Good day,

Here’s something most people probably don’t think about when they turn on the news.

CTV News is owned by Bell.

The same Bell behind your phone plan and internet bill also owns CTV, BNN Bloomberg, CP24, TSN, Crave and a large collection of radio stations.

And Bell has billions of dollars at stake in decisions made by the same governments its journalists cover.

That doesn’t mean someone at Bell is calling CTV and telling reporters what to say.

But once I started looking at who actually owns Canadian news, the bigger question became pretty interesting:

How much of what Canadians see is influenced by who owns the outlet, who funds it and who the outlet is trying to reach?

And is the common claim that Canadian mainstream media is basically all left wing actually true?

The answer is a lot more complicated.

CTV is owned by Bell Media, which itself belongs to BCE.

Bell’s media empire includes CTV, BNN Bloomberg, CP24, TSN, RDS, Crave and dozens of radio stations.

That means one of Canada’s largest news organizations ultimately sits inside one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies.

Bell has enormous interests in wireless competition, internet regulation, broadcasting rules and government policy.

Does that prove CTV changes stories to protect Bell?

No.

But I think Canadians should know who owns the outlet they’re watching.

And Bell is far from the only example.

If you read the National Post, Toronto Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette or dozens of local newspapers, you are reading a Postmedia publication.

Industry data counted around 82 Postmedia newspaper editions in 2025.

Postmedia is also probably the clearest answer to the argument that mainstream Canadian media is entirely left wing.

The National Post was created as a conservative alternative in Canadian media, and Postmedia newspapers have a long history of Conservative editorial endorsements.

There is even documented evidence of corporate involvement. During the 2015 federal election, Postmedia management directed its major papers to endorse Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

So when somebody tells me “all mainstream Canadian media is Liberal,” I don’t think the evidence supports that.

Canada has a very large conservative media network sitting right in front of us.

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CBC is different because it is a Crown corporation.

Its parliamentary operating funding has recently been around $1.3 billion a year.

That understandably creates skepticism.

If the federal government provides your funding, people are going to question how independent you really are.

But there is an important part of this debate that often gets left out.

Federal law specifically protects CBC’s journalistic, creative and programming independence.

A prime minister cannot legally call the newsroom and tell CBC what story to run.

At the same time, I don’t think it is unreasonable for Canadians to question the relationship. Parliament decides CBC’s funding. Governments influence appointments and ultimately determine the legislation CBC operates under.

So both extremes lose me.

“CBC is literally controlled by the Liberal Party” is not supported by the evidence.

But “government funding creates absolutely no reason to ask questions about independence” is too simplistic too.

This part surprised me more.

Eligible private Canadian news organizations can receive a refundable federal journalism tax credit covering 35% of certain newsroom labour costs under the current temporary rate.

Ottawa also funds the Local Journalism Initiative and the Canada Periodical Fund.

And under Canada’s Online News Act arrangements, Google contributes $100 million annually toward Canadian journalism.

So the Canadian media business now runs on a mixture of:

advertising, subscriptions, corporations, taxpayers, technology companies, foundations and donors.

That doesn’t mean the government controls every organization receiving support.

In fact, conservative Postmedia publications can receive journalism support while publishing columns attacking the same government.

But I do think the financial relationship deserves scrutiny.

If an industry becomes increasingly dependent on government-created programs to survive, readers are justified in asking questions about incentives.

The Toronto Star has a clear centre-left tradition.

The National Post and Sun newspapers generally sit on the right.

The Globe and Mail has historically been more economically conservative and establishment-oriented while taking more liberal positions on some social issues.

CTV and Global are better described as large commercial mainstream broadcasters.

CBC probably feels culturally more progressive to many Conservative voters, but that is different from proving that its journalists are taking orders from the Liberal government.

The more I looked into this, the less useful the simple left versus right label became.

Because bias often happens somewhere else.

Imagine unemployment rises from 6.4% to 6.6%.

One headline could say:

Canada loses 40,000 jobs as unemployment rises

Another could say:

Wage growth remains strong despite weaker labour market

Both could be completely factual.

But you walk away feeling differently depending on which story you read.

That's framing.

Bias can show up in:

what gets covered,

what gets ignored,

which statistic goes in the headline,

which expert gets quoted,

and what context gets left until paragraph twelve.

Ownership can influence those decisions.

So can advertisers.

So can the journalists themselves.

And so can the audience.

A newspaper built for business executives is naturally going to cover Canada differently than an outlet whose audience is young progressive voters.

You may see the same story on CTV, Global, Yahoo and several local newspapers and think:

“Four different news organizations confirmed this.”

Sometimes they did.

But sometimes all four are carrying the exact same report from The Canadian Press.

The Canadian Press is a wire service that produces stories which other outlets republish.

That doesn't make the information wrong.

It just means something that looks like four independent confirmations can sometimes trace back to one original report.

That is why I always prefer going back to the original document, government release, court decision, Statistics Canada data or actual interview whenever possible.

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I don't think the answer is finding one source and deciding:

“This is the unbiased one.”

I don't believe that source exists.

When I'm researching something for The Canadian Take, I want to know what CBC is reporting.

I want to know what Reuters is reporting.

I want to see what the National Post or Toronto Star are emphasizing.

But then I want the government document.

I want the Statistics Canada release.

I want the legislation.

I want the actual numbers.

Because the most useful information is often what remains after you remove everybody's framing.

And that is really what I want The Canadian Take to become.

The daily newsletter tells you what happened.

Premium is where I want to spend more time answering the questions that require us to go further:

Who benefits?

Who pays?

What are politicians leaving out?

Does the evidence actually support the headline?

And sometimes, like today:

Who is telling us the story in the first place?

If that is the kind of Canadian news you want more of, you can support The Canadian Take and get access to my Premium deep dives.

Your subscription also helps me spend more time researching these stories instead of simply reacting to whatever happens to be trending that morning.

Probably nobody completely.

And I actually think that's healthy.

The goal shouldn't be to distrust everything either.

Know that the Toronto Star has a worldview.

Know that Postmedia has one too.

Know CBC receives public money.

Know Bell owns CTV.

Know independent creators have incentives of their own.

Then compare them.

Read past the headline.

Separate reporting from opinion.

Follow links back to the original evidence.

And ask one question whenever a story makes you immediately angry:

What am I not being shown?

Because the biggest form of media bias isn't always a lie.

Sometimes it's deciding which completely true story you see in the first place.

Until Monday,

Dean.

P.S. Which Canadian news outlet do you trust the most, and which one do you trust the least? I’m curious whether the answers match what the national trust numbers show.

Hit reply and let me know.