TORONTO– This critique comes from a Canadian journalist who values sovereignty and prosperity. The writer watched the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), once a unifying institution, slide into a bloated and partisan outlet that draws billions from taxpayers.
Created in 1936 to counter U.S. cultural influence, the CBC now looks like a communications arm for Liberal insiders. Trust has eroded, divisions have deepened, and the money keeps flowing.
With falling audiences, rising deficits, and bonuses for executives during layoffs, the call is simple. Demand accountability. Cut the subsidy and let the broadcaster compete on its own merit.
Start with the audience numbers. They reveal how far the CBC has fallen. When Catherine Tait became president in 2018, CBC English TV held a 7.6 per cent share of prime-time viewing. That was a decent position in a fragmented market.
By 2025, the share had collapsed to 2.1 per cent, according to Ottawa Life Magazine. That means 97.9 per cent of English TV viewers are watching something else, a drop of 72 per cent in seven years.
Even The Globe and Mail reported in 2023 that CBC English TV had slipped to 4.4 per cent, well below its target. Online reach looks weak as well. CBC.ca sits around 43rd among Canadian sites, with 17.4 million monthly unique visitors who stay for about 28 minutes. That hardly reflects a national broadcaster with broad appeal.
The reasons are not mysterious. Canadians are choosing Netflix, YouTube, and U.S. networks that offer entertainment without constant moralizing. The CBC’s fixation on niche identity themes, like “decolonising” hockey or “queering” history, has pushed away mainstream viewers.
Government Funding of the CBC
The writer views this as cultural neglect. A broadcaster that once helped shape Canadian identity now sidelines stories about pioneers, veterans, and resource workers. SaskToday.ca captured the anger. The CBC is set to receive around $1.4 billion from taxpayers in 2024 to 2025, while six-figure salaries have surged by 231 per cent during the Trudeau years. That is not public service, it is public excess.
The finances show the same pattern. The CBC posted a $125 million deficit in 2023 to 2024. It cut around 600 jobs despite the large public grant. Advertising revenue is sinking as brands walk away from small audiences. Traditional TV subscriptions are fading as cord-cutting spreads.
The broadcaster leans on Parliament for funding, drawing about $1.17 billion from Ottawa, with $292 million in advertising and $209 million from other sources. That is not a sustainable model.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says CBC’s English services alone lost $100 million last year. Yet management pay rose by a combined $37.7 million from 2024 to 2025. Private broadcasters such as CTV or Global have to innovate or close when losses mount. The CBC seeks fresh subsidies instead, a symbol of entitlement.
The workplace structure shows a top-heavy organization. Access-to-information records point to about 1,450 CBC employees on base salaries above $100,000 in 2023. That is up 318 per cent since 2015. Within that, around 250 directors, 450 managers, and 780 producers all earned six figures.
It mirrors a wider federal pattern, where more than 110,000 public servants take home six-figure pay. Under Tait, the CBC cut about 800 positions, including 200 vacancies, while leaving the top ranks well padded.
A Bloated Bureaucracy
The CTF calls it a “bloated bureaucracy full of highly paid managers.” The newsroom feels the squeeze, while compliance roles grow. Reporting on energy and industry comes wrapped in lectures, not balance, and the public pays for it.
Then come the bonuses. In 2024, the CBC paid about $18.4 million in so-called performance pay to 1,180 non-union staff. That included $3.3 million for 45 executives, an average of roughly $73,000 each. Those cheques arrived during mass layoffs and a cost-of-living crisis. MPs on the heritage committee said the payouts were inappropriate.
Tait defended them as necessary for retention, saying private firms pay more. The scheme was cancelled by May 2025 to slow turnover, but not before $15 million went out in 2023. For taxpayers facing higher bills, it looks like failure is rewarded.
This all fuels the belief that the CBC echoes Liberal priorities. A 2024 Abacus Data poll found 40 per cent of Canadians view the broadcaster as “Liberal propaganda,” including 57 per cent in Alberta and 23 per cent of Liberal voters.
Most Biased Outlet
A 2023 Spark* survey put the figure at 40 per cent across party lines. Watchdog sites reflect the same trend. Media Bias/Fact Check lists the CBC as Left-Centre, citing loaded language that tilts to progressive causes. AllSides rates it Lean Left, noting frequent omission of conservative arguments on social issues.
A 2009 internal study admitted Canadians saw a left slant, and by 2017, half of the respondents called CBC TV the most biased national outlet. Critics on X echo the mood, accusing the broadcaster of promoting Liberal narratives while downplaying government scandals.
Many want a media that backs core Canadian interests, including energy security, borders, and families, not an outlet that mirrors Ottawa orthodoxy.
Public opinion on funding is shifting. An Angus Reid poll in 2024 found 54 per cent believe cutting CBC funding would benefit Canada, with 30 per cent supporting full defunding.
A True North poll reported a majority in favour of cuts to some degree. A 2025 study from the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy found only 11 per cent endorse total defunding, yet 78 per cent want overhaul or reform. X remains full of calls to “defund the CBC” after clips flagged as biased.
Pierre Poilievre’s pledge resonates with many outside the Toronto-Ottawa bubble. Critics say defunding risks U.S. media dominance, as Policy Options warns. Supporters reply that the status quo is worse, since it subsidizes a narrow agenda with dwindling public buy-in.
The conclusion is stark. The CBC is not preserving Canadian culture; it is eroding it. The broadcaster faces shrinking ratings, heavy deficits, and lavish executive rewards, while the audience turns away. The perception of partisan bias has hardened.
The remedy, according to this view, is to defund the CBC, redirect the billions to infrastructure, defence, or tax relief, and let private media grow. Canada needs a press that informs rather than instructs, unites rather than divides. It is time to take back the national conversation and stop paying for a system that treats taxpayers as a captive audience.
