The Globe and Mail leans Conservative. It's basically Canada's WSJ.
I'm kind of curious whether it was the Cons who leaked it or someone in the CSIS (some analyst did the same thing a couple months back about an ongoing investigation into Chinese interference)
It just doesn't seem like something Trudeau's Cabinet would want to leak, as you win 100% of the controversies you never participate in.
The same agency that deleted the wiretap evidence of Canadian based terrorists that killed 320 people aboard the Air India flight that was blown up over the Atlantic after taking off from Canada, resulting in no convictions?
Keep in mind that the "left" vs "right" determination is somewhat skewed within the Canadian political landscape.
Among the major federal parties in Canada, none of them offer or propose policies that could be considered "right wing" in any meaningful way.
Policy-wise, the Conservative Party should objectively be considered a "left-of-centre" party. They embrace socialism and big government, and they support high immigration rates, for example. Such stances are inherently antithetical to "right wing" ideologies.
The Conservative Party only appears to be "right wing" because they aren't as far "left" as the Bloc Québécois or Liberal Party are, which aren't as far "left" as the NDP or Green Party are.
The PPC is perhaps the most "right wing" of the mainstream parties, but platform-wise, it's still quite centrist in pretty much all respects.
Essentially all mainstream media in Canada should be considered "left wing", including those that tend to be somewhat supportive of the Conservative Party.
Well this is a first, I usually get told that Canadian politics is center (NDP), center-right (LPC), right (CPC) or far-right (PPC) because it’s compared to the politics of Western Europe.
Generally I don’t consider it useful to conceptualize a global “center” and say that a countries political parties are mostly to the left or right of it. I only ever hear this in the context of somebody painting an entire country as (unduly) off to one side or the other.
Compared to most comparable countries Canada is to the economic right and social left, and people tend to vastly overestimate how much social spending Canada does and vastly underestimate how much social spending the US does… when you crack open the books the amount spent on social services is shockingly similar.
You're following the American definition of "left" vs "right", and while America may dominate international culture, it is not the defacto standard for policy.
The conservative party would be considered "left-of-centre" only in the United States. Whereas the Democratic party would be considered "right-of-center" everywhere else in the developed world.
Unfortunately the Canadian conservative party imports a lot of unfortunate ideas from the American right including most recently a suspicion of vaccines and gender affirming care for youth. (inb4 "don't mutilate children" -> 'gender affirming care' is a broad spectrum of medical care including mental health, social changes, and hormonal care).
> The PPC is perhaps the most "right wing" of the mainstream parties, but platform-wise, it's still quite centrist in pretty much all respects.
While the placement of various political parties differs based on the nations involved, the "left" versus "right" political scale itself is uniform in all cases.
Collectivism (which implies more/larger government, e.g., socialism, fascism, and communism) increases toward the "left", while individualism (which implies less/smaller/no government, e.g., libertarianism and anarchism) increases toward the "right".
The "center" is a mix of the two, to varying degrees.
As mentioned earlier, almost all of the major Canadian federal parties fully support large and intrusive government, extensive socialism, high taxation, forced medical treatments, and so on. Some, like the NDP and Liberals, are also rather pro-union. This puts them to the "left".
The PPC are the only exception, with a platform that proposes a more balanced mix, putting them much closer to the "center". They support more individualism, but are still rather support of large government, too.
There are no major federal parties in Canada to the "right" of that. None offer a platform that would end immigration, deport most foreigners, significantly reduce the size of the federal government, and end taxation, for example.
I think if there were truly a "right" wing party in Canada, it'd be clear to you how different it would be than the existing parties, and it would instantly clear up your confusion.
> the "left" versus "right" political scale itself is uniform in all cases.
I agree. Except in every one of those definitions in impartial sources like Wikipedia, categorizes the Conservatives as "right", and PPC as "far right"
> There are no major federal parties in Canada to the "right" of that. None offer a platform that would end immigration, deport most foreigners,
So long as people who lived through World War 2 remained alive, we called people that advocated for this fascists, and they held no sway in most elections or political representation. Once the majority WW2 veterans started dying, suddenly these perspectives started rising again under a new coat of paint.
> significantly reduce the size of the federal government
It's cute that conservatives still pretend that this policy disagreement is still in any way of a signifier between left and right wing parties ANYWHERE in the world. US right wing parties, for instance, do not reduce the size of their governments. They just reassign their priorities to things like processing citizen reports of abortions, or banning books in school libraries.
> , and end taxation, for example.
Does anyone actually think this is a good idea? Are we intending to go back to the days of private firefighters not putting out on fire buildings that didn't pay them?
