Quebec TV executive to be named new CBC/Radio-Canada president: sources

A veteran Quebec television executive has been chosen as the new president of CBC/Radio-Canada, sources tell Radio-Canada.

Marie-Philippe Bouchard will soon be named to the top job at Canada’s public broadcaster, the sources said. Le Devoir first reported the news on Tuesday.

Bouchard has been the president and CEO of TV5 Québec Canada since 2016. Before that, she had held several roles at CBC/Radio-Canada since 1987, including a stint as Radio-Canada’s executive director of digital services and music until 2016.

Bouchard will replace Catherine Tait, who was appointed to a five-year term in 2018. Tait is the first woman president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada. In 2023, her mandate was renewed until Jan. 3, 2025.

Bouchard will take over the job at a time of eroding trust in the broadcaster among some Canadians.

Tait told CBC News last week that the company has work to do to rebuild trust among people who have become leery of the public broadcaster and its programming.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed to defund the public broadcaster if elected. Polls suggest Conservative voters are among those most likely to support scrapping the CBC.

“If I could rewind the clock, I would have started the conversation around trust earlier,” Tait said in an interview last week on the sidelines of the Public Broadcasters International (PBI) conference in Ottawa.

“We need Canadians to feel ownership of their public media service. People have become dissociated from us and that’s the work that lies ahead.”