Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and CBC CEO Catherine Tait are trading barbs about the continued relevance of the CBC. Among its fans, and even some foes, there’s much hand-wringing about Poilievre’s threat to shut down the English-language arm of the public broadcaster.

“I think the Conservative party has a lot of very valid criticisms of the CBC as it now stands,” nods the soft-spoken media stalwart Kenneth Whyte in a recent conversation. “And there are many more criticisms that you could make of the CBC beyond Pierre Poilievre’s concerns, which are mostly ideological.”