This article originally appeared in The Hub.
By Peter Menzies, May 20, 2025
If not for independent media, Canadians would have no insight whatsoever into the increasing codependence between the nation’s news organizations and the Liberal Party of Canada.
What began as what was billed as a harmless and temporary little tax credit to help major publishers through a period of digital transition has grown so minaciously that major titles are now openly displaying concern for their financial sustainability should the Liberals lose an election.
We know this thanks to a report in Blacklock’s Reporter, which, as with The Hub and a few other holdouts, still refuses out of respect for journalistic integrity traditions to take any benefit from the government.
Blacklock’s reported that last year, according to FP Canadian Newspapers Ltd, the Winnipeg Free Press earned a net income of $2.7 million. The value of its federal subsidy through the Journalism Labour Tax Credit was $2.8 million, up $1 million from the previous year. That improvement to the Free Press’s bottom line was due to the tax credit—which was originally due to expire in 2024—being not only extended but enhanced.
As of last year, the government covers up to $29,750 per employee in newsrooms approved by a cabinet-appointed advisory board. The seven members of that board, including retired Free Press publisher Bob Cox, decide which news producers meet the standards required to be a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization. Cox is worth a mention as he was chair of News Media Canada when it first pitched the idea of a temporary tax credit to Justin Trudeau’s government.
It was Cox who famously told the House of Commons Finance Committee that “I see this as a transition program and temporary help. I don’t like the idea of a long-term subsidy for newspapers that becomes permanent.”
I’m guessing he’s liking it now, along with the Local Journalism Initiative—another “temporary” program from which the Free Press has benefited and which has been doubled in size and extended in longevity. Cox, by the way, is also returning officer for the federal riding of Winnipeg North, handily won for the sixth time on April 28 by Liberal Kevin Lamoureux.
If Cox has any Free Press shares, he would have read the report to shareholders warning that “uncertainty of the political landscape continues to impact the newspaper industry” and “there can be no assurance the amounts accrued will continue to be available to us in the future or will not be reduced, changed or eliminated.” Should the subsidy regime be diminished or cancelled—moves to which Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives appeared inclined—shareholders were warned of an “adverse effect on our business.”
Sensibly and professionally, no political parties or personalities were named, although it was difficult not to note the similarity between Liberal slogans and the merchandise the Free Press is using to reward new subscribers. Coffee cups and stickers labeled “Canada Proud” and “Manitoba Strong” were offered, and readers urged to “Get your Elbows Up and Your Hands on Some Manitoba-made art.”
The Free Press, as with all publishers, should be at liberty to be whatever it wants to be. If it wants to be a Liberal paper, which it is considered to be, and that’s what its shareholders want from it, then God bless them. Ditto for the Toronto Sun and any others that want to skew their content to attract readers who prefer to see the world through a Conservative lens. Or those who appeal to NDP supporters, etc. This is the very essence of a free press—you get to be what you want to be without coercion by or permission from the government.
Decisions regarding content and editorial preference have to be ones that are made—and are seen to be made—freely. That notion is, to put it gently, challenged by the fact that FP Canadian Newspapers Inc. has to point out to shareholders that it would cease to be profitable should a government other than the one in power be formed. It isn’t quite a formal declaration of permanent conflict of interest, but it’s as close as we’re probably ever going to get to one.
The “temporary” assistance Cox was asking for has become permanent, which raises another challenge for those who have chosen to engage in this dreadful, codependent relationship. When the Free Press and others stood on their own two feet, those who didn’t share its editorial inclinations—mostly Conservatives—could choose to support it financially, or not. But now, regardless of their wishes, they are propping it up through their tax dollars.
The same goes for Liberals in Toronto who may feel chagrined that their champions and their tax dollars are ensuring the endurance of the National Post and its potpourri of what I expect they view as cranky conservative thinkers.
As with the CBC, we are all now shareholders in the Winnipeg Free Press, National Observer, Toronto Sun, etc. That should lead to pressure on those subsidized to serve all of our interests and not just the ones their shareholders approve.
But for that to happen, the public would need to know what’s going on. And that won’t be possible unless independent, principled media can find ways to survive against their subsidized competition. More on this in the weeks ahead.
Peter Menzies is a commentator and consultant on media, a Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow, a past publisher of the Calgary Herald, and a former vice chair of the CRTC
