OTTAWA – The federal government is working on a project that would map out areas of Canada that lack local news coverage.
“Canadian Heritage has recently engaged a team of independent industry experts to develop a local news directory — a multi-phase, multi-year project that will ultimately measure the extent and spread of news deserts and areas of news poverty in Canada,” the department said in a December memo to the culture minister.
Location scouting for paid media?
The CBC can be forgiven for breathing a prolonged sigh of relief. After Mark Carney’s Liberals won the 2025 election, the federal government increased CBC’s budget by $150 million, in part to help “combat disinformation.” Given that the Liberals secured a majority in 2026 amid the Conservatives’ struggles in the polls, the threat of a defunded CBC now seems remote.
Aside from a few missteps—most notably an aborted CBC-funded prank show that sought to publicly humiliate retired RCMP officers—the public broadcaster has generated relatively few headlines of its own over the last year. As other newsrooms shutter, the Mother Corp lumbers on, content to rest on its laurels.
The results of an Abacus Data survey have again revealed which generations are keeping the rotten Liberal Party popular and in power. It’s the baby boomers and the silent generation, of course.
The new survey, released on Sunday, showed that “(a)mong Canadians aged 60 and over, the Liberals lead the Conservatives by 20 points, 52 per cent to 32 per cent.” Only one or two percentage points divide the Liberal/Conservative preference (measured as vote intention) among all other age groups, meaning that without the Boomers and their elders, our red and blue parties would be neck-and-neck in the polls.
The CBC has learned nothing since it stood on the precipice and stared down its annihilation at the hands of a Conservative government.
Last month, Pollara released its annual Trust in Media survey, revealing the CBC’s net trust score among Conservative voters is now just +9, compared to +78 among Liberal voters—the widest trust gap of any Canadian outlet. Conservative trust dropped 13 points in just three years.
CBC as Canada’s federally appointed fact-checker? That sounds less like journalism and more like turning the state broadcaster into an information gatekeeper for the governing party.
OTTAWA — Veteran political journalist Robert Fife has acknowledged that Conservatives face an unfair media bias in Ottawa, describing the problem as longstanding.
Fife made the admission during an interview with independent podcast host Aaron Pete on Nuanced.
“You may be right in the sense that there is an unfair bias against the Conservatives in Ottawa,” Fife said. “I think that’s probably true, and it’s always been the case, generally speaking.”
May be right?
Remarks by Premier Doug Ford at his annual summer bash, Ford Fest, were drowned out Friday evening by an eruption of booing, blowing whistles and chanting from protesters making plain their grievances over a host of issues.
People dressed in purple OPSEU shirts, bearing the slogan “Worth Fighting For” which was also their chant, were peppered among a sea of Ford Nation supporters in the half-hour leading up to the premier’s appearance that the master of ceremonies kept referring to as “the big event” throughout the evening at Thomson Memorial Park in Scarborough.
OTTAWA — The head of the union representing RCMP members is seeking answers for how a CBC-related production was approved that targeted retired Mounties under the pretence of being celebrated for their service, but which ultimately turned out to be a prank.
Brian Sauve, president of the National Police Federation, which represents roughly 20,000 current and former RCMP members, says he was recently contacted by a retired member who recounted having been approached by the program, saying he knows of others who were as well.
This was a calculated political smear job to promote extreme-left agendas.
On a topic that literally lends itself to satire — the continuing failure of successive federal governments to improve the lives of Canada’s Indigenous people no matter how much taxpayer money they throw at the problem — the CBC and APTN entertainment divisions chickened out.
A retired RCMP officer who says he was tricked into appearing on a CBC prank show has provided a full account of his experience, describing how he was made to partake in a sort of humiliation ritual in which former police were subject to allegations of mistreatment of Indigenous peoples.
In an hour-long video posted to his personal channel, a YouTuber under the name Clinton Jaws, a nearly 40-year RCMP veteran, said he and other former officers were invited to attend a Vancouver event that was hosted by a production company funded by the broadcaster, which organizers reportedly said would be attended by Prince William.
Worried about the impact on the news brand, CBC is pausing production of a “satirical” show that appears to have been attacking conservatives and Canadian institutions. Called Northland Tales, the show is being co-produced by CBC and APTN, though a statement from CBC went to great lengths to stress that it was CBC Entertainment and not CBC News behind the production.
Prime Minister Mark Carney stood before the cameras on May 3, 2026 – World Press Freedom Day – and had this to say: “Journalism empowers us with truth and protects our democracy.”
Also, “We must protect what it means to be Canadian.”
And, “In a sea of foreign media and disinformation, we need Canadian voices more than ever.”
CALGARY — Questions are being asked about taxpayer-funded activism and media ethics after former Mount Royal University professor Dr. Frances Widdowson and author Lindsay Shepherd alleged they were specifically targeted in an elaborate prank operation.
Staff inside Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Privy Council Office took part in a confidential federal meeting to discuss which reporters should receive government accreditation and which could be denied access, according to Access To Information records released this week.
Blacklock’s Reporter says the March 10 meeting, involving officials from the Privy Council Office, Global Affairs Canada, Treasury Board, Canada Revenue Agency and the immigration department, focused on creating a more unified federal media accreditation system amid growing concerns over independent journalism and alternative media outlets.
In an era when objective truth is a nice-to-have and the bar for politicians is in the depths of hell, it’s helpful to have someone like Rosemary Barton in the mix. For more than two decades, Barton, currently the CBC’s chief political correspondent, has chatted with, fact-checked and, when the occasion merits it, borderline interrogated the country’s most consequential public figures. Lately, thanks to some unusually exciting policy shifts under our refreshingly boring new prime minister, Canada’s newsmakers are commanding global headlines. But first, they’ll probably pop up on Rosemary Barton Live.
Government bought media giving a tongue bath to government bought media.
Careful as spittle may leak through your screen.
