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Or sign-in if you have an account.Bulgarian singer Dara performs during a concert in front of National Gallery of Art after winning the Eurovision Song Contest, in Sofia, Bulgaria, on May 19. Photo by Antonin THUILLIER/AFP via Getty ImagesOn Tuesday the Canadian Press carried a wire story (written by NP alumna Anja Karadeglija) about Canada joining the Eurovision Song Contest. You will remember Prime Minister Mark Carney practically quaking with delight on Canada Day when he announced that Canada was going to have a 2027 entry in Eurovision, a camp-glam TV ritual that has launched dozens of music careers and that arguably serves as the continent’s nearest approximation to the Super Bowl. The PM even reached into the past to revive the old advertising slogan, “The world needs more Canada!” Why, it almost seemed as if he was using the occasion to reinforce his new European-facing, middle-powers foreign-policy orientation.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an Accountor(At practically the moment of Carney’s announcement, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the coalition of state broadcasters that operates Eurovision, amended its statutes to incorporate the CBC as a full member of the EBU after 76 years as an associate member. This happened largely without fanfare or fuss in Europe proper.)The National Post newsletter that doesn’t hold back, giving readers the unvarnished truth on media, politics and culture.By signing up, you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Right? will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againKaradeglija’s news story, providing the fruits of a CP freedom-of-information request, focuses on topics that are cherished by NP readers. She observes that the precise costs of Eurovision participation are not known — they vary from country to country and might be as high as C$1.5 million — and reports that the CBC itself is treating its own cost estimate as a secret, because of course it is. I’ve written a few times about the CBC’s truculence over financial information, which is infuriating and incompatible with its public-service mandate. But there’s a bigger issue here.As the CP story points out, Canada’s invasion of Eurovision was heralded in the 2025 federal budget — the same one that boosted the CBC’s budget by $150 million. As someone in the federal Heritage department immediately seems to have pointed out, federal ministers are not supposed to be determining what appears on the CBC, nor making decisions to fund specific CBC programming. To do otherwise would be to trample on the principles of the Broadcasting Act. Moreover, the corporation had studied Eurovision participation before — the EBU has occasionally allowed mere associate members to join the competition — and concluded it was too expensive without “additional funding.”Within a matter of weeks after this careful boundary-drawing, the process was underway for the full absorption of the CBC into the EBU, the CBC’s budget had been fattened and the Liberal prime minister, who is absolutely not supposed to use the CBC as a partisan cat’s-paw, was making our Eurovision participation the subject of a stump speech, one with a crystal-clear symbolic connection to his political program. Maybe he is already having a sequined suit made and practising his guitar chords.I offer this as just one more thing to remember the next time someone at the CBC lectures us about its non-partisan and independent nature. After all, it’s a full member of the European Broadcasting Union now, and one of the official core values of EBU adherents is that they are “completely impartial and independent from political, commercial and other influences and ideologies.”Get more Colby Cosh, subscribe to the NP Platformed newsletter. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.