As a television critic, it pains me to say that the most important role the media plays in a democracy is not to determine whether Young Sheldon is better than The Crown. (It is not, but hopefully I didn’t have to tell you that.)The most significant role that we can provide on a daily basis comes from the folks in our City Hall, Queen’s Park and Ottawa bureaus, who give readers informed voting choices and ultimately hold political power to account.So what do you make of the CBC deciding not to provide live television coverage of the municipal elections being held across Ontario on Oct. 22? Instead, new episodes of Murdoch Mysteries and Frankie Drake Mysteries will take precedence over informing citizens who their new civic leaders will be.Now, I have nothing against Murdoch Mysteries, the CBC’s most-watched drama, which averages more than a million viewers per episode this season. And I can already imagine CBC brass hotly debating whether to pull Monday’s show.If it were a choice between watching the brilliant detective Murdoch impersonate a French diplomat with a fake accent and goatee in Monday’s sexily titled new episode, “The Spy Who Loved Murdoch,” versus the high probability of listening to Toronto Mayor John Tory deliver a predictable victory speech, I know what most people would likely choose.The problem is, CBC is our public broadcaster. We pay for it. If they don’t have a mandate to inform us, who does?For that, you can turn to CTV, Canada’s largest private broadcaster, which is dedicating an hour in its Monday lineup for live coverage in Toronto and Ottawa, starting at 8 p.m. when polls close. Even Hamilton-based CHCH will devote an hour to the Ontario vote at 10 p.m. In the past, the CBC has argued that it’s worth the billion dollars it receives from taxpayers annually because it serves the public interest. Its priorities were attuned to the needs of an informed electorate, rather than winni ...
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