10 years ago, a man predicted what CBCNews.ca would look like today — and it's eerily close
CBCNews.ca turns 20 years old on July 3, 2016
In 2006, on the 10th anniversary of CBCNews.ca, we asked our audience to predict the future. We wondered what our website might look like on July 3, 2016.
"Who will be in the news? What issues will be making headlines? What programming will be on CBC that day?" we asked.
We received dozens of entries to our contest, and a panel of judges selected their favourite.
Our winner, Michael Chard of Toronto, came eerily close with his predictions, considering how long ago it was.
This is what our website would look like today if his predictions came true:
Chard correctly predicted that the 2016 Summer Olympics would be held in the Southern Hemisphere, although he had them in South Africa, not Brazil.
Chard was also right when he wrote that Jeb Bush would be a Republican candidate for U.S. president in 2016. Who could have predicted then, though, that by July he would have been eclipsed by Donald Trump?
In business news, Chard predicted that Tim Hortons would expand in the Middle East (correct) with its 100th location in Afghanistan (not so much). He also followed Canada's bank mergers to their ultimate conclusion with their conglomeration into a single company.
The New Horizons mission to Pluto was launched in January 2006. Perhaps Chard knew about this. His contest entry included a story about new evidence of "hot spots" on the dwarf planet.
And among his safer bets, Chard predicted that Toronto subway expansion would be mired in delay, that the Maple Leafs would be in rebuilding mode and that the auditor general would rail against government waste.
What do you think the next 10 years hold for CBC.ca? What will the news look like in 2026? Will it still be presented on a website or will it be on some totally new medium?
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Correction:
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that a prediction that the 2016 Olympics would be the first held in the Southern Hemisphere was accurate. In fact, there have been previous Olympic Games in the Southern Hemisphere.