During recent years, the ownership of the media in Canada has been concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. Today, Canada has the most concentrated ownership of any country in the ‘free world.’ Nearly all of Canada’s newspapers, radio stations, and television networks are owned by a handful of corporate players. The national public broadcasters, the CBC and Radio Canada, are exceptions, but they are fearful of losing funding. The 42 daily newspapers in Canada owned by PostMedia carry syndicated news and columns. We had a golden opportunity when the Canwest empire melted down and the 42 newspapers in its chain were up for sale. Tragically, the trustee in bankruptcy insisted all 42 be sold as a block. It was the perfect time to give some entrepreneur with a commitment to journalism a chance to bring the Kingston Whig-Standard and the London Free Press back to their glory days. The Green Party was the only party to call for the government to dismantle the corporate control of all 42 major dailies, and, in the end, Postmedia picked them up.
A free and diverse range of voices in our national and local media is an essential ingredient to a healthy democracy.
Green Party MPs will:
- Call for an Independent Commission to undertake a comprehensive study of the concentration of media ownership in Canada in comparison to other western countries and recommend how to diversify media ownership and strengthen the depth and breadth of news reporting, especially local news, in Canada.