OTTAWA – Following reports that China may have attempted to interfere in a recent federal election, Canadians of all political stripes are up in arms at the idea that foreign powers would try to influence politics in Canada without first buying Canada’s largest newspaper chain.
“If China wants to affect the outcome of Canada’s elections, they should do it the old fashioned way, by owning a 66% stake in Postmedia,” said political analyst Kirk Dunby. “The idea that a foreign faction might’ve used clandestine means to manipulate Canada is horrific. That kind of thing should be done in the open, in the editorial decisions of a large media monopoly.”
Chatham Asset Management, an American hedge fund with links to the U.S. Republican Party, has owned the majority of Postmedia since 2016. While it’s technically illegal for non-Canadians to control Canadian media properties, it’s not illegal for them to own said properties, centralize editorial oversight, and make deep cuts to spending on local journalism. And Canadians are absolutely fine with that.
“I didn’t even know Americans owned Postmedia, so it’s clearly not a problem,” said Vancouver Sun reader Audrey Harris. “If it were a problem, if foreigners were somehow using their ownership of the majority of Canadian newspapers to tell Canadians who to vote for either by skewing news content or by explicitly endorsing a political party like most newspapers do during every election, that’d be a huge deal. And I’m sure I’d read all about it in the newspaper.”
In a related story, Canadians who are deeply worried about alleged election interference by a foreign power remain strangely calm about the fact that it’s standard practice for large multinational corporations to employ lobbyists to influence MPs every single day.
