Poll suggests backlash from cuts
Source : New Brunswick Telegraph Journal
Nov 18, 2000
Fredericton – A growing number of Atlantic Canadians are prepared to take out their anger over CBC programming cuts at the ballot box, a new poll suggests.
A survey conducted for the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting suggests that 38 percent of Atlantic Canadian voters surveyed are less likely to vote Liberal as a result of recent cuts to CBC-TV's supper-hour news shows. But a spokesman for the public broadcasting lobby group admits that may not be good news for the CBC.
Patrick Flanagan admitted a voter backlash against the Liberals might throw votes to the Canadian Alliance Party, which wants to take the federal government out of the broadcasting business.
"Obviously, that would not be in our interest," Mr. Flanagan told reporters at a news conference Friday. "But what is in our interest is to get candidates for all parties put on the record about their views on public broadcasting and the need to restore CBC's local programming to previous levels."
The group will launch an advertising blitz next week, urging voters to press candidates to put restoration of CBC funding as a top-priority item for the next federal parliament.
Earlier this year, the Friends group spearheaded a drive to block planned cuts to CBC programming. Local supper-hour news shows across the country, including New Brunswick's NB Now, were reduced to half an hour to help the public broadcaster cope with a $400-million reduction in government funding.
