Not over yet, by a long-shot

The lock out may be coming to a close, but the underlying causes of the lock-out remain. We need a better run, better funded, ideally commercial free, public broadcaster dedicated, almost exclusively if not entirely, to Canadian Content - Canadian national and regional news, arts and entertainment, comedy and drama - online, on tv and radio and on demand. The CBC needs to be more connected to and interactive with the public, the people who pay the taxes to fund the CBC and who will be asked to give even more.

Connections must be made with younger people and, I hope, that by going commercial free that the CBC can achieve that: People, especially younger people, are distrustful of corporations and government: If the CBC is ad free then we can present the company as free of corporate influence. If changes are made to CBCs funding structure and if provisions are put in place to preempt further labour conflicts (such as an automatic trip to binding arbitration if agreement cannot be reached within 14 days of the expiry of a contract) and if some type of parliamentary vetting process can be put in place for nominations to the board - such as public disclosure of their qualifications followed by ratification by parliament then the CBC can sell itself as free of direct Government influence. If the CBC is seen as independent of Government and corporations, and then presents a variety of views from a variety of people in a variety of locations then the CBC can be sold to a generation (actually a few generations now) of cynics as reliable.

As much conflict as there has been between CBC Management, the CMG and even members of parliament it is the Canadian people who own the CBC and they need to be reminded of that and given a product they can take great pride in owning and that they find useful to their daily lives - from coast to coast to coast and across the boundaries of age, region, gender, culture, religion, and politics.

The lockout is coming to a close, but the work is just beginning.

This blog is just not ending. I may not post as frequently for the next little while, I have work to do as the lockout ends, and PublicBroadcasting.ca is under heavy construction. But, here too - the battle is won, but the fight goes on.