A federally-backed foundation is offering journalists up to $35,000 in cash grants for election coverage, with a judging panel chaired by former Winnipeg Free Press editor Margo Goodhand, who previously encouraged Liberals to “stand up to the bullies” in the Conservative Party.
“Grants of up to $35,000 per journalist will be awarded to support election-focused journalism involving travel that would not have occurred but for the grant,” the Michener Awards Foundation announced.
“Grant recipients will need to demonstrate how their work will add material additional benefit to the journalistic coverage of the election.”
Describing the Election 2025 Fund as “a timely, non-partisan granting initiative to support journalists,” the Foundation did not respond to questions on how recipients would cover candidates who oppose media subsidies.
Blacklock's Reporter says a total of $500,000 will be distributed.
“Applications will be judged by the Michener Awards Foundation,” the organization stated.
Goodhand, now president of the Foundation, previously wrote a Winnipeg Free Press column titled, “We Need Justin To Silence Bullies,” urging support for the Liberals in the 2015 election. She clarified she was “not a member of the Liberal Party” but expressed hope for its victory.
“I am watching new Liberal leader Justin Trudeau these days as he goes up against Team Harper, and I have to admit that I wish him well,” Goodhand wrote. “I need him to stand up to the bullies.”
She also described Trudeau as “earnest and forthright,” contrasting him with then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“He’s not intellectual like his father, Pierre. He is possibly more like his mother Margaret, more emotional and empathetic.”
Other judges on the panel include former iPolitics editor James Baxter, now a Senate publicist, ex-Toronto Star editor Michael Cooke, former CBC managing editor Robert Russo, and Paul Deegan, CEO of News Media Canada, a lobbying group for subsidized press.
The Michener Awards Foundation specified that funding would primarily be available to “qualified Canadian journalism organizations,” a legal term for newsrooms that accept federal assistance under a $595 million subsidy program managed by the Canada Revenue Agency.
The election grants are also co-sponsored by the Rideau Hall Foundation and Gordon Foundation, co-founded by former Liberal finance minister Walter Gordon.
Among parties with Commons representation, only the Conservative Party has opposed ongoing media subsidies. Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre called federal aid a partisan tool to “leverage coverage in its favour,” telling reporters in 2024, “That undermines confidence among Canadians in news media.”