Our media landscape is dominated by a few big players, almost all of which are owned by big Eastern and foreign corporate interests, or by the government itself.
As taxpayers, we are forced to pay billions of dollars every year to support the
Liberal CBC. But now even the non-government owned mainstream media are
on the take, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars a year in a massive
taxpayer-bailout from the federal government. This means that even those few bright spots of independence and free-thinking in the media are now on the government dole and cannot speak without fear that the government could pull their funding at any time.
There are a few great journalists in the non-government-owned media, but
they mostly work for large, corporate interests owned and operated out of
Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Western voices — voices that speak for the
West without fear of what their bosses in Toronto will say — are few and far
between.
The West needs a strong and independent voice that is willing to take on the
issues facing our people.
This is why we re-founded the Western Standard in 2019.
Since then, the Western Standard has burst onto the scene and shaken-up
Western Canada's media landscape.
With a growing and dedicated team of reporters and opinion columnists, we
have quickly become the third most-read online news platform in Western
Canada, with an average of 3 million readers per month, and hundreds of
thousands of people watching our videos or listening to our podcasts.
Our news team is made up of credible reporters largely recruited from the
mainstream media, but focus on issues all too often ignored by the old
players.
Our opinion columnists fearlessly take on controversial issues that most of
the old players are too afraid to touch directly.
The Western Standard's mission is to be the “independent voice of the New
West”.
We are making a big difference, and giving Westerners a homegrown alternative to the big, government-owned and government-funded media. We are changing the conversation.
We refuse to accept a penny of the big-media bailout that has corrupted
Canada's once free press. Because we are one of the only genuinely
independent media in Canada, we are free to speak openly, and cannot be
cancelled by Ottawa.
We have a large and growing team of journalists with bureaus in Calgary,
Edmonton, Vancouver, Regina, and on Parliament Hill. Our reporters and
columnists are fearless, and work tirelessly to give you straight news and cut
through the spin.
That is why we need you — the reader — to step up and become a Member of
the Western Standard.
You can become a member for just $10 a month or $99 a year for unlimited
access; much cheaper than a subscription to one of the big governmentfunded newspapers. We are reinvesting every penny of that into improving our ability to provide you with real, independent, Western news and opinion coverage.
Supporting independent media with your membership is the price of having
any media left in this country that isn't on the government take. If you want
there to be any independent Western media left, then we need you to step up
and support it. Without people like you supporting independent media, all
that will be left is the corrupt government-owned and government-funded
press.
We have built something great that is challenging the old media, and we are
making a big difference. Together, we can make sure that we have a voice that speaks for a West that is strong and free