Why Canada doesn't have a conservative cable news channel and likely never will...
Every week, someone asks me a variation on the question. They want to know why we don’t have or how we can get a conservative-leaning television network in Canada.
Some people remember and lament the rise and fall of Sun News Network.
Others believe that the federal conservatives will never win without a conservative-leaning network, so we need to start one up.
I’m here to say that starting a right-leaning cable news channel in Canada today makes absolutely no sense. Not from a strategic point of view and not from an economic point of view.
The future is digital; it’s online.
In this post, I’ll explain what has been tried before, why it failed, why the technology and regulatory environments have changed, and what the best path forward is.
I know all of this, because I’ve lived it. I was there and I’m still living it.
We tried this once before and failed...
Back around 2009, a then-young guy who had been active in Conservative Party circles for years and who had recently been Stephen Harper’s Director of Communications came up with an idea to launch a conservative-leaning news channel.
That man’s name was Kory Teneycke.
Teneycke wanted to model a Canadian cable news network after the most successful news network ever built – Fox News.
It would be built on hard news and straight talk.
It would be built on a daytime block of real reporting and an evening block of strong opinion.
It would be unapologetically Canadian and proudly patriotic.
It would not just cover the Laurentian Elite triangle of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, it would let the West in.
For a time, we had that.
We launched on April 18, 2011, and we shut down on February 14, 2015.
My show Byline was the last show to air.
It was an episode I was particularly proud of given that I had helped force a probe into the High River gun grab and was able to report on what that probe found before signing off.
No other media outlet was covering that issue in any significant way.
I don’t tell you this for nostalgia’s sake, though looking back now I have questions about my wardrobe choices—they had a staff to pick things out. I also still have real concerns about the dye job they forced on my hair. I look awful.
I don’t want to bring Sun News Network back; we had a good run.
I can honestly say that I don’t want to go back to the days of being tied to a studio for a daily TV show. Between my writings for the Toronto Sun, my writings here, my Lilley Unleashed videos, Full Comment podcast and other media appearances, my audience has never been bigger.
That’s what I mean when I say digital is the future.
Let’s go back a bit though and explain how the CRTC and the Laurentian Elite did everything they could to kill off Sun News and how they would do so again if there were another attempt. Let’s look at the changing consumer behaviours that would make such a successful launch near impossible today.
Don’t worry, I’ll give you some hope and the right path forward.
