By Leni Spooner, creator of Between the Lines.
Picture this. A couple in their forties, both working full-time and raising kids, start their Saturday like any other: a trip to the grocery store, coffee beans at the top of the list. Except this time, their favourite brand has doubled in price overnight.
That evening, the news explains: a disruption in international trade has squeezed supply. The couple feels frustrated. If they’d known, they could have stocked up.
Here’s the catch: the warning signs were there. Trade journals flagged tariff disputes weeks earlier. Analysts issued supply chain alerts. But their go-to news outlets never carried those stories. By the time the spike reached the headlines, it was too late to prepare.
This isn’t about coffee. It’s about a deeper, systemic failure.
According to a July 2025 Abacus Data survey, half of Canadians don’t know that the federal government has committed to cutting 15% of spending over the next three years. That’s one of the most consequential fiscal decisions in a generation, and yet millions will be blindsided when cuts start to bite.
This essay is about that gap — why it exists, why it matters, and what we can do about it.
What You’ll Learn Here
- Why Canadian media narrows the news funnel to just a handful of daily stories.
- How platforms and algorithms reward outrage, not useful information.
- How generations consume different “slices” of news, leaving no common base of understanding.
- Why the collapse of local news has severed the town-hall connection between government and citizens.
- What other countries are doing to keep people informed — and what Canada could adapt.
- Concrete steps governments, journalists, and citizens can take to rebuild trust and connection.
The Narrow Funnel
In Canada today, most major outlets run about five or six “lead” stories a day — often the same across networks. Those dominate headlines while everything else disappears.
I spend hours trying to keep up: CBC, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, niche newsletters, Twitter feeds. Even then, I miss more than I catch.
If someone like me — motivated and actively hunting for information — struggles, what chance does the average citizen have while juggling work, family, and life?
When I talk with neighbours, two feelings come up again and again:
- Guilt, for not having the time to keep up.
- Frustration, at constantly being blindsided by decisions.
These aren’t careless or uninformed people. They’re hardworking Canadians who want to know, but feel ten steps behind on any given day.
Have you felt blindsided recently by a local decision? Drop it in the comments — I’d love to hear.
Stories That “Sell” vs. Stories That Matter
Newsrooms and social feeds don’t prioritize the stories that help us make informed decisions. They prioritize the stories that trigger the strongest emotions.
- A 2023 study found that headlines with negative or fear-driven wording significantly increased clicks and shares.
- Anger in posts spreads faster and deeper than sadness or neutral tones.
That makes outrage profitable — and actionable news invisible.
The most useful information for citizens — a zoning bylaw, a hospital funding shift, a change in provincial taxes — rarely goes viral. It requires critical thinking and context. Too often, editors and influencers throw it in the “too boring” bin.
The result? Canadians drown in stories that inflame emotions while starving for the ones that empower action.
Fragmentation Across Generations
David Coletto’s polling also shows how fractured our information diets have become:
- Boomers: 71% watch daily TV news, their dominant source.
- Gen X: Split — 63% use Facebook, 53% YouTube, plus TV.
- Millennials: 74% on Facebook daily, heavy YouTube users too.
- Gen Z: 70% YouTube, 73% Instagram, 60% TikTok daily.
This fragmentation means no single platform reaches everyone. But it also creates different depths of awareness:
- Boomers get the final act — the resignation, the tax hike — but not the build-up.
- Gen Z sees flashy snippets — protests, viral debates — stripped of context.
- Millennials and Gen X, straddling both, still only get the same narrow “lead” stories.
Instead of a shared baseline, generations are working off disconnected fragments.
The Vanishing Town Halls
Local newspapers and regional TV once acted as the town hall. They printed council agendas, ran government press releases, announced consultations, and gave people a way to respond.
That infrastructure has collapsed.
- Since 2008, Canada has lost more than 11% of its print outlets and 9% of its local broadcasters.
- In 2023 alone, a record 83 local papers shut down after Metroland’s bankruptcy.
- Today, 2.5 million Canadians — about 7% of the population — live in “news deserts,” with one or no local outlets.
Even door-to-door mail has been cut back to community boxes, so government newsletters don’t reliably land on kitchen tables.
