Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has sent a fundraising letter out to supporters this week accusing the CBC president of smearing his name and reaffirming his plan to defund the public broadcaster.
The Conservative leader wrote that CBC President Catherine Tait recently showed CBC is openly biased, and the Conservative Party will need donations to campaign in ways that help them circumvent the broadcaster.
“We need to go around the CBC and other Liberal pamphleteers, and get our message out to millions of Canadians,” Poilieivre wrote. “That’s why I need your help.”
Poilievre was referring to a recent interview between Tait and The Globe and Mail, where Tait said Canada’s public broadcaster is under fire.
“There’s a lot of CBC bashing going on – somewhat stoked by the Leader of the Opposition,” said Tait. “I think they feel that CBC is a mouthpiece for the Liberal government.”
Poilievre’s promise to defund the CBC, she said, was a strategy to rally donations.
Conservative communications director Sarah Fischer called Tait’s comments an overt attack, and said it will not work.
“We are not backing down on the promise to defund CBC,” she wrote.
