True north, strong and Free Press A call to defend — and fund — Canadian journalism By: Paul Samyn Posted: 1:10 PM CDT Friday, May. 2, 2025 Last Modified: 1:46 PM CDT Friday, May. 2, 2025 Updates

Opinion

Federal elections in our country, are by their very nature, all about Canada.

But the 45th general election seemed to be about Canada even more than usual.

A trade war threatening our economy, endless taunts about Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state, and uncertainty about what our neighbour and former ally might try to do to us next combined to get our elbows up long before we got to the ballot box.

The Free Press is launching a campaign that will run until Canada Day, with the goal of getting more Canadians to fund our journalism, which has served our country since 1872.

When we prepared to mark our X, the ballot question staring at us was: who did we trust to take on the U.S. president?

That’s the question that propelled the Liberals to their remarkable resurrection and a fourth consecutive term. It’s what grounded Pierre Poilievre’s previously assumed ascent to power. It’s what reduced the NDP to rump status and upended the Bloc Québécois’ sovereignty strategy.

In Canada we trust. That’s an election takeaway we can all agree on, regardless of how we voted.

If we are going to trust in Canada, however, we need to ensure there are trusted places to turn to for information about the trade war and whatever else Donald Trump has up his sleeve.

That’s why the Free Press is launching a campaign that will run until Canada Day, with the goal of getting more Canadians to fund our journalism, which has served our country since 1872.

That’s also why we are pulling on patriotic heartstrings with a “true north strong and Free Press” offer that will allow you to flex your Canadian pride while strengthening our newsroom.

We have worked with Kal Barteski — the Manitoba artist whose creations are on display from The Forks to Churchill — to design distinctive incentives for being a Free Press subscriber. The locally sourced totes and mugs are a fitting canvas for the passion of Barteski’s art and the power of journalism standing on guard for thee.

Even before Monday’s vote, this country has had to make a number of tough decisions. But a strong and free Canada demands more than just pulling California wine off our shelves and shelving holiday plans to travel to the United States.

We need to decide where we should get the news we need. Are we going to trust U.S. platforms such as Meta and X, whose respective owners are aligned with the U.S. president and unapologetically unaligned with fact-checking, which is critical to trustworthy information?

Or are we going to put our faith in Canadian newsrooms such as the Free Press that hire local employees to report on our communities — and pay taxes in this country, just like you?

Canada will have more decisions to make in the coming months and years that will be critical to our country’s independence. One of the tests of that sovereignty will be whether our decision-making is informed by independent journalism produced by Canadians, for Canadians.

If you are Canada proud and Manitoba strong, I hope you will vote to stand with our newsroom and ensure the Free Press has the funding needed for our ongoing campaign for truth.

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Canada proud, Manitoba strong

Show your Canadian pride and strengthen Canadian journalism.

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