Political geeks — er, make that “civic-minded Canadians” — have a new resource to while away the hours between poring over riding boundaries and poll-by-poll results.
CPAC, the Canadian Public Affairs Channel, is now offering some of its programming in podcast form.
Hard-core masochists will want to subscribe immediately to a daily dose of vitriol with Question Period. Mercifully, CPAC also has kinder, gentler podcasts: Revue Politique (subscription link) and PrimeTime Politics (subscription link).
But most of the programming remains offline, including — on the English side — PrimeTime Politics Weekend, Talk Politics (it’s been about 20 years since I last heard Ken Rockburn’s voice in my headphones, and I’d love to again), Goldhawk Live, Outburst, Sunday Sound Off and CPAC’s various specials. And so far, there’s no sign of CPAC’s feeds on either iTunes’ or Yahoo’s podcast listings — each of which would offer easy, one-click subscription options.
That aside, it’s a promising start. I’ve asked the fine folks at CPAC about those questions and what we can expect in the future, and I’ll share whatever response I get.
Meanwhile, CPAC might want to have a look at what Doug Kaye and the IT Conversations folks are up to — either as a potential partnership or as a model. CPAC could be a perfect home for my Civic Conversations idea.
(Incidentally, why doesn’t the Gomery Commission and similar inquiries make their proceedings available by podcast? They’re already going to the considerable expense of transcribing and translating them.)
