on a stunned Harper.

The next day the front pages of newspapers across the country featured poor Harper in Walsh's clutches -- his face smudged with lipstick. Hardly the kind of image a man who seeks to be Prime Minister would like to project.

And that's the problem.

With her juvenile stunt, Walsh not only accosted Harper -- can you imagine a male actor treating a female politician in such a manner? -- she also humiliated him and quite possibly may have undermined his political future.

After all, nothing is worse for a politician than ridicule. Just ask Dan Quayle.

In other words, Walsh and the CBC crossed the line. One can't help but wonder if the CBC, driven by some kind of anti-Conservative bias, didn't purposely seek to sabotage Harper's campaign.

Now before I go on, let me state my own bias. Stephen Harper is a friend of mine. I worked for him for five years, when he was president of the National Citizens Coalition.

But that has nothing to do with why I believe Walsh's actions were inappropriate.

Indeed, the fact that her victim was Harper is irrelevant. What angers me is that the CBC is using our tax dollars to promote its own political agenda.

It's curious, for instance, why Walsh failed to stage a similar surprise attack on Prime Minister Paul Martin a few months ago when he became Liberal leader.

Of course, the likely answer is she would probably have been fired. After all, the CBC depends on government handouts and Paul Martin is the one handing out the dough. Rather than kissing the Prime Minister, it seems the CBC would rather kiss up to him.

And that's not supposed to be the CBC's mandate.

The CBC is a taxpayer-funded agency that is supposed to represent the views of all Canadians, not just those who favour the Liberal party.

Even the CBC recognizes the problem. The summary of a recent internal network study noted that, "CBC News will need to shed some of its image of being 'politically biased' and supporting government opinion."

None of this is to say the CBC should not engage in political satire. Far from it. The freedom to laugh and mock our leaders is one of the hallmarks of a free society. As Clarence Darrow once said, "If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think."

The group I work for, the National Citizens Coalition, uses satire to skewer politicians all the time. We once even compared greedy politicians to barnyard pigs. But, unlike the CBC, the NCC is not a taxpayer-funded organization.

Besides, what Walsh did was not satire; just like it wasn't satire when that left-wing anarchist threw a cream pie in the face of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien a few years ago.

Certainly, Chretien didn't think that was very funny. Recall the guy who threw the pie was charged with a crime.

Should Walsh be charged?

No, of course not. But maybe it's time to change the CBC, to privatize it and hand it over to the private sector so that it would be more responsive to Canadians, and less to Ottawa politicians and bureaucrats. Maybe then the CBC would be more even-handed when it comes to politics. Maybe then its comedians would become something more than just the court jesters of the Liberal government.

In the meantime, the funniest thing about the CBC will remain its ratings.

© National Post