CBC's five-year plan a prescription for the broadcaster to heal itself

By Doris Montanera

LAST FALL, AROUND THE TIME of the CBC’s 75th anniversary, Edmonton MP Brent Rathgeber suggested the broadcaster become more commercially self-reliant. It couldn’t fulfill its mandate if “few people are watching and listening,” in his estimation. In January, OpenMedia.ca and Leadnow.ca, two citizen engagement groups, launched a campaign to re-imagine the CBC by crowd-sourcing ideas using an online discussion forum. Then, recently, The Toronto Star launched The Network, a site devoted to what’s wrong with the CBC and how to fix it. The CBC, however, is already “fixing” what it believes needs to be upgraded already via its five-year plan,...