Canada should be an instrument of national purpose. To this end they created a publicly owned system within which private and commercial broadcasting have always had a place:
The clear intent was and still is to give the dominant role to the public service, yet the pressures of the private broadcasters are now, after thirty-five years, stronger than ever (Peers 3).
The government-run public system is called the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and covers 99 percent of the country with radio and television broadcasts. Both the radio and TV services have two networks, one that broadcasts in English and one in French. The French service is provided throughout the country, even though 80 percent of French-speaking people live in Quebec, and the degree and type of programming provided in French has been a contentious issue, as are most issues related to French culture versus Anglo culture in Canada. The CBC also must serve the outlying areas that commercial television would not find economically viable to serve, and much of this broadcasting is accomplished through Canadian-owned satellites. CBC radio is noncommercial, while the television system does have commercials. Canada used to collect an annual license fee from all households that owned a radio, but this practice has been discontinued. Today, all of the radio budget for the CBC and 75 percent of the television budget come from general government funding. In spite of this, CBC programming is largely free of government interference. Private stations affiliate with the government-run network for some broadcasting (Gross 24).
Radio for public use started in Canada in 1919 with the first radio station in MontrTal, and more than 60 stations were started over the next ten years. The first Royal Commission on Broadcasting came into being in 1929 in response to the fear that American radio networ
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