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Page THE HERALD Wednesday December 12 19M Ottawa Report CBC cuts are justified Last week the CBC ran face- first into a brick wall The network reporters scooped their own chairman who was ready to announce that million worth of budget cuts were about to be made In the wake of all this jobs will be going and a number of local TV news shows will be off the air CBC television will concentrate on regional national and interna stories radio pull out of international news and beef local news coverage Why did this happen management had a long list of reasons but the major two were government cut backs and a big drop in advertising revenues The fallout was inevitable Critics of the government cused the Tories of having an agenda to systematically at tack the institutions which hold Canada together They link the CBC cuts with cuts to VIA rail service and the proposed sale of PetroCanada They say the government is dismantling Canada s assets and making us easier pickings for the evil Yankees It a powerful argument Powerful because it s emotional Last week on the front of the Citizen was a drawing of a wounded beaver bleeding blood in the shape of a maple leaf The Toronto Star editorial page show the federal communications minister blowing up the logo On a TV show at the end of the week I found myself under attack by a Libral and an NDPer who said you people are out to destroy Canada Well for the record that s not why I ran to be an MP Also for the record I hope there are more cuts coming I hope the govern finds ways to stop spending extra billions just not millions If we love this country that s the way we have to save it NEW EXTENDED CHRISTMAS HOURS Man Sat 6 Thurs A Fri 9 9 Let s look at for a minute This year you and I as tax payers will hand over to the corporation that s 3 billion This is per cent more than last year Some cutback Now if this billiondollar cor poration can t balance its books should the taxpayer run in again and hand over another million I wish all those crying the blues could come and see the CBC in operation In Ottawa for example there are usually four separate crews to cover each event French television English radio French radio and English televl sion On budget night it is not un common to see two or three CBC tractor traders on Parliament Hill and up to other CBC vehicles One night I saw CBC put up floodlights big enough to luminate the whole Parliament buildings so the reporter would have a good backdrop for the camera There are more than CBC reporters in the Ottawa press gallery compared to for CTV There s a new multi million dollar headquarters going up in downtown Toronto And there s the refusal of radio to try and defray its operating costs by selling advertising Final Iv when a Calgary businessman last week offered to buy the TV station that was closing CBC boss Patrick Wat son refused saying he want to end up having American crap on the air at night Maybe the CBC is a symbol of something other than the glue that holds the country together Maybe it a symbol of what been wrong with Canada what threatens it We have been pursuing things that we cannot afford More than million of the money we give CBC every year is borrowed and added to the country s debt And as that debt grows so does the in on it Then the next year we have even less money to spend It s a vicious circle which threatens our country At what point do we not have enough money to fund our basic social programs Right now almost cents of every tax dollar gets flushed away in interest And yet when the CBC cuts back to live within its bloated budget we hear these cnes of patriotism along with allega tions that Tones are deliberately trying to tear national ttons apart Do you love Canada more if you let it get mortgaged to the Ger mans and the Japanese Is it better for the country to live on borrowed time every year having less ability to set our own interest rates or levels of social support or clean up the en vironmenf The beaver may be bruised up a bit with more bruises to come But at least the national rodent has his head out of the mud I for more cuts lower government spending sellingoff of more assets a lower deficit paying off the debt and then get ting lower taxes The Globe and Mail by the way is cutting its sports staff in half because advertising is also down Do you figure the feds should bail the paper out Nah me neither PRECHRISTMAS SALE ALL FALL MERCHANDISE Including Party Dresses Daytime Dresses Blazers Skirts Pants Blouses Sweaters Accessories OFF ALL WINTER COATS JACKETS NOW SAVE Over 500 Coats and Jackets from Names such as UTEX London Fog FarWest Hilary Radley and more All at 30 Off Petite Regular Sizes Cruisewear Now Arriving at 10 Off 30 GoldStar The brightest star in electronics GoldStar REMOTE CONTROL 20 COLOUR TV channel tuner On screen display channel volume sleep time picture adjustment Automatic channel programming Automatic picture control fJOUXJR TV Quickvlew last channel flashback GoldStar Random 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