The National is the nightly flagship news and current affairs daily program of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's public broadcaster. It is a 60-minute program. The main broadcast time is weeknights at 10 PM, local time. CBC Newsworld also broadcasts The National, at various times starting at 9:00 p.m. ET

Depending on the day's news, the usual programming pattern is a 25-minute newscast of stories and headlines, followed by documentaries, features and topical interviews. Peter Mansbridge is the anchor. Brian Stewart and Alison Smith host when Peter's away, and also present many of the longer form reports.

The National has won many awards over the years. But The National is far from perfect, and that's why we need you to help us to determine what works, what doesn't and how can we make it better. For your background, please read our Mission Statement and Objectives which outlines the overall goals of The National.

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of The National is to be indispensable to Canadians by providing them with information they need to understand and control the major changes influencing their lives.

SIX PRIORITY OBJECTIVES

1. To build on our ability to shape every program so that it goes beyond and behind the headlines. In News, this will be done by ensuring our daily coverage provides viewers with enterprise journalism, context, analysis and a standard of excellence they will not get elsewhere. In the Magazine, this will be achieved through the work of a vigorous 'SWAT' team that emphasizes quick-response field stories and analytical tape-and-talk segments.

2. To break 'news' more often throughout the hour by aggressive news and current affairs reporting, and a commitment to topical investigative journalism and controversial, challenging programming.

3. To help ensure that Canadian institutions and public officials are held accountable for their actions. This will be done, in part, through sharp public policy interviews and hard-edged reportage that help Canadians understand how power is exercised in this country, how their society works and what choices they have as citizens.

4. To continue to reinforce, as a central trademark of the program, provocative high-quality documentary reportage of the social, political and cultural life of Canada.

5. To present, on a more regular basis, programming that helps Canadians understand the range of approaches, solutions and options being explored both in Canada and around the world to grapple with the issues of our time. This will be done, in part, by more frequent special reports in News and extended pieces from our foreign and domestic bureaus, and by broadening the expressions of views throughout The National 'hour' to better reflect the diversity of Canada.

6. To increase The National's viewing audience by making the program consistently compelling and engaging to Canadians.

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