CBC Should Reality Check PEI Election Promises

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

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No one is fact checking PEI election promises which swing wildly from $18 to $58 million

By Stephen Pate – The PEI Liberals have promised $58 million in election spending before the May 4th, 2015 election.  The PEI Progressive Conservatives have issued a statement that their election goodies will cost $18 million.

What Islanders need to get is a sense of confidence that those numbers are realistic.

During Federal elections, CBC News ran a series of “reality check” stories to fact check promises made.  In Nova Scotia CBC News published “reality check” stories on election promises.

Since the Guardian story that the Liberals were spending $28 million on April 25th, Premier Wade MacLauchlan said the number was actually $58 million. Will anyone investigate and explain the difference?

While the public deserve to know the facts before they vote, CBC Charlottetown is not doing their job. CBC Charlottetown has done little more than re-printing government and opposition press releases for years.

Our publicly funded broadcaster has 36 registered journalists in the PEI Press Gallery. None of them are assigned to investigative journalism. Any CBC Charlottetown journalist who attempts to dig deep on a story has gotten their knuckles rapped.

Frustration with the management of CBC News in Charlottetown is the prime reason Senior political reporter John Jeffery resigned this year. Each time Jeffery got a great story to report, Executive Producer Donna Allen cancelled the reporting.

The Guardian lacks anything close to the newsroom depth of journalists the public funds at the CBC. It is perhaps excusable that the lone political reporter does not have the resources to investigate election promises.

Featured image – The four P.E.I. party leaders outlined how much they think it will cost to deliver their campaign promises. (CBC)

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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network