Recently, the CBC Radio program Ideas ran a full hour interview with Washington Post columnist and author Anne Applebaum. Her new book, Iron Curtain, ...

Bob Johnstone, one of Canada's great storytellers, has died. Bob was big in everything he did. Big man, big voice, big heart, big soul, big appetite. One of the great interviewers in all Canada. I shall miss him.

Over these past twelve years, MacInnes-Rae has proved with Dispatches that the ancient art of storytelling didn't die with Seven Days. And that for broadcasters, traditional storytelling is still by far the best, most efficient and effective way to pass on information, one person to another.

Canada is a funny place, and I mean "funny - ha ha." We may not love to laugh any more than anyone else, but I think we may laugh more. Canadians are funny and they like funny. It's how we see ourselves and how others see us. To the U.S., Canadians were either hockey players or funny guys. Eventually, Americans and Europeans played hockey, but Canadians remain the comedy Kings and Queens.

I went to the Toronto Star's vapid "Whither the CBC" discussion this week. Apparently, the corporation's enemies are right-wing conservatives who ask "Why should CBC get more than $1-billion a year in public money?" Unfortunately, in 2012, it's a valid question, not entirely based on politics and/or greed.