Both Liberal leader Mark Carney and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre are trying to limit exposure to the media. Both will fail.
However weakened the mainstream, legacy, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it press may be, knowledgeable reporters digging into the issues and asking tough questions remain vital to a free and fair election. Those reporters will play that role in this election as well.
Conventional wisdom holds that the traditional media are in permanent decline. To a certain extent, this is true.
A February report from the Public Policy Forum stated that more than 500 local news outlets have disappeared since 2008, and many more have lost much of their staff.
Metro dailies from the Vancouver Sun to the Halifax Chronicle Herald now operate with only a small fraction of the reporters and editors who once worked there. Radio newsrooms are mostly gone. Television broadcasters are working with a skeleton staff.
But there have also been gains. Digital sites such as The Hub and The Tyee offer informed analysis and commentary from conservative and progressive perspectives. Other digital startups serve local communities that have lost their newspaper or broadcaster.
Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail, along with broadcasters CBC, CTV, and Global, continue to offer a national perspective.
It is certainly true that modern party campaign machines in Western democracies seek to bypass the traditional gatekeepers of the press, speaking to voters directly through social media.
But political candidates remain vulnerable to difficult questions from informed reporters. Which is why both Carney’s and Poilievre’s handlers have done everything in their power to limit exposure to such questions.
Carney had minimal contact with the media while he campaigned for the Liberal leadership. Once installed as prime minister, he was forced to face reporters, and promptly landed himself in trouble.
The Liberal leader got into a testy exchange with Globe reporter Stephanie Levitz and Rosemary Barton of CBC, when they questioned him on his refusal to disclose his financial assets.
“Look inside yourself, Rosemary,” he fired back. “You start from a prior [assumption] of conflict and ill-will.”
Many voters have shifted from the Conservatives to the Liberals in recent weeks because they believe Carney is best suited to deal with the challenge of U.S. President Donald Trump. But they don’t have a clear sense of who he is as a person and a politician.
A few more exchanges like the one between Carney and reporters from the Globe and CBC, and they might conclude he’s just another arrogant, entitled Liberal.
But while Carney’s handlers are expected to limit access to the leader, at least the national media is allowed to accompany the Liberal tour. Journalists are prohibited from joining the Conservative plane and bus.
Campaign director Jenni Byrne says the tour wants to hear more from the local press. There will be plenty of advance notice of where and when the leader will appear each day, she said, and journalists will be able to ask questions remotely, but that is a poor substitute.
Being on the leader’s tour allows reporters to interact with local voters and with members of the campaign team, while tracking the evolution of the leader’s message and effectiveness.
I was on the Conservative tour in 2021 when journalists bombarded leader Erin O’Toole with questions about his plans to lift Liberal restrictions on so-called assault weapons. His inept responses contributed greatly to his defeat.
Poilievre’s populist conservatism embraces skepticism toward the media. He has derided reporters who asked him questions he didn’t like. One of his signature promises is to defund the English-language arm of the CBC.
The Conservatives appear to believe that they can win the election by communicating directly with voters through streaming services, social media, and friendly activist outlets while ignoring or disparaging the mainstream press.
But while it’s true that not many people read a newspaper anymore, or sit down to watch the evening news, print and broadcast journalism continues to strongly influence the campaign narrative.
Journalists these days are prone to lamenting the condition of their industry and of a world in which they no longer play the role of gatekeeper. But the fact remains that democracy cannot flourish, or even survive, without a free press.
Don’t forget, all that online commentary and analysis that you will read on your smartphone during this campaign will rely heavily on or be in response to news stories generated by reporters digging into the issues and the backgrounds of the candidates.
We live in an age of media disruption. Old forms are disappearing or mutating and new ones arriving. But reporters are still reporters, and reporting remains the sine qua non of journalism.
Neither Carney nor Poilievre will be able to escape that reporting, which will shape this campaign, as it always has.
John Ibbitson is a journalist, writer, and the author of numerous books, including The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern…
