CBC, Al Jazeera viewers think they’re the most “informed”: Elections Canada report

Canadians who rely on state broadcasters like the CBC and progressive media outlet Al Jazeera view themselves as uniquely informed, according to a new Elections Canada report.

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Canadians who rely on state broadcasters like the CBC and progressive media outlet Al Jazeera view themselves as uniquely informed, according to a new Elections Canada report unearthed by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The findings are contained in Qualitative Study of Electors for the 45th General Election, a research report based on 13 focus groups conducted nationwide following the April 28 election that returned Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal minority government.

“In terms of information sources, those who keep themselves informed on current events and politics tended to rely on a variety of sources of information including certain media outlets such as CBC, BBC, the Associated Press and Al Jazeera,” the report said.

The report did not specify how often respondents used individual outlets or how trust levels were measured.

Elections Canada said participants described several strategies for assessing credibility, including consulting multiple sources, seeking out divergent viewpoints, checking publication dates, and relying on friends and family to corroborate information.

“Participants had some different strategies to assess the credibility and accuracy of information,” the report said. “Some examples included reviewing multiple sources and seeking out divergent views… or simply using specific sources they deemed to be trustworthy.”

The research was conducted by Ottawa-based polling firm Earnscliffe Strategy Group at a cost of $163,821, according to Elections Canada records.

The findings come amid continued declines in traditional television viewership, including at the CBC. According to Numeris, Canada’s broadcast measurement organization, CBC television audiences have fallen for years and trail private-sector broadcasters and several independent outlets.

“All TV networks have been showing downward trends in audiences over the past ten years,” Derrick Gray, Numeris’ chief research officer, told the Senate transport and communications committee in 2024. “The CBC network itself does tend to have a steeper decline in their audiences.”

During the election campaign, Carney pledged to increase CBC’s annual funding by $150 million on top of its roughly $1.4 billion parliamentary appropriation and make the funding statutory.

“Canadians rely on CBC,” Carney told reporters April 4. “By strengthening our public broadcaster we are protecting our identity and our culture and helping it to shine around the world.”

Carney described the CBC as “the most important of Canadian institutions” and said funding reductions would amount to “an attack on our Canadian identity.”