Stephen Harper risks his career if he gives away the farm to Canwest

Stephen Harper risks his career if he gives away the farm to Canwest

By: Charlie Smith

Last month, Canadian Heritage Minister James Mooredodged questions from the Georgia Straight regarding how he might help the troubled media giant Canwest Global Communications Corp.

Moore dismissed any suggestion that the government might make regulatory changes to allow a foreign takeover as a “good Georgia Straight conspiracy theory”.

However, Moore was quoted yesterday (March 18) in a Canadian Press story saying that the government is looking at how to assist Canwest.

Canadian Press also reported that Canwest has contracted former Conservative campaign strategist Ken Boessenkool to “help plead its case”.

Canwest CEO Leonard Asper is the only person listed in the lobbyists registry doing any lobbying on behalf of Canwest.

Boessenkool is a registered lobbyist for Taser International, Enbridge, and the Vancouver Foundation, among other clients, but he is not listed on the electronic registry as an advocate for Canwest.

It's a bit of a mystery to me how Boessenkool could be lobbying for Canwest as a consultant without being listed in the registry, unless there is some time layover between when he begins working and when the registry posts this information on-line.

Nobody should be surprised that the Harper government will pull whatever levers it can to ensure the Asper family retains control over Canwest.

It's an important ally of Prime Minister Stephen Harper because it owns Global TV, the Vancouver Sun, the Province, the National Post, the Vancouver Courier, the North Shore News, the Delta Optimist, the Now papers, the Richmond News, and the Royal City Record as well as daily papers in several other Canadian markets.

The Aspers and Harper have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Harper ensured that the family patriarch Izzy Asper’s dream of a human-rights museum would come to fruition in Winnipeg, courtesy of massive sums of public funding.

And the Aspers helped ensure that Harper would remain prime minister when Canwest newspapers provided supportive editorials before the 2008 election and then hammered the idea of a Liberal-NDP coalition government supported by the Bloc Quebecois.

Don’t be surprised if Harper returns the favour by providing generous tax breaks to the private broadcasters, including Canwest.

It might not be enough to ensure the Aspers remain in control. After all, the corporation is struggling with a $3.7-billion debt.

But not to worry. If things are on the verge of falling apart, Harper can make regulatory changes to allow a foreign media giant to come to the rescue by purchasing a big share of Canwest.

Here’s my conspiracy theory for James Moore to chew on: the prime minister is trying to figure out how to save the Aspers’ asses without angering the boys in charge of CTVglobemedia, Quebecor, and Rogers Communications.

The only way to do that is to open the floodgates to all the broadcasters with massive tax breaks and regulatory changes, while at the same time refusing to offer one iota of help to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

It might buy Canwest some time. But it’s not going to guarantee the Conservatives will get reelected.

In the Internet age, people are no longer so reliant on broadcasters. Word will filter out that Harper has put the media giants at the front of the soup line.

As the bailouts and sweetheart deals in the United States have revealed, this sharply elevates the risk that average citizens will exact their revenge at the ballot box.

I'm guessing that by this time next year, our prime minister's surname is probably going to be Ignatieff and not Harper--in part because Harper will have misread how the public would react to a bunch of legislative changes designed to benefit private broadcasters.

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