CARLI BERRY
news@pqbnews.com
Followers of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will have an opportunity to share their input with local politicians next week.
On Thursday, Aug. 6 in Parksville Community Park, a booth will be set up for members of the public to mingle with local politicians and discuss the importance of maintaining a public broadcaster.
The mingle will run from 4-6 p.m.
The event supported by the "Friends of Canadian Broadcasting," who's main goal "is to defend and enhance the quality and quantity of Canadian programming in the Canadian audio-visual system," according to their website.
The event in Parksville is not associated with the CBC, volunteer John Racinskas said. The point is to bring public awareness to "funding (that) has been decaying," he said.
The CBC is "keeping the government honest," Racinskas said. "You need news media to keep on top of things."
Racinskas said it's about keeping freedom of speech alive and used examples of programs like The Passionate Eye on political and social issues.
The mingle is put on by members of the Parksville, Qualicum Beach community.
It's a community event, he said. The event is made up of local volunteers who feel passionate towards saving the CBC.
He said the point of the event is not to influence a person's vote, or to spark candidate debates, but to bring together the community to discuss issues with funding for the CBC and why it is important to have a national broadcaster.
The event is a "grassroots" type of mingle as members of the community organize and run it, Racinskas said.
His personal goal, he said, is to raise public awareness and have the issues with CBC's funding brought up at the next election.
He wants to get the politicians to pay attention to the CBC, he said.
The federal government currently provides the CBC with about $1 billion in taxpayer funds annually.