Conservative Erin O’Toole met with ethno-cultural media representatives all over Canada for a press conference on March 25 via Zoom regarding ethnic community concerns as well as national concerns. Attended by over thirty representatives, with only Reyfort Media Group representing the Filipino-Canadian community, the media representatives had a chance to ask questions about several issues that O’Toole responded to.
O’Toole thanked the ethic media for always delivering the news to their communities and this, he said, has helped Canada connect with more citizens. When asked about what his party’s plan is regarding providing the ethno-cultural media funding that all other government media outlets such as CBC get, he said that the Conservative has put into place a budget for ethnic media. The question also made a point that while the ethnic media was met in the past by the Liberal government, the funding is yet to reach the different media outlets. O’Toole said that the ethnic media is valuable and that it is part of the recovery plan of the Conservative party.
“You helped educate, calm fears of people and connect people throughout the challenging times in our nation’s history, and you’ve done it as you are losing advertising dollars,” he said. “We can commit to making that ethnic media get a larger share of government advertising dollars, and reforming the Canadian media landscape, fixing the way American tech giants gobbling up the advertising dollars with no accountability.
He also remarked on how the Liberal government has fallen so far behind in the COVID-19 crisis in terms of ensuring Canadians the supply of vaccines and the rolling-out of the plans to get Canada back on track. He says that opening of the borders is necessary so that both Canada and the United States benefit from the economy the open borders derive.
O’Toole also commented on the violence in China and Asian racism, as well as his take on the relationship between Canada and the US in the first few months of President Joe Biden’s presidency. He says that the Liberal’s have been slow to react to the challenges that industries in Canada face because of border closures and trade halt.