In early December, a friend and reporter with another media company shared a story about his workplace.
A senior executive with the company admitted something in a meeting, something that is rarely discussed within the mainstream media.
Related story:
Most journalists are supporters of the political left and are hostile to the political right, the executive said.
Read Also
Manitoba Parkland research station grapples with dry year
Drought conditions in northwestern Manitoba have forced researchers at the Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation to terminate some projects and reseed others.
Therefore, journalists should be aware of their bias and adjust their reporting accordingly.
A good example of this bias is the hysteria surrounding U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and his social media post in November threatening to slap 25 percent tariffs on all imported goods from Canada and Mexico.
Canadian media outlets have written and broadcast many stories about the social media comment, even though Trump is not president and won’t be inaugurated until Jan. 20.
Most of the articles promote the narrative that Trump and the Republican Party oppose free trade. They are protectionists who represent a massive threat to Canada’s economic future.
Some of that may be true, but here’s a reminder — President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are also protectionists who obstructed Canadian exports to the United States. They disrupted trade over the last four years and during the eight-year presidency of Barack Obama.
Want a few examples?
A good place to start is the Keystone XL pipeline.
On his first day in office, Biden revoked the permit to build and operate the pipeline, which would have carried 830,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The Alberta government has estimated that the project would have contributed $2.4 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product and $30 billion in tax and royalty revenues.
Doing the math differently, 830,000 barrels multiplied by $70 per barrel would have been $58 million a day in exports to the U.S.
Meat protectionism
Moving to agriculture, earlier this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized the rules for the “Product of USA” labels for meat, poultry and eggs.
The regulations have tightened the definitions so that “Product of USA” only applies to animals born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the U.S.
The regulations, which take effect Jan. 1, 2026, could severely disrupt pork and beef trade within North America and harm Canadian exports to America.
“It is crucial to address any issues that threaten or diminish cattle and beef trade between Canada and the U.S.,” Canadian Cattle Association president Nathan Phinney told Reuters in March.
“We are very concerned that the rule will lead to discrimination against live cattle imports and undermine the beneficial integration of the North American supply chain.”
This isn’t the first time Democrats have distorted the integrated market for beef, pork and livestock.
From 2009-15, when Obama was president and Tom Vilsack was agriculture secretary, the Democrats supported and defended mandatory country-of-origin labelling for meat.
The regulation caused economic hardship for livestock producers in Canada, who had to sell pigs and cattle into the U.S. at discounted prices. Manitoba hog producers, who export isowean pigs to the U.S. Midwest, saw a severe decline in prices because of COOL.
Canada and Mexico used the World Trade Organization to challenge COOL and eventually won. The WTO agreed with Canada, four times, supporting the notion that COOL violated trade rules. The Americans revoked COOL in December 2015, but the damage was already done.
The Canadian government estimated it cost livestock producers more than $1 billion annually in lost sales.
“The cost has been significant on the dollar value but also if a producer has been unable to weather the storm of what COOL has created,” said former CCA president Dave Solverson, in 2015.
He added that COOL was largely responsible for a 25 per cent contraction in the domestic cattle herd.
There are more recent examples of the protectionist and anti-trade policies of Democrats.
One blatant case is the Build America, Buy American Act, passed in November 2021.
It requires that “all of the iron, steel, manufactured products and construction materials used in infrastructure projects are produced in the United States.”
I could go on and provide many instances where Democrats took trade positions that were hostile to Canada and Canadian farmers.
Big picture, it’s reasonable to say that both Republicans and Democrats have their faults around trade, agriculture and relations with Canada.
Trump is a threat to fair and free trade between the U.S. and Canada.
The Democrats have been a threat to fair and free trade between the U.S. and Canada.
Balanced journalism should report, with equal time and vigour, on both of those realities.
Contact robert.arnason@producer.com
