Dear Jim,

Whopper is the name of a 30-second radio ad FRIENDS will run repeatedly in swing ridings nationwide with your help.

As its name implies, this ad will help us to underscore the duplicitous and hostile agenda of the Harper Conservatives when it comes to our CBC.

The actual words of Joyce Bateman, the Conservative MP from Winnipeg South Centre, who was caught trying to persuade a constituent that the Harper gang has NOT cut the CBC, are featured in the ad!

This is an important opportunity to remind Canadians of the damage Stephen Harper has done our national public broadcaster.

But we need to raise $50,000 to put Whopper on the air.

If we can raise the funds necessary to put it into action, our plan is to place this ad on radio stations in swing riding cities from Saint John to Vancouver. The political party that wins most of these seats will form the next government, so these ads will be highly visible to the political leaders and to the voters they are trying very hard to reach.

Joyce Bateman’s denial of the facts will only serve to focus public attention on the truth.

Please help us drive this message home!

Yours sincerely,

Ian Morrison
Spokesperson
FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting

P.S. Please circulate this message to your friends and networks.

P.P.S.  Here is a chart that shows the purchasing power in current 2014 dollars of the federal government’s annual grant to the CBC since 1990.

You can view a larger version of this graph here.

P.P.P.S. The Bateman recording is from a voicemail she left for a constituent who has given FRIENDS permission to use it. You can listen to the full recording here.