Governments still release updates. Consultations still happen. But increasingly, there’s nowhere to put that information where people will see it. Citizens aren’t apathetic. They’re structurally cut off.
“Citizens aren’t apathetic by choice. They are structurally cut off.”
Governments Still Talk, Citizens Still Miss It
Here’s the paradox: governments behave as if a press release equals public awareness. It doesn’t.
Maybe one outlet picks it up. Maybe TV gives it a 30-second mention. But without local media to distribute and contextualize, the vast majority never hear.
By the time people learn, the decision is implemented. That’s when mistrust grows. Citizens feel blindsided — not because no one ever said it, but because the information never reached them.
Why It Matters
We’ve lived this before.
The carbon tax was designed to be revenue-neutral. Most households were supposed to get more back in rebates than they paid. But the government failed to communicate that clearly or consistently. With no local media to repeat and explain, opponents branded it a “tax grab.” That narrative stuck, and the policy never recovered.
At the municipal level, the stakes are even more immediate.
- Zoning changes announced only after they pass.
- Hospital services restructured without notice.
- Schools shuttered, parents finding out after the fact.
Without local infrastructure, citizens never get the chance to engage early, mobilize, or adapt.
This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s corrosive to democracy.
Where It Is Working
Other jurisdictions show that communication can be rebuilt as civic infrastructure:
- Taiwan’s vTaiwan & JOIN: Citizen deliberations tied directly to lawmaking; more than two dozen regulations shaped through transparent four-stage processes.
- Barcelona’s Decidim: Residents propose, debate, and track projects; €75M allocated via participatory budgeting between 2020–23.
- Reykjavík’s Better Reykjavik / My Neighborhood: Always-on platform; nearly 20% of residents regularly participate in local budgeting.
- UK’s Government Communication Service: Embeds communicators in policy teams, plans multi-platform campaigns, and evaluates impact — treating communication as a measurable discipline.
Imagine if Toronto tried Barcelona’s budgeting model, or if Ottawa embedded communicators the way the UK does. These aren’t theoretical fixes. They’re blueprints.
What Needs to Change (and What You Can Do)
If the infrastructure of communication is broken, rebuilding it must be a civic priority.
- Support Independent Journalism
- Subscribe to or donate to outlets not owned by billionaire conglomerates.
- Action: Share this post, or forward an independent article you trust to a friend.
- Rebuild Local and Regional News
- Treat journalism as infrastructure, with targeted grants and tax credits.
- Action: If your town has a local newsletter or paper, pay for it. Don’t assume it will survive without you.
- Design Consultations That Matter
- Link citizen input to visible outcomes — budgets, policies, legislation.
- Action: Sign up for your city’s online consultation portal, and tell a neighbour about it.
- Be Intentional as Citizens
- We can’t wait for perfect systems. Check city council agendas, skim provincial budgets, stay curious.
- Action: Set one small routine — e.g., scan your city’s council minutes once a month.
Conclusion: Rebuilding the Infrastructure
The infrastructure of communication is broken.
Governments still speak, but fewer and fewer Canadians hear them. Media has narrowed its funnel. Social platforms reward outrage over substance. Local news, once the town hall, is gone. Citizens are left in the dark — not by choice, but because the connective tissue has been cut.
If democracy depends on informed citizens, then repairing this infrastructure is as urgent as repairing bridges, rail lines, or power grids. It means rebuilding local journalism. It means governments treating communication as part of governing, not as PR. And it means citizens — you, me, our neighbours — stepping up to share, connect, and talk about what’s happening.
Because if we don’t, the vacuum won’t stay empty. It will be filled by those who benefit most from our silence.
And the stakes are not abstract. When half of Canadians don’t even know their federal government has committed to cutting 15% of spending over the next three years, that’s not a gap — it’s a chasm. People will wake up to cuts they never saw coming, blindsided and angry, when they might have been prepared, engaged, or even mobilized if the information had reached them in time.
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About the Author
Leni Spooner is a Canadian writer, researcher, and civic storyteller. She is the founder of Between the Lines, a publication focused on the quiet forces shaping politics, infrastructure, and public life. Her work blends historical context with present-day analysis, helping readers see the deeper patterns that shape national decisions.