Restore CBC cuts, poll says by Moira Baird
Source : The Telegram
Nov 18, 2000
by Moira Baird
The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says cuts to local news programming is undermining support for the Liberal party in the federal election.
An opinion poll released by the group Friday indicates a majority of Atlantic Canadians want their MPs to work toward restoring funding cuts to the CBC.
It’s a point the group plans to drive home in an advertising campaign designed to make funding cuts to CBC an election issue.
“Candidates who support a revitalized CBC and who make it clear they intend to fight hard for Here & Now will be seen in a favourable light by 91 per cent of the people in the province,” said Noreen Golfman, a member of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.
“But we need reassurance. A wide majority expect more cuts to CBC regional television in the future.”
According to the survey results, 53 per cent of respondents in the region say CBC funding cuts by the Liberal government are to blame for the loss of local news shows like the one-hour Here & Now. That’s up from 47 per cent when the same question was asked in June.
Golfman says people in the Atlantic provinces feel a “palpable sense of loss” about cuts to local news programs in the four provinces.
Broadcast ads began Friday and print ads will start appearing in newspapers in Atlantic Canada starting Tuesday.
Golfman says people should write, call, e-mail, and make candidates aware that this issue concerns voters.
The survey was done by COMPAS Inc. for the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and the University of King’s College School of Journalism. The group has worked with the university and its research department on this issue previously.
In all, 400 people were surveyed in the four Atlantic provinces — 100 in each province — on Nov. 13 and 14.
COMPAS deems the individual samples accurate within 10 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, while results for the entire region are deemed accurate within six percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
