U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on Canada’s economy and sovereignty have changed the nature of our bilateral relationship. You can feel it when the crowd joins in the singing of O Canada at Rogers Place when the Edmonton Oilers play, and you can see it in the grocery aisle when a customer picks Hawkins Cheezies over Cheetos.
For many years, the federal government has recognized the importance of “Buy Canadian,” but it tends to be somewhat limited to strategic industries like shipbuilding: Irving in Halifax, Seaspan in Vancouver, and Davie in Lévis. Trump’s threats are a clear and present reminder why our domestic shipbuilding capacity is critically important not just for job creation, innovation and technological advancement and economic growth — especially in coastal regions — but for safeguarding our sovereignty.
For generations — all the way back to the founding of the Halifax Gazette in 1752 — government advertising had been an important source of revenue for news businesses. In recent years, this has waned considerably. For example, the federal government reports that during fiscal year 2022 to 2023, it spent more than $86 million on advertising. Of that, less than $1 million went to all print publications in the country combined. Where did the money go?
Largely to American tech giants like Google, Facebook/Instagram, Snapchat, Apple and X.
One of the most effective ways to sustain independent Canadian journalism would be for the government of Canada to set aside a minimum of 25 percent of its domestic advertising spend for trusted Canadian news brands.
This is working in other jurisdictions and across the political spectrum.
A year ago, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative premier, Doug Ford, directed that 25 percent of his government’s advertising spending would be set aside for news publications. This made an immediate and meaningful difference to many news titles.
Five years ago, former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, mandated that city agencies allocate at least 50 percent of their print and digital advertising to community and ethnic media. According to The Center for Community Media at CUNY, “The impact of this policy cannot be overstated: In its first five years, it injected more than $72 million into the local community media sector. This helped critical information reach New Yorkers who rely on community media as their primary source of news, and added an important source of revenue for these outlets.”
The not-for-profit Rebuild Local News found that advertising set-asides, done right, have the following benefits:
Beyond providing an effective way for the government to reach the 81 percent of Canadians who read newspaper content in a brand safe manner, a federal set-aside would send an important signal to other orders of government and to the private sector about protecting Canada’s digital sovereignty and sustaining independent commercially viable public interest journalism.
During the recent federal election, the Liberal Party of Canada’s platform vowed to "Deploy a made-in-Canada procurement strategy that prioritizes, whenever possible, Canadian suppliers.” At the same time, it noted the importance of news media. The document stated, "In this time of crisis, protecting Canada means protecting our culture, our journalism, our perspectives." It continued, “In a sea of American media and disinformation, we need Canadian voices more than ever."
Prime Minister Mark Carney can meet the moment and fulfill his campaign promise through a federal government advertising set-aside that would see a minimum of 25 percent of federal advertising spending invested in Canadian media.
Ontario and New York have provided the playbook. Let’s get on with it and get it done with dispatch and determination.
Paul Deegan is the president and chief executive officer of News Media Canada.
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