Commentary
Marie-Philippe Bouchard is by all accounts a talented, intelligent woman with a great track record within the Francophone public television world.
It is sincerely hoped that she experiences every personal success as the newly appointed president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Société Radio-Canada (SRC). Her five-year term begins Jan. 1, 2025, and I really hope she enjoys her first days and weeks in the job because once those are over, it’s going to get really tough.
The challenges are many.
The first of those is that all of Bouchard’s experience is within the Francophone television world, primarily at SRC and more recently as CEO of TV. SRC isn’t exactly free of criticism. There are those, for instance, who believe there are far too many folks within its newsrooms with separatist sympathies. Private news organizations aren’t happy that it competes for online and television advertising revenue, and Francophones outside and even within Quebec complain about its focus on all things Montreal….