Photo: KTW file

This CBC Kamloops vehicle was vandalized in 2021. Kamloops-area candidates were recently asked about the need for the CBC in Canada's current media landscape.

With days before voters head to the polls in Canada’s 45th general election, Castanet Kamloops got one last issues-based question to the candidates during an all-candidates debate this week, asking about the preservation of good information.

Castanet asked candidates from both Kamloops area ridings: “In an age of misinformation and growing news deserts, alongside the rapidly changing news as demonstrated by on-again, off-again tariffs from the U.S., would you agree that it is important to maintain reputable news sources such as the CBC, and if so, how would you and your party work to preserve journalism and the information ecosystem in this country?"

The Conservative Party, in its recently released platform, said it would find savings by defunding the CBC while maintaining Radio-Canada services. The English-language CBC, the party contends, should be a self-sufficient, Canadian-owned non-profit media organization.

Clash on bias

Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies Conservative incumbent Mel Arnold said reputable news sources are an invaluable source for people to get good information.

But, he said, “some of the traditional media sources have chosen to target certain parties.”

“The bias that is showing in some of the news media is, I guess, extremely difficult to deal with, for people to sort through what is truth and what is not,” Arnold said.

“The age of information available on the internet now has swamped people to the point where they really have to do a lot of work to find out what is factual, what is not and, unfortunately, information from international sources interfering in our elections is part of that.”

Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies Green candidate Owen Madden pointed out a recent CBC story that came about after a reporter overheard Liberal Party staffers planning to plant campaign buttons at a Conservative rally with slogans aimed at making their opponents look bad.

“That CBC reporter broke that story and made it a national story, and it made Mark Carney look bad and have to apologize. Where is the bias there? If the CBC is biased against the Conservative Party, why would it break a story that made Mark Carney look super bad?” Madden asked.

“The way the Conservative Party has treated reporters this time around is markedly different to any other federal election. They won't have them on the bus traveling with them, there's been stories of Globe and Mail reporters being treated really badly and being told what questions they might ask.

"It all sounds a little American, and so we know what this end game looks like. We have to protect the CBC. They have to be funded. And in my time with the CBC, they've been absolutely fair and have asked everybody just the same difficult questions.”

Caputo wants input

Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola Conservative incumbent Frank Caputo did not directly answer the question during the forum. Castanet posed the question to him over the phone on Wednesday and he said he supports his party’s position on the CBC — but he admitted he is not well-versed in the news business.

“We have clearly said that the CBC is no longer part of our policy platform for a variety of reasons,” Caputo said.

“That doesn't mean I believe that we should be eradicating reputable news sources. I want to hear personally from news sources like Castanet, the Kamloops Chronicle, Barriere Star Journal, the Merritt Herald, about what they need in order to survive.

“As somebody who worked in an industry, the courts, which really benefitted from independent journalism, I actually see more than most the necessity for an independent media. But I think we have to distinguish between a state funded media in the CBC and the organizations I just mentioned.”

Caputo said CBC TV is "no longer necessary" in the eyes of his party.

"This is what the feedback we've been given by Canadians, by party members and we're proceeding on that basis,” he said.

“I am not an expert in journalism. I've never actually sat down with somebody who runs a Castanet, who runs an InfoTel, who runs the Barriere Star Journal, and I want to hear them say ‘Frank, this is what we need. These are our impediments.’ To me, that's the starting point, rather than simply allowing what is a pretty vital industry to just die away.”

Lots of support for CBC

Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola Liberal candidate Iain Currie said his government would support the CBC.

“It's an important part of the Liberal platform to continue to support a central piece of Canadians' identity, which is the CBC, and, in fact, make that funding statutory and increase it," he said. "And mandate the CBC to focus on local news in our rural communities.”

Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies Liberal candidate Ken Robertson said the CBC is already unbiased and independent, and the Liberals would invest in the CBC because it is necessary.

“We have to invest in independent reporting. Why? Because we need to hear the whole story. We need to hear both sides, not from just one side, which is a profitable one,” Robertson said, noting the CBC reports in eight Indigenous languages in northern Canada.

The PPC’s Chris Enns, running in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola, took issue with the question.

“The question itself assumes that the CBC are reputable," he said.

“They are well known to be biased against conservative-minded Canadians — not just the Conservative Party, but people in general. Reputable information is paramount in our public discourse, and what so-called fact-checkers, the legacy media and others, have endorsed as truth over the past two years is embarrassing and a betrayal of the taxpayers who fund the CBC."

NDP candidate Miguel Godau for Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola said the CBC is a Canadian institution and unbiased.

“I think it is so important that we protect our CBC as a Canadian institution,” he said.