LILLEY: John Baird story more proof that the CBC needs to be defunded

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Published Jul 19, 2023  •  3 minute read

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Looks like CBC heard all the calls from the federal Conservatives to defund them and decided to give them more reason to do so. On Tuesday, CBC torqued a report and a headline to make it look like a key backer of Pierre Poilievre was singing the praises of Justin Trudeau.

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The state broadcaster, it seems, can’t seem to help but remind everyone that they’re far too often nothing but a Liberal propaganda machine.

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The story was spun out of comments that John Baird made while introducing Trudeau at the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum in Toronto. Baird served as a Conservative MP from 2006-15 and held several cabinet posts, including being foreign affairs minister from 2011-2015.

Baird used a humorous story to introduce Trudeau. CBC ran with one part of the story and pushed a headline that read like Baird was endorsing the Liberal government.

“Poilievre ally calls Trudeau ‘one of the most successful’ politicians of his generation,” the headline screams.

That was followed by a completely inaccurate line to open the story.

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EDITORIAL: CBC isn’t ‘state-run’ but it is state-funded

GUNTER: CBC is so cozy with Trudeau government because they have the same interests

“One of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s most prominent supporters praised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political leadership during a conference on Tuesday,” CBC reported.

That’s not what Baird said at all. But if you only follow CBC instead of reality, you wouldn’t know that. It’s true that Baird said Trudeau was “one of the most successful political leaders of our generation,” but he didn’t comment on Trudeau’s leadership.

Baird was quick to shoot back at CBC, taking to Twitter to call the story inaccurate and designed to sow discord in the Conservative party.

“The Liberal Party’s publicly funded spin machine is back at it. Political success does not equal competent leadership of Canada. Pierre Poilievre will be the next Prime Minister of Canada and end 8 years of Liberal waste, corruption, and incompetence,” Baird said on Twitter.

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Baird is absolutely correct here; CBC is once again acting like a spin machine for the Trudeau Liberals.

Watching Baird’s introduction in full shows a man being gracious and humorous while introducing a political opponent. Baird is a well-known political pit bull and he can be highly partisan, but he’s also the type of politician who knows how to get along with people from other parties, a trait in too short supply these days.

After saying that Trudeau was “one of the most successful politicians of his generation,” a fact given Trudeau’s three election wins, Baird told the story of being in the Philippines shortly after Trudeau had attended the 2015 APEC summit in that country. He described how his cab driver, upon hearing Baird was from Canada, was singing Trudeau’s praises.

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“We love Canada, we love your prime minister,” Baird quoted the driver as saying in retelling the story.

“I smiled. I paused and I said, ‘Why?’” Baird said.

“Your PM was the APEC hottie,” the man replied.

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With that and some remarks on the Canada-Australia relationship, Baird turned over the podium to Trudeau with a smile, the two men shook hands and Trudeau gave his address.

There was nothing in what Baird said about the Conservative politician praising Trudeau’s leadership or indicating support for the Liberal leader in any way, shape or form.

In one of his tweets pushing back on CBC, Baird called for the state broadcaster to be defunded, one the leadership campaign promises that Poilievre made. With stories like this, CBC showed why it should lose government funding.

Why are Canadians being forced to pay the $1.5 billion that CBC sucks up every year to support a Liberal propaganda machine. It’s time for this farce to come to an end. Let’s hope Poilievre follows through on this promise when he takes office.

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