Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed to “depoliticize” news media financing, defund the CBC, roll back federal handouts to legacy media and allow independent media into the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
In an interview with Candice Malcolm, founder of True North and co-founder of a new independent media outlet, Juno News, Poilievre laid out his plan for addressing the heavily subsidized Canadian media landscape.
Poilievre told Malcolm he still expects the Liberals to call an early election despite NDP leader Jagmeet Singh hinting towards a reversal of his promise to vote for an early election at the earliest opportunity.
He said the Conservatives are ready for an election but that Mark Carney, who he expects will win the Liberal leadership contest set to conclude on Mar. 9, will want to call an election “during a honeymoon” and for the legacy media to “protect him from any kind of tough questions or scrutiny.”
“I think it is important we do get a quick election,” Poilievre said in the interview. “But let’s not be mistaken. The real reason why Carney wants that is to avoid any scrutiny and to have the liberal establishment, the liberal media, basically rubber-stamp him as Prime Minister.”
He said the state financing legacy media leads to an inherent bias for outlets accepting taxpayer money, a bias against himself and the Conservative Party, which openly advocate having those funds stripped or reduced.
“The traditional mainstream media has always been totally Liberal. I mean, there are a few exceptions, but by and large, they will just regurgitate whatever the Carney-Trudeau Liberals say,” Poilievre said. “In all of the last six or seven elections, they have campaigned almost openly for the Liberals. So, I would not expect it to be any different this time.”
He said he is going to be cutting back on Trudeau’s $600-million newspaper fund that Trudeau gave to legacy media, but said Canadians will have to wait for the Conservative platform to get the details.
“We have to depoliticize news media finance. Because right now, what happens is that there are subsidies that go to favoured media outlets that CRA designates, and then there’s not funding for others,” he said. “Of course, the worst example is CBC, which gets this enormous subsidy to do largely what Canadians can get elsewhere. Canadians can get digital media, video, graphical media anywhere else, and yet they’re paying a billion plus dollars for CBC to do that.”
While renewing his call to cut government handouts to media and defund the CBC, Poilievre emphasized the importance of an “independent, self-supporting media” that can keep Canadians informed without conflict of interest.
He said independent media should also be allowed to cover events and press conferences on Parliament Hill, something that is currently self-regulated by legacy media who dominate the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.
“There’s no reason why it should be a small cabal of government-approved mouthpieces. It is highly undemocratic. I’ve always believed that, and it’s made particularly difficult for me because it means that only when I go and hold a press conference, it’s just liberal media who are there to attend,” he said.
A look at the members of the press gallery reveals the dominance of big, legacy media like CBC, Global News, and The Globe And Mail, but scarcely any independent Canadian outlets.
Poilievre said that he would love to see a scenario where “every different kind of journalist from all backgrounds, of all opinions” is given a chance to report on what happens on the hill.