OTTAWA – Perrin Beatty, an enduring public symbol of the Mulroney years in Ottawa, has resurfaced as president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
“I have a profound commitment to public broadcasting,” said the former communications minister with the Brian Mulroney government, who was defeated in 1993 after 21 years in Parliament.
“I would not have left the private sector if I did not believe the CBC could have a bright future.”
Critics of the appointment suggest the Liberal government appointed a prominent Conservative to the job because the next few years will be a time of severe cuts at the CBC.
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Conservative cuts of $350 million, announced when Beatty had responsibility for the corporation and being implemented now, are forcing sharp cutbacks in staff and programming and the closing of foreign bureaus in Hong Kong and Berlin.
Now, the Liberals have announced a new series of cuts, totaling four percent of the budget, as well as establishment of a review committee that will investigate the future of the public corporation.
The Reform party and an increasing number of Liberal MPs, question the more-than $1 billion a year in public funding that flows to CBC.
Beatty told reporters his job will not be to protect the CBC from funding cuts, but to try to implement cuts in a way that preserves a vital core of the service.
Last president resigned
He was appointed CBC president after former president Tony Manera resigned, accusing the Liberals of misleading him about funding.
Manera said he had a promise of stable funding when he took the appointment last year, only to find more cuts in the Liberal’s February budget.
The surprise appointment of the prominent 44-year-old Beatty, best known for his parliamentary pension of more than $70,000 a-year-for-life that kicked in last year, drew fire on Parliament Hill.
Both Reform and Bloc QuŽbecois MPs said it proves the Liberal agenda for the CBC is the same as the Conservative agenda that was widely seen as hostile.
Reformers also accused prime minister Jean ChrŽtien of engaging in unseemly patronage. When he said it could not be patronage because Beatty is a Conservative and not a Liberal, Reform MP Jim Silye said they were all part of the same political class.
And he mocked ChrŽtien for changing his view of Beatty from one who, a year ago was “undermining national cultural institutions”, to someone that the prime minister now praises as an experienced parliamentarian with a commitment to public broadcasting.
