Postmedia Network Canada Corp., operator of the flagging chain of English-language Canadian newspapers and clickbait websites, yesterday announced the appointment of former Alberta Conservative premier Jason Kenney to its board of directors.
It’s a revealing commentary on the state of affairs in Canadian media nowadays that the acquisition of Kenney’s services actually lends a little lustre to Postmedia’s tarnished reputation, the result of a variety of factors including “highly illiquid” shares last seen trading at only a penny over a Loonie, plummeting revenue, and a business model that emphasizes right-wing commentary instead of quality news coverage.
Notwithstanding having been run out of politics in 2022 by the “lunatics” of his own United Conservative Party’s base – his term, not mine – perhaps Mr. Kenney’s cranky views of Canadian history, especially his obsession with defending the reputation of the country’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, can do something in this nationalistic moment to get Canadians to forget that Postmedia is two-thirds owned by a U.S. hedge fund, and almost entirely owned by foreigners.
New Jersey-based Chatham Asset Management acquired the company in 2020. When the Jersey Boys took control of Postmedia, the New York Times reported in July 2020, “the company … cut its work force, shuttered papers across Canada, reduced salaries and benefits, and centralized editorial operations in a way that has made parts of its 106 newspapers into clones of one another.”
The deal raised Postmedia’s foreign ownership “to a dizzying 98 per cent,” Canadian Dimension reported in 2023, with 66 per cent held by Chatham.
So who still believes Postmedia is Canadian-controlled? Even fewer Canadians than in 2016 when The Tyee asked that question in a headline.
Kenney’s association with a large Calgary law firm, Bennett Jones LLP (in the news lately for the statement of defence its lawyers filed on behalf of the Alberta Government in response to the wrongful dismissal lawsuit by former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos) and his service on the board of ATCO, may also lend a little respectability in corporate circles to his presence.
But while Postmedia’s commentary nowadays almost exclusively supports the federal Conservative Party and its various provincial franchises, which do business under a variety of names, whoever chose the latest additions to the company’s board was paying better attention.
At the same time as they were appointing Kenney, who is likely to have an in with a Conservative national government in the event federal party Leader Pierre Poilievre emerges later this year as prime minister, there is also a new Liberal on the board.
Either way, bean counters associated with both parties are sure to take a close look at the controversial Trudeau-era newspaper subsidies that are helping to keep Postmedia afloat. Poilievre has vowed to kill the program.
Appointed at the same time as Kenney was Terrie O’Leary, a former chief of staff to Liberal Paul Martin, back in the days when he was finance minister a few years before he became prime minister of Canada. That should cover the possibility Prime Minister Carney doesn’t go down in history as Canada’s shortest serving prime minister. (To do that, he would have to serve as PM for fewer than the 68 days managed by Sir Charles Tupper in 1896.)
Recent polls actually suggest that a Carney victory might actually be possible, much to the consternation of most Conservatives – although not necessarily Mr. Kenney, who might see in such a circumstance an opportunity to revivify his seemingly hopeless prime ministerial ambitions.
“On behalf of the Board,” said Postmedia Chair Peter Sharpe in a news release, “we look forward to their many contributions and support in driving long-term value for Postmedia’s stakeholders.”
It’s likely to be a long drive. Postmedia’s net loss in the first quarter ended November 30, 2024, was $24.5 million, as compared to a net loss of $10.6 million in the same period in the previous year, the company reported.*
No joy at U of A law school for Danielle Smith
“It was a packed room of 150 future lawyers tonight at the University of Alberta answering their important questions about our legal system, our province, and the US trade dispute,” Premier Danielle Smith’s X account cheerfully chirped on Monday.
Alas for the premier and Justice Minister Mickey Amery, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but not the U of A’s law students even some of the time. They are said to have schooled the premier on what they thought of Bill 26, her government’s probably unconstitutional anti-trans legislation. By all accounts, it was not a pleasant experience for the premier.
So far, a recording of the session has not emerged, although that is bound to happen sooner or later. In the meantime, the priceless photo above, which has been circulating all over the Internets, pretty well says it all.
*It beats me why Postmedia’s first quarter would end on November 30. But then, nothing about that company, including its continued survival, makes any sense. DJC
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