Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch is proposing to sell the CBC, saying she doesn’t believe the broadcaster should be “propped up by taxpayers.”

“What I’m proposing is that it either be subject to an asset sale or an IPO, whichever will salvage the best value for Canadians with the intention being we get the best value for money for taxpayers,” said Leitch (Simcoe-Grey) on Thursday.

The pledge was dismissed by the NDP as “ridiculous.”

“We’re back in the 1920s,” said MP Pierre Nantel (Longueuil-Saint-Hubert). “How about going back to Morse code?”

Leitch linked her proposal to another of the major policy items she has put forward — instituting a cap on government spending. This means that every department will have to play its part, she said.

“If there’s an entity that’s not competitive that’s not profitable, I don’t believe it should be in business,” she said. “And (the CBC) is an entity that’s not only propped up by taxpayers but it’s stealing advertising revenue from other (media) outlets.”

The playing field for broadcasters should be levelled, she said. So, having a single entity, which is underwritten by the taxpayers decreases competition and creates an unfair advantage, Leitch said.

“What we need is competition in the marketplace so we hear from different voices,” she said. “A key part of our democracy is to hear those different voices.”

However, the part of CBC that provides emergency services to remote and rural parts of Canada should be maintained, she added.

Earlier this week, Leitch’s fellow Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier called for CBC to refocus its mandate, moving toward a PBS model, financed by public donations.

“I strongly disagree with the stance taken by fellow leadership candidate Maxime Bernier and his call for CBC reform — the CBC doesn’t need to be reformed, it needs to be dismantled,” Leitch said.

Nantel said he doesn’t think Leitch is truly describing reality. The CBC has a very specific mandate, which is to inform and entertain, and it is an unbiased voice that brings Canadians together, he said.

In 2012 the Stephen Harper government had proposed to cut CBC’s funding over the following three years, which meant a loss of $115 million a year. In March, Justin Trudeau’s government promised to restore and increase the CBC budget, beginning with a $75-million injection this year, followed by $150 million a year over until 2020-21.

With the CBC now flush with funds, perhaps it can stop competing for digital advertising revenue and level the playing field themselves, proposed Nantel.

“All the money input was welcome because they were under siege but now they can cut some slack to their competitors,” he said.

Earlier in this year, John Honderich, chair of the board of Torstar, which publishes the Toronto Star, addressed MPs who were studying the state of the media in Canada.

He said newspapers across the country have had to let go of huge numbers of journalists, leading to less political and community coverage, and less investigative journalism.

“If you believe, as we do, that the quality of a democracy is a direct function of the quality of the information citizens have to make informed decisions, then this trend is very worrisome,” Honderich said.

CBC News’ digital offerings are seen as the biggest competition to the Star, Honderich said.

James Baxter, founding editor of iPolitics, echoed Honderich’s views, calling CBC News an “uber-predator,” that competes directly with private media companies.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

When asked how money from dismantling of CBC would be redistributed, Leitch said she did not want to speculate about the future.

“The CBC is taking all your advertising revenue particularly in the digital space,” she said. “It’s not allowing different media outlets to truly participate as an equal player on a competitive level, we’re not hearing those different voices. And what I want to see in Canada is those different voices represented because freedom of speech is something that we actually embrace in this country.”