At three years old, the (new) Western Standard is still a spring chicken on the Canadian media landscape, but it feels much older when I take stock of it today. .Three years ago, we relaunched the Western Standard after it had been out of publication since 2007. It was a small, shoe-string operation, run out of my dining room. By refusing to accept the federal government's media bailout, we financially handicapped ourselves from the start. .Our first major hire was News Editor Dave Naylor, who came to us after a long and storied career at the Calgary Sun. He worked for peanuts for more than a year as we boot-strapped our young publication from obscure start-up, into one of the most-read news and opinion platforms in Western Canada. .When we introduced a paywall in the spring of 2021 it was a controversial move, but one that was vital to our growth. Overnight, we were able to start hiring new staff and paying the ones we had. We started attracting investors, and professionalizing the company. .On our three year anniversary, I'm sitting back to take stock of just how far we have come in a short period of time. .We now have eight full-time reporters, 14 staff, and more than 20 freelance columnists and contributors. Our online readership is in the top tier of media across Western Canada, and we break an inordinate number of important exclusive stories. We have a relatively large headquarters in Calgary, and bureaus established in Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, and on Parliament Hill. .The Western Standard occupies a relatively unique place in the Canadian media landscape, positioned between the legacy/mainstream media and the independent/activist media. We have sought since the beginning to adopt the practices and structure of the legacy/mainstream publications — at least as we romanticize them to be — infused with the spirit and aggressiveness of the independent media. To wit, our newsroom and opinion columnists are made up with many who spent their careers to that point in the legacy/mainstream media, but became disillusioned with it, and young blood that we train ourselves. Hell, we even have one former CBC reporter. .When we are welcoming new staff, I explain to them that we are not conservative media, but media for conservatives. That is, we do not do conservative propaganda or service Conservative parties. Instead, we do our best to provide credible and factual reporting on issues that matter to more conservatively oriented Westerners. Our readers aren't going to get Conservative Party talking points repackaged as news, but they are going to get news that speaks to the issues that conservative-leaning people care about. And our reporters writing the news are required to hold no party membership while they are in the employ of the Western Standard. .Our opinion columnists have a different mission. They are not expected to be objective reporters. On the contrary, they are expected to express their personal views on a given topic boldly and irreverently. Sometimes those views line up with Conservative parties. Sometimes they do not. .I get asked periodically if I would ever consider a return to politics. My answer is always an emphatic 'no'. What we have built together is too important. The last time the West seriously asserted itself, it had Ted Byfield's Alberta Report driving the car. Its influence in making Albertans — and Westerners more broadly — politically and regionally conscience was paramount. It's pages reported on stories the mainstream outlets wouldn't touch, and its opinion columnists quite literally invented the slogan, "The West Wants In". .Without the Alberta Report in its day, it is likely that Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Program would have been triumphant. It is likely that nobody would have ever heard of Preston Manning and the Reform Party. Or for that matter, Stephen Harper. .I am not Ted Byfield, but I aspire to have the Western Standard carry his torch through the trails the West will face for a long time to come. .At three years old, the Western Standard has set down firm roots, but it is still young; and we have a long road ahead to travel together.
