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A recent poll sponsored in part by Unifor found that Canadians trust the CRTC to protect local Canadian television.
“The current chair of the CRTC has adopted the Harper government’s agenda as his own even though the Commission is supposed to be independent from political interference,” Unifor National President Jerry Dias said.
“Will small market stations start fading to black next week? I don’t know. If they do, voters will know who to blame, and it won’t be some faceless bureaucrat in Ottawa.”
Unifor represents workers at local TV stations across Canada. CRTC decisions under the Harper Government have hurt local television.
The Nanos survey, sponsored by Unifor, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and ACTRA, found that 92 per cent of those asked agreed or somewhat agreed that “local TV news is valuable to me,” while 85 per cent disagreed or somewhat disagreed with the statement: “I would not care if local news broadcasts on TV were no longer available to me.”
Ninety per cent agreed or somewhat agreed that “my federal member of Parliament should work to keep local broadcasting strong in my community;”
The poll also showed strong support for the CBC, with 86 per cent saying they would advise their MP to vote in favour of increasing or maintaining CBC funding. The Harper Government has drastically cut CBC funding.
The poll also found that 31 per cent of those asked most trusted the NDP to protect the CBC, compare with 27 per cent for the Liberals and 13 per cent for the Conservatives.
“Some of Stephen Harper’s most ardent core supporters might like his CBC bashing, but overall his policy toward the CBC has been a loser issue, even among Conservative voters,” Dias said.
