The most we could expect from CBC

Here's the long-awaited Canada Day coverage of the Great Canadian Wish List. Just as the CBC promised, they dedicated a whole 3 minutes and 15 seconds of air time to the Facebook contest and to the wish that received the most votes. Aired at 7:34 AM Eastern time. So if you are not an early bird from Newfoundland and you don't actively participate in Vancouver's night life - you might have missed it, just like I did. Well, thanks God someone managed to get it recorded! (And it was quite amusing to see Suzanne's blog in there too :)

The CBC didn't like the results. They didn't hide that if not from day one, then from day 3 or 4 of the contest when the wish to abolish abortion became the most supported. Mike Wise did his best to ensure free and civilized discussion. That however can't be said about the CBC blog on which the editorials on the contest were published. It wasn't rare when the only quote in the editorial was against the wish. When it came to comments, the editors were clearly favoring the pro-abortion side.

Then came the big day. A picture is worth a thousand words, so just look at the narrator's face as she announces the wishes. She lists the top 5 in the reversed order, so she could start with the wish to lower tuition fees. As she lists the wishes, she ends the sentence by mentioning the wish for Canada to retain poor choice. Oh, she doesn't want to go any further... Sports commentators who must announce the defeat of a favorite team usually have much more control over their feelings.



I wonder if Mike Wise, who organized the contest, as well as over 19,000 participants who took their time to submit over 3,000 wishes could ever imagine that CBC will try to sweep the results under the rug, airing their coverage at the time when it could be seen by the least possible number of viewers? Well, I guess those 9543 of us who supported the wish to abolish abortion should have known that CBC wouldn't give up without a fight.

Either way, Mike deserves plenty of thanks from all of us for the hard work he's done organizing and moderating the Great Canadian Wish List. And I'd like to thank everyone who supported the wishes to abolish abortion and to restore the traditional marriage. We've proven once again that those issues are by no means "settled". The contest is over, but the Abolish Abortion cause on Facebook contains over 8,000 members. We won. And we are here to stay.