The stories the legacy media won’t cover, like how investment is steering clear of Canada, or how Trudeau’s approach to law and order is increasing violent crime from coast to coast. Photo credit: The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette
Canadians can be forgiven if they missed the latest news about the country’s state of economic and social affairs. Canada’s mainstream legacy media is paying little attention to hard news and instead pumping out opinion pieces on Justin Trudeau’s “substantial” cabinet shuffle, “surprised” marital breakup, or his “private” movie outings with his kids and family vacation in Tofino, BC. When the Canadian state-subsidized newsrooms are not pimping the PM, they are adding to wire copy about Maui’s fires, Donald Trump’s indictments, or the latest exploits of Elon Musk.
As it is, important news items and events are being ignored or not being broadcasted by the country’s legacy media. This news, Canadians need to search out in the country’s independent news sources or in international media coverage.
It must be noted that Canadians are also seeing less of the country’s legacy news because of the standoff between the Trudeau government and tech companies Meta and Google. This is a standoff over the government’s intent to regulate the internet and has resulted in the removal of all hypertext links to news articles on Canadians’ social media platforms.
So, to add to the heat of the summer, here’s the significant Canadian news you have likely missed in the past few weeks — important items that affect you and your family and impact our country’s prospects.
Canada is least attractive of “the three amigos” for trade and investment: This summer Mexico overtook China to become the United States’ largest trading partner – a position that Canada used to brag about – until 2014. As American trade in Mexico increases, investment and trade with Canada declines by billions of dollars. Christopher Sands, the director of the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute in Washington, says “Mexico’s an attractive place to put your capital so, they’ve been building and building, and some of that’s coming from China, some of that’s new growth.”
Canada is losing out on new manufacturing facilities producing plastics, medical technologies, and automobile parts and high-end electric vehicles. Remarkably, it is also losing out to Mexico with its trade of oil and liquid-natural gas (LNG), as a direct result of the lack of pipeline infrastructure and the Trudeau government’s unwillingness to develop LNG exports.
Canada is being ridiculed for its lack of defense spending: NATO allies are now openly criticizing Canada’s commitment to its defense program. In summertime meetings there was a suggestion that a spending target of 2 per cent of a country’s GDP be considered “as floor” for membership in NATO. Canada is currently spending 1.22 per cent of GDP and, as reported in the Washington Post, PM Trudeau told Canada’s allies his government would “never” reach the 2 per cent target.
The blowback has been scathing. The Economist featured an article: “Canada’s miserly defence spending is increasingly embarrassing.” A Wall Street Journal editorial called Canada a “free-rider” that belonged at a “junior table”: “Canada’s military is so degraded that even its role in peacekeeping missions has waned.” A subsequent Financial Post piece picked up on the Wall Street Journal’s suggestion Canada be dropped from the G-7 membership, baldly stating: “Canada is not a leader on the international stage.”
Subsidies to EV battery plants unchallenged – and alarming: With headlines and editorials praising the Trudeau government’s “green investment” in Canada’s future, mainstream media has been trumpeting the announcements of new electronic vehicle battery plants. Few legacy media outlets have critically assessed the $31 billion of subsidies to Volkswagen and Stellantis corporations to build in Ontario.
The one newsroom that has is Blacklock’s Reporter, which is tracking the unfolding story as it relates to the financial costs for taxpayers. From this independent news source Canadians learned of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s rationalization for the billions of dollars of spending at Cabinet, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux’s demands to get the finer details of the handouts, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s recent calls for restraint in the federal subsidies for foreign auto corporations. (Canadians can depend on Blacklock’s Reporter to provide the full story on the $644 million incentive for Ford Co. to build its EV plant south of Trois-Rivieres.)
Ottawa’s law and order agenda is resulting in increased violent crime: Statistics Canada has released crime figures that suggest lawlessness throughout the land. Homicide rate, gang violence, gun crime, victims of violent crimes involving firearms, and fraud and extortion are all on the rise. Crime in Toronto has seen dramatic increases in recent years. Stats Can validates that Canada is a more violent place than it was a decade ago.
When Trudeau shuffled his cabinet, newly appointed Justice Minister Arif Virani made legacy media headlines in declaring that rising crime in Canada is “just an illusion.” No state-sponsored news reporters challenged Virani on his claim. Canadians must look to independent sources to appreciate the impact the Trudeau government’s soft-on-crime approach and its enabling legislation has had on Canada’s crime rates. (Verily, CBC commentary touting the federal government’s action on gun crime is insulting for residents of Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood, for example.)
Trudeau government continues to foster closer ties with China: Months and months have passed since there has been any development regarding the mounting evidence that the Trudeau Liberals have been involved in quid pro quo arrangements with the Chinese Communist Party that pre-date their 2015 election victory. This week Brian Lilley of the Toronto Sun broke the story that Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is jetting to Beijing to participate in meetings to advise CCP Leader Xi Jinping on environment policy (presumably to shutter China’s new coal plants, introduce gas and oil taxes, and ban single-use plastic products).
The Globe and Mail aside, much of legacy media has given PM Trudeau a pass on his government’s scandalous actions with the CCP. However, readers of this column through the last year will know The Niagara Independent has been constant in its calling for an independent review of the Liberals-CCP affairs: “The case for a full-blown investigation of the Trudeau government’s relations with China: Part One and Part Two.”
Documenting the demise of Canada under the Trudeau government: No mainstream media has covered independent news commentator Aaron Gunn’s series of video news productions. Gunn bluntly asks “What is Happening to Canada?” with his series of informative documentaries on some of the most critical challenges facing the country. Warning: content in the documentaries is disturbing – but these are must-watch videos for Canadians who want to grasp a better understanding of what is taking place across our land. Here are YouTube links for: Canada is Dying / Fractured Nation | The Pillaging of Western Canada / The End of Free Speech in Canada / Waiting to Die | Canada’s Health Care Crisis.
By way of a parting comment, there was a Research Co. survey published late July that revealed three in ten Canadians (30 per cent) believe Justin Trudeau is the worst PM the country has had in recent times. This, and the fact that the PM’s “substantial” cabinet shuffle has had a dead-cat bounce for the Liberals’ sagging popularity has many Ottawa pundits and wags suggesting Justin Trudeau is actively searching for his exit plan. For many, arguing the speculative scenarios has become a sporting pastime.
This scribe disagrees that the PM and his political operatives are flailing around for an escape; Trudeau’s exit plan has been scripted for years. Here’s my unabashed prediction. In honouring his family’s political lore, Justin intends to take “a walk in the snow” on February 29, 2024 – as did his father on the 29th of that leap year so many years ago. So, put all those Ottawa rumours to rest and enjoy the final weeks of your summer.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
