When local newsrooms disappear, the resulting vacuum doesn’t stay empty. It is filled with rumour, imported outrage and foreign-manipulated narratives engineered to divide. 

As reported by The Globe and Mail, researchers at the University of Regina tracking the Alberta separatism debate found roughly 80 per cent of flagged disinformation was linked to Russia. Brian McQuinn, co-director of the centre, noted the vast majority is spread by ordinary Canadians sharing it unwittingly. Prominent American influencers openly promote Alberta separation, and bots and algorithms amplify their messaging.

When this coverage disappears, Canadians are less likely to understand local issues or even know when elections are being held. The lack of awareness can discourage potential challengers from entering the race, allowing incumbents to run largely uncontested. 

For many people, being informed and engaged often begins with a journalist uncovering something politicians don’t want anyone to know. But declining news resources mean less watchdog reporting on local governance or scandals, leaving the public unaware of urgent issues that might otherwise motivate them to vote. 

Declining municipal voter turnout correlates with the erosion of local news. The Public Policy Forum’s report, Uncovered, found that in smaller communities without local news, 63 per cent of voters were unfamiliar with local candidates’ views, while 53 per cent couldn’t find trusted information about them.

The collapse of hyperlocal reporting forces people to rely on national feeds and social media, neither of which prioritize local news.

Sen. Andrew Cardozo recently released a report on the financial sustainability of the Canadian news ecosystem. It compares federal public policy in other major liberal democracies and provides options for consideration for a new Canadian news-funding policy.

The Cardozo report treats news deserts as a democratic problem, not merely an industry problem. It offers a neutral assessment of options for improving existing policy. 

Government and an independent press are uneasy bedfellows. The report addresses that tension by proposing structural safeguards, including an arm’s-length funding agency outside any minister’s direct purview, published eligibility rulings and decisions made at a distance from politics. 

In a speech, Cardozo said the report focuses in part on “the option for a viable, long-term funding model for Canadian news media that can garner the support and trust of Canadians.” It also proposes stronger editorial accountability and improved media literacy, empowering citizens to distinguish reliable journalism from misinformation, AI slop and deep fakes.

Trust is democratic infrastructure, and local news is one of its most important building blocks. It underpins civic literacy by giving people reliable and important information they can use to make informed decisions.

All politics is local. And we now have data that show trust is local, too.

Let’s unite Canadians by restoring the conditions local news needs to flourish, so we can learn to trust one another and shape our own destiny. To that end, I would urge Parliament to take up the report’s options before the next budget cycle.