Quick links
Mother Corp.
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Spelling variants:Mother Corp, Holy Mother Corp., Mother Corporation
n. — Entertainment, informal, somewhat jocular
a nickname for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — Mother corporation is used elsewhere to refer to a parent company. In Canada, the term refers to the dominant, and to nationalists, almost sacred role that the CBC plays in Canadian cultural life. Mother Corp. was reportedly coined by Vancouver Sun journalist Allan Fotheringham (see the 2011 quotation). The term is most frequent in Canada (see Chart 1).
See also COD-2, s.v. "Mother Corp.", which is marked "Cdn".
See also COD-2, s.v. "Mother Corp.", which is marked "Cdn".
The abbreviation Mother Corp. is used more frequently in print than Mother Corporation.
Quotations
1973
Epstein deals only with the American system but most of his observations apply equally to the Canadian. In fact, for a graduate of the CBC, it is almost amusing to realize that situations which one had thought were unique idiocies of Holy Mother Corporation, are in fact built into the system.
1985
Quite apart from the boost it would give to Canadian television production, this would give independent producers the chance to show whether, given the resources, they can produce programs of superior quality more efficiently than the Mother Corp.
1996
Had she been a bird, Barbara would not have been an eagle circling her domain with solitary grace. She would have been more like a splendid Canada goose, flying in formation with her flock to the feeding grounds which, of course, were on the left, and nowhere more so than at the CBC. In those days anyone at the Mother Corp who would draw the line at becoming an agent of influence for the Soviet Union would have been regarded as a middle-of-the-roader. Any notion of Barbara taking public stances similar to her son's would have been fatuous.
2005
The 47-year-old, Cape Breton-born comic says he first pitched the idea to CBC in May of this year. "When I pitched the idea to the Mother Corp., I said, 'look, I just figure it's my duty to do whatever I can to keep the West from walkin'.' "
2011
Following graduation, Fotheringham got a job with the Vancouver Sun, beginning a path that would see him become an ever-present figure in media for years. He used wit and wordplay in his columns, and the names he gave his targets became part of the national dictionary. Vancouver became “Lotusland,” the CBC became the “Mother Corp,” and the Liberals became “the Natural Governing Party.”
2013
On Tuesday, Mother Corp. unveiled an undercover, squat-in-the-store-aisle-while-speaking-into-the-secret-camera investigation into the presence of a minuscule amount of expired baby formula on a couple of Vancouver supermarket shelves.
2016
The Mother Corp. should not be continually boosting its output of "free" digital media in competition with print, radio, and television outlets. In exchange for its state funds, the CBC's mandate should be limited to programs and initiatives of public value that the market cannot serve, whatever those might be.
References
- COD-2
Images
