Mainstream Canadian Media: A Bricklin?

The mainstream media in Canada have repeated the same attacks as did the large media outlets in the American media when a conservative voice showed an interest in providing an alternative product.



To be fair, competition is a wonderful idea unless it is directed at you. Whether it is a local pizza parlour or a tired news desk, self-interest and fear of the unknown is at the heart of the nervous Nellie's.

Ask a dairy farmer in Quebec if he wants to compete with a dairy farmer in Europe or the United States, on quality and price. Compare this with Canadian Wine Growers vs the rest of the world. Canadian wine growers do not fear competition and they want to dismantle the inter provincial trade barriers.

Provincial governments and unionized employees believe they benefit from keeping the trade barriers and protectionist laws. If you watch Question Period we hear opposition MPs repeatedly ask the government to defend Supply Management.

Are inter provincial barriers restricting trade between provinces and hurting Ontario and British Columbia consumers from enjoying Canadian wine? I think so.

The Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act of 1928 (IILA) is a Canadian law – albeit an 82-year old one – that was devised to ease the country out of prohibition. The law hands the privilege of importation over to the province, and in most provinces only your provincial government agent, in the form of a liquor board, can import liquor under this statute. And so, you are breaking the law when you cross any provincial boundary in possession of any alcoholic beverage, even if you are bringing it home in your own car or returning with a single bottle of wine on a flight between two provinces. In fact, you cannot legally pack a cooler with beer and wine and then cross a provincial border for a weekend get-away.- Wines in Niagara 

Little Tony's Pizza Parlour wants to remain the only game in town and the sales of he is afraid his cardboard pizza empire is in jeopardy. Little Tony does not realize how sales and innovation can result with a new pizza parlour as new customers enter the market to test the pizza of Larry's Pizza Depot.

Larry will be hiring and spending money close to home and possibly across borders on pizza boxes, sauce, cheese.  Little Tony should not fear Larry's entry: he should embrace, learn from the innovation and mistakes from Larry.

Little Tony, unionized employees, Supply Management farmers, tax funded newsdesks may realize customers just wanted some spicy sausage on their pie that was unavailable before Larry tested it and made it popular.

It is funny reading, watching the buzz from the usual suspects Toronto-Montreal centrist media pundits line up to predict the demise of a business venture that is being pitched to the investment community as an alternative to the boring, low quality product currently available.

I did not see the same panic and derision from the Al Jazeera product offering in Canada. It would be refreshing if their fear of change and their self-interest was declared up front regarding the latest entrant for viewers.