See, she is from BC...or some other part of Western Canada

Picture your ordinary Terminal B bar in Boston. Picture two old friends - one who now lives in Boston (R - Back Bay Cat Lady) and the other who is comfortably secure at home in Ottawa (L - Middle of the Road) who have spent the weekend together watching sports and shooting the shit. Picture game seven of the Bruins/Habs playoff series - in a bar in Boston, where almost everyone in the bar is from Canada.

I noticed the thin man when he sat down next to my friend and I. He looked kind of familiar, but only in that "Ottawa is the smallest town in the world" kind of way. Airport Bar, Air Canada terminal - he probably lives in my building...As my friend and I talked about people neither of us talked to anymore, but remembered fondly from one point in time. Who is working for what cabinet minister where now? Whose husband is doing her job while running his own lobby firm? Who still hasn't graduated? Who finally stopped dating her cousin? Who is trying to Elect Ron Paul?

You have all had this conversation. He watched somewhat quizzically, because - to be fair- he had no choice. We are pretty loud, and the television was on mute. A few times, one of us would say something just to goad the other - offensive perhaps, but funny nevertheless, and you could see him turn and start to say something, only to stop himself, and return to his blackberry and Beer/sprite combo.

As the game was about to begin - being the true patriot that I am- I wondered aloud if they could get the CBC. I missed Ron & Don, and really wanted to hear what Mr. Cherry had to say about the this particular game knowing just how OPEN MINDED HE IS!* I asked my friend if she could even get the CBC on her ridiculous 476 channel cable package. Without wondering why I was asking, she just exploded:

"I Hate the CBC!" implying, of course, that even if she could get it, she wouldn't.

Before I could even ask about Ron and Don - the thin man interrupted and said "what a terrible thing to say! How can you hate the CBC?" He said it in an earnest, believable tone - implying that he cared about our god-beloved national broadcaster (*no bias in my reporting of the facts, ma'am). Before she could answer, he slammed down his hat which proudly and prominently carried the corporation's logo.

My friend is no coward- and she rose to the challenge like the Trudeau hating, human rights lamenting, Alberta gets screwed every time the federal government does anything, unless it is saving the mad cow farmers, fire breathing emigrant that she is. She lamented the central bias of the broadcaster. It's liberal bias of course (she is a fire breathing reformer turned Red State republican in the bluest city in the East, after all)- and the fact that the state shouldn't be running the sitcoms of the nation - blah blah blah.

Our views are coloured only by being right. Even when we aren't.

Earlier in the conversation, before the intervention, I distinctly remember her lambasting the CBC's coverage of the 2006 Canadian Election - knowing that most of it focused on Ontario and Quebec. Far be it for me to editorialize, but that was WHERE THE STORY WAS! No one was shocked that the Tories won all of the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta ridings. I don't call that central bias- I call that reporting the "news." Tories win, even in Quebec! the headline read. But she complained, oh yes she did, wanting more coverage of Art Hanger carrying his riding with 92% of the vote. I rolled my eyes and watched the game.

Unfazed, our skinny man absorbed the criticism, and politely said that the corporation provided a valuable service - with which I whole-heartily agreed. God bless the CBC, is my motto. Moderately changing the subject matter - I asked him if he worked for the corporation, sensing that he probably did.

"I do. I am its President and CEO," he said with a stoic look that I couldn't possibly ever emulate because by the time he said "e" in CEO I was raucously laughing to the point that my belly actually hurt. My friend, however, turned a very pale shade of white - which for her is remarkable because I wasn't sure she could have gotten much paler.

Finally calming down, we continued to engage in idle chit chat about the profitability of the broadcaster in the event that Montreal lost tonight's game. His candid view on its future advertising revenues if the Habs (and the flames) lost was very refreshing to hear from the president of a Crown Corporation. I guess revenue matters after all. Moreover, he regailed us with interesting ways to get the CBC while abroad. Tax payers, and all that, right?

Every two or three minutes I would have that "pee in your pants" giggle remembering her face and his flawless delivery. This man should be ON TV, not running it.

On his way out of the bar, he turned back to her and hoped her views change. Knowing her, they won't because she will never take the time to ever watch the CBC again. Until the next election when the story will STILL be about Ontario and Quebec.

*the irony of what way he is biased isn't lost on anyone, I hope.