rabble.ca Canadian federal election blog

Media Issues: Where do the parties stand? Where do we stand?

By Steve Anderson

As I wrote earlier, it is clear that Canadians are passionate about communication and cultural issues, and they deserve to know exactly where each party stands.

Campaign for Democratic Media (CDM) formulated five specific questions that were sent out to the five major parties.  The objective of the questionnaire was to both provide citizens with a clear sense of the party positions on media and cultural issues, as well as asses the parties preparedness for the future of digital communication in Canada. The responses are available at: http://democraticmedia.ca/positions08

All the parties filled out the CDM questionnaire except the Conservatives, who failed to respond despite several attempts by CDM to elicit responses. One thing we do know about the Conservatives is that all the Conservative MPs voted against a motion in the House of Commons on May 30, 2006, calling for the retention of current restrictions on foreign ownership in the cultural sector. As well, the Conservative Party’s 2004 election platform calls for the relaxation or removal of communications sector foreign ownership restrictions.

Conservatives aside, the answers from those parties that did reply indicate that no party has a comprehensive platform on media issues. Nor do they have action plans to deal with the increasing concentration of private media ownership, the decline in local and regional programming — especially news, the general decline in Canadian content on our airwaves, the lack of universal access to an open internet, or the increasing commercialization of our public broadcaster.

While those who care about communication and cultural issues are likely not satisfied with the answers detailed in the CDM “Media and Culture: where do the parties stand?” report, we should be proud of the degree to which communication issues have moved towards the center of public discourse during this election. Arts and culture certainly took a profound role this election, as did new media.  Concerning the later, candidates like Dan Grice from the Green Party blogged about it, and more significantly, NDP leader Jack Layton made a specific video address on net neutrality and other key new media issues.

This change in discourse is no doubt the result of an increasingly active media democracy movement in Canada. Throughout the election: Rabble, TheTyee, and TheRealnews all provided essential independent coverage and analysis; in addition to the CDM survey, the Campaign For Democratic Media published the net neutrality “Fact vs Fiction” report, and encouraged citizens to use it as a tool to get their local candidates on record; Friends of Canadian Broadcasting ran several campaigns including a National Ad Campaign concerning media ownership; and a new group, Department of Culture, was remarkably active and high profile in there work around strategic voting.

As we move past the election, now is the time to start thinking about long-term media and communication battles in Canada. In the next few weeks several Canadian cities will host Media Democracy Day events. It is there that you’ll find a newly rejuvenated, and newly focused media democracy movement.

For more information about Media Democracy Day visit: http://mediademocracyday.org

Steve Anderson is National Coordinator of the Campaign For Democratic Media.