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TORONTO - The head of Quebecor Media's nascent Sun TV News channel unveiled his long-awaited vision for the proposed all-news network Tuesday in much the same way he hopes to run it: with plenty of punchy quips intended to rile opponents and rev up its audience.

"Our aim is not to bore people to death," quipped Quebecor vice-president Kory Teneycke as he fired a good-natured broadside at Canada's public broadcaster, long a popular target for Canadian conservatives.

"We'll leave that to the CBC."

Pending the approval of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the new channel will launch in January, said Pierre Karl Peladeau, CEO of Sun TV parent Quebecor Media Inc. (TSX:QBR.A).

Tuesday's announcement ended months of speculation and anticipation in Ottawa about Quebecor's plans -- informally dubbed "Fox News North" by observers in the nation's capital.

Teneycke, a former spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said Sun TV News would be "controversially Canadian" and "unapologetically patriotic," and would offer raw debate that he said is currently missing from Canada's mainstream media.

"We're taking on smug, condescending, often irrelevant journalism," Teneycke said. "We're taking on political correctness."

While reports have suggested the new network would be aimed at conservative viewers in an effort to match the popularity and commercial success of conservative radio and TV in the United States, Quebecor executives played down talk of any overt right-wing agenda.

Peladeau also refused to comment on reports that he had met with Harper to discuss the network.

"I am accountable to my shareholders and only to my shareholders," Peladeau said. "We thought there would be a void in this specific business market and that's why we're here."

Peladeau met with Harper twice early in 2009, a registry of lobbyist activity in Ottawa indicates, and also made the rounds among some senior cabinet ministers, including Jim Flaherty, Tony Clement and James Moore.

By August of that year, Teneycke had left the PMO; in September, his three-month contract with Quebecor became public knowledge.

Paul Knox, chairman of Toronto's Ryerson School of Journalism, said he would welcome another opinion becoming available to Canadians. But he said viewers will want assurances that Sun TV News isn't an attempt by the Conservative government to impose itself on the mainstream media.

"If this goes ahead, many people will be watching to see whether access to information and to government officials and to all the things that happen in a media-government relationship is handled equitably or preferentially."

While it's relatively easy and cheap to host a "parade of opinionated columnists," news gathering is more difficult, Knox added.

Teneycke said the goal for Sun TV News would be to lure viewers away from "boring" and "politically correct" competitors. But neither he nor Peladeau ever uttered the words "conservative" or "right wing."

"One of the features that I think causes many Canadians to tune out of the political debate on current Canadian all-news channels is it's play fighting, it's not real, it avoids controversy for the sake of political correctness," Teneycke said.

"It is too often marked by... commentators who file all the edge off the discussion, being agreeable for the sake of being agreeable, not because there isn't a debate there to be had."

Quebecor offered few details about how the news operations would be run, including how it planned to gather video coverage of news from across the country. Unlike all-news offerings from CBC and CTV, Sun News doesn't have a cabal of local stations to rely on for content.

It does however, own a successful French-language news channel in Quebec, and the Sun TV station in Toronto, which it plans to use as the starting basis for its network.

Quebecor's application to the CRTC proposes converting its current Toronto television licence into one for Sun TV News, which would be a collaboration between Quebecor's TVA Group and Sun Media Corp. units.

Peladeau would not confirm reports that Quebecor is applying for a so-called first-tier designation, which -- if granted --would mean cable TV subscribers across Canada would get the channel whether they wanted it or not.

Christopher Waddell, a business journalism professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, wondered how -- without a costly cross-Canada network of news bureaus -- Sun TV News can avoid being anything but a collection of talking heads.

"It's hard to be a news network if you don't have any pictures," he said.

"The comparison is made to Fox in the United States, but even Fox ... has an over-the-air network because there are local Fox stations in lots of cities across the U.S."

Nor is Canada's all-news market very big, Waddell warned. The two main players, CBC News Network and Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel, each attract just one per cent of overall viewers. They generate much of their revenue from cable subscribers, who get the channels as part of a first-tier subscription package.

Such an arrangement can be a "tough sell" for consumers who don't like to pay for things they might not want, Waddell said.

Heritage Minister James Moore said Tuesday his department prefers not to impose any new costs on cable subscribers.

"Our position with the CRTC in general is always to find the best position that is in the best interest of consumers. So with a diversity of content, but also to not punish subscribers with new costs."

There were no potential on-air personalities present at Tuesday's news conference, but Teneycke said Sun TV News has approached a number of "well-known" personalities, including journalists and others, though he wouldn't name names.

Among the names being bandied about are former Canwest correspondent David Akin and Brian Lilley, former Ottawa bureau chief for Astral Media Radio, Canada's largest private radio broadcaster. Recently departed CBC reporter Krista Erickson has also been touted as a possible recruit.

In a direct shot at CBC, Teneycke said Sun TV News would "not be a state broadcaster offering boring news, by bureaucrats, for elites and paid for by taxpayers."

"Canadian TV news today is narrow, complacent, and politically correct," he said, promising his network would be "different," with hard news reporting during the day and "straight talk" opinion at night.

He said that mix is a proven formula for commercial success. Quebecor said its French-language all-news service LCN said it saw rating more than triple after it moved to the format.

Its hard news aspect will rely almost exclusively on live reporting and real-time conversations with journalists covering events, which will differ from the traditional format of revolving headlines and news stories.

Teneycke said Sun TV News will also analyze and cover a range of stories that matter to both urban and rural Canadians, while its talk segment will feature hosts that deliver strong opinions and "challenge viewers to think and decide for themselves."

The channel will converge with Quebecor's other media operations, including its chain of Sun newspapers, its canoe.ca web sites, cable TV provider Videotron and French-language TV network TVA.

Peladeau said the new network would create some jobs, but stressed the company is relying on a convergence model, in which its journalists file print and web stories, as well as shoot video.

He did not indicate how much Quebecor would invest in the news operations, saying only that it would invest enough to make the business profitable.