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Notes -
The Conservatives are leading the Liberals 42 - 24 in national polls. Keep in mind that the Liberals generally poll better between elections.
So a big chunk of the Liberal voter base has given up on Trudeau. However this puts the press in a bad spot.
The Trudeau government introduces subsidies of Canadian newsrooms. It's now up to $85,000 per reporter for qualifying news organizations. The Conservatives are likely to scrap it.
So Canadian news media is in a spot where if they do their job they are likely to go bankrupt after the next election.
Pierre Pollievre's only objection so far seems to be that it creates too much "bureaucracy". I would guess that the average Tory voter is still easily swayed by moral panic "it's for the children's safety" type arguments. But this is already his solid base, and I think there's a failure of imagination going on in terms of what could be gained by taking a stand here.
A cynical interpretation of course is that they are doing this for the same reason they are funding the CBC so well. Also a bit of cronyism perhaps given that our Deputy PM made her bones in the newsroom at the Globe and Mail.
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If I were the Conservatives I would swear that if this law gets adopted, when they get the majority they are likely to get, they will immediately abrogate it and replace it with one that only applies to a list of named persons consisting of all MPs who have voted for it, with a provision that it should be prosecuted by law enforcement to the fullest extent it can be.
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