This site is about saving our Canadian heritage by saving the parts of it that are being threatened. Right now, CBC Radio has planned the extermination of Canada’s orchestra, your orchestra. The online petition is for you; a place to be heard and seen, and with any luck, listened to by those who can reverse the decision.
I am a concerned Canadian, a web developer by trade, an arts lover, and amateur clarinet player, who believes that the CBC Radio Orchestra should be saved. The orchestra is the most historically significant orchestra in Canada, the last radio orchestra in North America, with a mandate of performing and supporting Canadian musicians and composers. The ensemble is arguably the most talented, most recorded (32 recordings), and most beloved orchestra in the country. Lots of superlatives, but that is not all. They are a treasure. The orchestra is part of our uniqueness; it is part of what makes Canada “Canada flavoured”. I don’t want my Canada to be watered down by bored bureaucrats tending bar. I want my Canada full strength. This orchestra is that. Its roots reach back to 1938, it is an icon.
CBC Radio ended this orchestra with the stroke of a pen, with no consultation with Canadian taxpayers who fund the CBC, paying the CBC to uphold its mandate of providing and supporting uniquely Canadian programming. What could be more unique than this important ensemble of Canada’s most talented musicians?
If we allow this significant Canadian institution to be dissolved, one day we may be wondering where all the orchestras have gone, where all the dancers, singers, and artists have gone. I don’t want that Canada. If all that is left of Canadian culture is that which is saleable or marketable or easy, we are not in a country, we are in a shopping mall.
Save this orchestra. Its existence is part of what makes this country great.