No Mr. Scheer, do not play with an Axe!

Dear Joseph, As you probably know by now, the Conservatives chose Andrew Scheer as their new leader on the weekend. During the leadership race, Mr. Scheer made his views about the CBC and public broadcasting well known. In short, he wants to axe CBC News. I am writing to ask you to invest in a new FRIENDS campaign to counter this threat. Mr. Scheer and his team’s enthusiastic hostility toward public broadcasting is fueled by the opinions of the Conservative Party ‘base’ from whom they have been soliciting support. This is a small but vocal minority whoseviews about the CBC are extreme and far outside the mainstream of Canadians who support and value the CBC. We know this because we have just completed an opinion research project comparing the views of Conservative Party members with those of Canadians. This project contains a vital lesson for Mr. Scheer: to gain traction with Canadians, you need to reconsider your hostility towards public broadcasting. Encouraging the Conservative Party to do a 180-degree turn on its CBC policy won’t be easy, but with your help we can make it happen. That’s why I am writing. We have the information we need to persuade Mr. Scheer that calling for the dismantling of CBC News is a dead end for the Conservatives – putting them in conflict with the views of an overwhelming majority of Canadians, including those Canadians who would consider voting Conservative. FRIENDS commissioned Nanos Research to poll Canadians and Mainstreet Research to poll Conservative voting delegates. The results demonstrate a deep dividebetween the 259,010 Conservative Party paid-up members and the rest of us 36 million Canadians when it comes to the CBC. Andrew Scheer has spent the past year fighting to gain support from CBC-phobic members of the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, ordinary Canadians value the CBC as much as ever, and passionately understand the importance of public broadcasting. We have a plan to get this information out but we need your help to do it with maximum effect! We want to start with advertising in Ottawa, then turn up the heat in the ridings of key Conservatives when they return home after the adjournment of Parliament in late June. This is a big new campaign for FRIENDS, and a crucial one. If we act now, Andrew Scheer and his CBC-bashing supporters may be persuaded to drop their extreme policy, not because of a change of heart, but rather because those opinions will interfere with their priority to connect with the voters they need if they are to contend for the hearts and minds of Canadians. Re-visiting their CBC hostility is a pre-condition of connecting with these voters. Please give generously to this important campaign. Please make an investment in protecting the CBC now Regards, Ian Morrison Spokesperson FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting PS: This could be a defining moment for supporters of public broadcasting.  We have to roll up our sleeves and make sure that Mr. Scheer and his Conservatives understand Canadians will not stand for more CBC bashing.

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