Source : National Post

Won't renew contract: Former Tory minister portrayed as a well-meaning failure

Perrin Beatty, the head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, will soon be out of a job, according to Lawrence Martin, a columnist for Southam News and Jean Chrétien's biographer.

In a column that appears today, Mr. Martin says Mr. Beatty's contract will not be renewed when it expires in March. He said the former Tory cabinet minister will likely receive an extension of a few months while his successor prepares to take over.

"According to his critics, Beatty, once a boy wonder of Canadian politics, turned boy blunder at the CBC," Mr. Martin writes. "Ian Morrison, head of the watchdog lobby, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, yesterday described Beatty as 'an abject failure.' He pictured him as a well-meaning noodle who rolled over in the face of the government's budgetary assault on the network."

Mr. Martin says Mr. Beatty has been embroiled in a power struggle with Guylaine Saucier, the chairwoman of the CBC, "an aggressive Montrealer whose cut-throat style has earned her comparisons with Marie Antoinette."

Mr. Beatty did some good work during his four-year tenure but had to cope with enormous cutbacks – Mr. Chrétien, the Prime Minister, has reduced the broadcaster's budget by 31%.

Mr. Martin says Mr. Chrétien is cool toward the CBC because Radio-Canada, the corporation's French-language arm, doesn't support his federalist politics. He also says Mr. Chrétien was unhappy with the CBC coverage of the scandal surrounding the 1997 APEC summit in Vancouver.

He said possible successors include Peter Herrndorf, who recently stepped down as head of TVOntario; Trina McQueen, who now heads the Discovery Channel; Bob Rabinovitch, a business executive with strong Tory connections; Robert Pritchard, the outgoing president of the University of Toronto; and Francoise Bertrand, the current chairwoman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Choosing a replacement for Mr. Beatty will not signal a change in the PM's attitude to the network, according to Mr. Martin. "Insiders say the prime minister wants a more market-driven CBC. He likes the independently produced shows like Pamela Wallin Live because they are more conscious of the bottom line."

Mr. Beatty held numerous cabinet posts during his time as a Tory MP. He served as solicitor-general, defence minister, health minister, minister of national revenue, and minister responsible for Canada Post Corp.

He was appointed to head the CBC on April Fool's Day, 1995. Unions representing CBC workers were outraged when Mr. Beatty received a 19% pay raise in June, 1998, boosting his CBC salary to about $228,000 a year, at a time when salaries had been frozen for years. Mr. Beatty also receives a $70,000 annual pension from his days as an MP.

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