No Signal, No Sovereignty

A Nation That Cannot Speak Cannot Survive

David — I respect your craft. I’ve seen your work, and I know what it costs to try and build a career in Canada. You didn’t get here by playing it safe. Which is why this take on the CBC feels like a resignation — not an argument.

You’re not wrong that CBC is failing. But you’ve mistaken the symptom for the source.

You called it biased. I call it gutless.

CBC doesn’t tilt left. It tilts hollow. Its problem isn’t liberalism — it’s centrism in collapse. A desperate effort to appease all sides, which in turn stands for none. It bends itself into a Möbius loop of faux balance, giving air to bad faith actors in the name of journalistic fairness. That’s not bias. That’s surrender.

So no — the answer is not to defund it and hope some private PBS-lite phoenix rises from the ashes. We’ve already seen that play out. The market won’t save us. It optimises for dopamine and division. It rewards provocation, not truth. It rewards rage clicks, not clarity.

Defunding CBC won’t give us better media.

It will make Canada mute.

This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about infrastructure. Media is not decoration. It's cultural scaffolding. It's how a country remembers who it is. How it protects what matters. How it amplifies what must be seen. CBC is not just a broadcaster — it's one of the last national vessels we have that is still, at least in principle, accountable to the people instead of shareholders.

You say its drama is amateur. Its comedy is weak. That’s fair. But that’s not a case for cutting its legs out — it’s an argument to build it a body worth standing on. No one expects national excellence from underfed institutions. You’ve worked in production. You know what top-tier requires: funding, facilities, talent pipelines, editorial latitude, distribution muscle, post-production sophistication, and above all — risk capital.

If we want the CBC to be better, we don’t kill it.

We fund it ten times harder.

Then we install the systems that hold it to a ten times higher standard.

We build it like we build any critical infrastructure: with consequence. If its news division is tepid — give it a spine. If its entertainment lacks vision — inject it. If its leadership is politically neutered — replace them with sovereign operators who can build a narrative economy without begging for permission.

Don’t reduce it to a meme about plastic ham sandwiches and woke fridges. That’s the same anti-intellectual shortcut the right always uses when it wants to gut what it can’t control.

The real threat to Canada isn’t left-leaning media. It’s the absence of any national voice with the depth, courage, and capacity to push back against American cultural capture and corporate consolidation. We’re already drowning in U.S. narratives. Their networks. Their storylines. Their talking points. Their rage cycles.

You say let CBC compete in the private market. Here’s the truth: it already is — and that’s the problem. The current funding model forces it to chase ad revenue, algorithms, and diluted content strategies designed to please everyone and impact no one.

That’s not public broadcasting. That’s brand-safe compliance theatre.

What we need is a public media system that doesn’t just survive the culture war — it wins it.

One that anchors the country’s story. One that serves as a launchpad for talent that otherwise flees south. One that can greenlight bold, controversial, world-class Canadian stories — without asking if Bell or Rogers or Disney approves. One that stands against disinformation, platform capture, and political interference not because it’s safe — but because it’s built to.

Imagine what a real CBC could be:

A studio network that rivals HBO — not with budget, but with courage.

A production engine that brings Indigenous, immigrant, and interprovincial voices into national view — not as token representation, but as central narrative authors.

A journalism division that isn’t afraid to name white nationalism, corporate collusion, or foreign propaganda when it sees it. Domestic social terrorism is what we need to be talking about.

A digital platform that doesn’t chase TikTok metrics — but engineers attention by being the only place left in Canada where truth isn’t compromised.

And a leadership structure governed not by bureaucratic hedging — but by sovereign media operators who know that neutrality is a myth, and clarity is a weapon.

That’s what we should build.

And yes, that takes money.

Real money.

But if you think we can afford not to — you’re not watching the world burn fast enough.

The BBC isn’t perfect, but it exists. Because the UK knew that without it, Murdoch would define the country. NPR struggles, but it persists — because enough Americans still believe a nation should hear itself think. But Canada? We’re about to become the first G7 country to let our national media dissolve under the false flag of fiscal prudence.

That’s not saving money.

That’s selling our soul. One of the few pieces we have left.

David, you said you started at CBC. That it gave you your launchpad. Maybe it failed you later. Maybe it betrayed your standards. But don’t mistake that betrayal as permanent. Don’t torch the bridge that built you. Help us all build something that works. That delivers. That sets the standard.

We don’t need another critic.

We need builders.

So here’s the ask: Use your voice to demand better — not less. Use your credibility to call for excellence — not erasure. If you know what world-class looks like, help make it possible here. Fund the industry around it. Train the next wave. Architect the media state you wished you had worked in.

Because a country without a voice is a country that vanishes.

And we’re vanishing.

Not with a bang.

But with a shrug.

Let’s stop the shrug.

Let’s rebuild the damn thing.

Properly. Publicly. Permanently.

You in?

This is what I’m working on. Tell me what you think, I enjoy the conversation! Subscribe and follow the work in real time.

Thanks!

B

Proconsul 🇨🇦 (@proconsul.bsky.social)

Visionary Strategic Growth A guide for ambition, bridging strategy with implementation for modern business: clarity, structure, and sustainable impact. I listen. If it’s possible, I’ll show you how. proconsul.ghost.io

Bluesky Social

Defunding the CBC doesn't make us freer. It makes us voiceless.

Media isn’t bias. It’s infrastructure. And we’re burning ours down in public — pretending it’s fiscal discipline, when it’s cultural suicide.

PS -