Carney pledges to bolster CBC/Radio-Canada’s funding

MONTREAL — Liberal leader Mark Carney is vowing to shore up Canada’s public broadcaster, calling it a crucial cultural touchstone to protect as the country’s identity and institutions fall under attack.

Carney is campaigning in Montreal today after spending much of the second week of the campaign again dealing with the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump.

He says Canada needs to defend its cultural identity in the face of Trump’s threats to Canadian sovereignty and a Conservative leader seeking to strip down the public broadcaster.

Carney is pledging to boost CBC/Radio-Canada’s funding by $150 million a year and enshrine it’s funding structure in law so that Parliament would have to pass legislation to change it.

The Liberal leader sought to strike a contrast against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has pledged to defund CBC.

He says it’s a waste of taxpayer money, while keeping Radio-Canada’s funding in place. Such a move would require legislative changes.

Poilievre has also pledged to sell off its Toronto headquarters for housing.

Carney said that the English and French broadcasting services come together as a package deal.

“Instead of defending them, Pierre Poilievre is following President Trump’s lead and taking aim at our institutions, like CBC/Radio-Canada,” Carney said. “His attack on CBC is an attack directly on Radio-Canada and it is an attack on our Canadian identity.”

Trump has called on Republicans in Congress in recent weeks to defund NPR and PBS, America’s public broadcasters, claiming they support a “radical left” agenda.

Carney is expected to leave Montreal to head to Toronto, with a rally scheduled in Scarborough Friday evening.

Carney is ending the second week of the campaign with most polls showing the Liberals with a comfortable lead over the Conservatives, but the campaign is not without its snags.

The Liberals lost another candidate Thursday night.

Rod Loyola, who was running for the party in Edmonton Gateway, appeared in a video from 2009 where showed support for terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah at a protest.

The Conservatives say the Liberals “were willing to tolerate Loyola,” and that his views were out in the open for years, including when first elected to the provincial NDP in 2015.

“Are we really to believe this was all a surprise to the Liberals? No,” wrote spokesperson Simon Jefferies.

“Any sort of political organizer in Edmonton/Alberta would’ve known Loyola’s history.”

The Liberals have now dropped three candidates since the election began, and the Conservatives four.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2025.

— With files from Alessia Passafiume in Montreal and Kyle Duggan in Ottawa.