The NDP is a centre-right party. Don't apply the USA's very very right-shifted political spectrum to Canada. The American Democrats and Republicans both would be parts of the Conservative Party. The Democrats are closest to the Red Tory wing and Republicans to the Blue Tory wing of the Conservative Party. It's just there is very little difference between the USA's two conservative parties.
I'd classify it as neoliberal. They favor business interests but lean left on social issues. They are also big proponents of the Century Initiative, a plan to have Canada reach a population of 100 million by 2100 through massively increased immigration.
What you describe is called the third way, neoliberalism comes from friedman, and is a right wing economic framework also known as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics
It's not as bad as the National Post, but the Opinions Pieces they host have a distinct PC (Progressive Conservative) tinge to it, and they have had a history of endorsing the Conservatives. This can be seen as well in their endorsements within Ontario (which is basically the only part of Anglophone Canada that matters tbh)
It was the mouth piece of the Progressive Conservative Party before the merger. It's been a conservative newspaper since it's founding. Historically most of it's ownership has been directly involved, sometimes in a leadership capacity, of the current iteration of the conservatives. Yes, the National Post is now the mouth piece the current Conservatives, but it still has a very conservative byline by Canadian standard.
Moreover, Cambridge’s Harvard and MIT produced many scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project. There’s always been interesting military tech where research started in Cambridge.
As for People’s Republic, that was long immortalized in the bar, “People’s Republik” close to Harvard. Closed down I think around or just after the pandemic.
Just curious, which "American running for president"? I googled "Havana Times" and "Globe and Mail" and couldn't find anything about it. Is it an American who would know much about the Canadian news media? Because - as a Canadian who routinely reads newspapers - that's a position that's wildly difficult to square with my reality.
Various groups assessing the issue find it's a little to the right of centre. My personal take is that it's a little more right-leaning than this implies, but I'm just one guy.
> A 2017 survey of Canadians found that the Globe and Mail was perceived to be the most biased national news media outlet [...] Respondents had mixed opinions as to whether its coverage favoured the Liberal Party or the Conservatives. A 2010 survey found that the Globe and Mail was perceived as slightly right of centre, in similar standing to the bulk of other Canadian news organizations.
The addition of 'elitist' is a key indicator here. It is a label used by the American far-right for anything even slightly left of their position which may correct or expose them. Whereas the right wing relies on the firehose of falsehood, the 'elitist' term is used to attack those that may speak truth against them, particularly media and education. They're portrayed as 'out of touch', and thus sought for destruction. They could correct the lies or shine light on their misdeeds, and so must be slandered and attacked maximally. The right wing views these elements as a threat to their goals to seize power, both in actual power and in control of the message.
The position you see doesn't even have to fully make sense to you, because 'slightly right of centre' on your scale would be nearly 'communist' on their scale.
- highest reading level for daily paper
- most expensive daily newspaper
- readership in the highest income / education bracket
- storied elite history
- writing from an elitist point of view to an upper class reader
It leans conservative for Canadians - on the American political spectrum Danielle Smith might be considered more radically progressive than Bernie Sanders since she runs a government that provides provincial health insurance.
Framing politics by American standards is rarely helpful.
I'll let the Georgia Straight[1] know that they're totally controlled government propaganda... overly broad vague statements like this are rarely helpful. Though G&M, CBC and Nat Post are heavily biased news sources Canada does actually have a press that does good work.
I don't remember this and I lived on the Delta and Vancouver Island for several years as a kid. Vancouver Sun was always the go to newspaper I remember as a kid, plus that terrestrial Punjabi news channel that would report on Vancouver news in Punjabi around 5.30 or 6.30 pm every weekday. Also some 2 pager newsletter/newspaper that would also give fun facts and stuff.
never heard of it, and probably 99% of Canadians haven't either.
Canada is pretty much an oligopoly in everything: media, communications, air transport ...
not sure what is the surprise for you, do you live here ?
I live in Canada, and everyone I know is aware of the Georgia Straight. Maybe you haven't heard of it because it is local to... the Georgia Straight (Vancouver and Victoria), even though it does cover national interests too.
> I live in Canada, and everyone I know is aware of the Georgia Straight.
Then you live in a bubble. I spent most of my life in Canada (and I'm considered old) and have never heard of it. But it is interesting and I'm happy to have learned about it now, so thank you!
I'm kind of curious whether it was the Cons who leaked it or someone in the CSIS (some analyst did the same thing a couple months back about an ongoing investigation into Chinese interference)
It just doesn't seem like something Trudeau's Cabinet would want to leak, as you win 100% of the controversies you never participate in.