Why Are Conservatives So Obsessed with the CBC?

The Conservative Party of Canada is engaged in some political theatre right now with a “Defund the CBC” campaign. The CBC paused activity on its corporate and news accounts on Twitter, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Poilievre of running “to American billionaires” to attack the CBC. The call to defund the CBC (Poilievre has suggested he’d preserve French services) is a cornerstone of the populist strategy of the Conservative Party. When CBC president and CEO Catherine Tait told the Globe and Mail that Poilievre’s “Defund the CBC” platform was a fund-raising “slogan,” Conservative MP Marty Morantz tweeted, “The head of the CBC is now publicly bashing the Conservative Party of Canada. CBC bias is now on full display.”Think of the CBC and the Conservative Party as two punch-drunk boxers in a round-after-round clinch, going back decades.