Reddit is a key platform for linking to, sharing, and discussing Canadian news. But what kinds of new sources are shared and discussed? Which media outlets are shaping the online political conversation on Reddit, and who determines what sources are permitted in these influential spaces of Canada’s digital ecosystem?
We recently evaluated what topics were being discussed on r/Canada, the largest Canada-focused subreddit with over 3.8 million members, as well as the diversity of its userbase (showing that very few users contribute an outsized portion of the content on the subreddit). This report looks at which news sources were present, permitted, and most popular on the subreddit.
We collected the most recent 900 submissions on r/Canada published before April 9, 2025 at 10:38 am EST. These 900 submissions were posted between March 23, 2025 at 2:10 pm EST and April 9, 2025 at 10:36 am EST.
Summary:
CBC news sources were overwhelmingly the most popular
We found that on r/Canada during the election period, the CBC was by far the most commonly linked news source. In fact, 185 of the 900 posts were from the CBC, making up 21% of all posts. Note that X/bluesky/substack/blog links cannot be posted on r/Canada as per the community guidelines.
This speaks to the importance of the CBC in the online news landscape. In a time when the number of local news outlets is rapidly declining and corporate media consolidations and service reductions are frequent, it’s clear that our public broadcaster is vital to the Canadian news ecosystem. These posting habits suggest that Canadians online rely on and trust CBC sources.
Canadian mainstream media makes up most submissions on r/Canada
Submissions on r/Canada largely link to Canadian mainstream media outlets.
61% of all submissions to r/Canada were links to one of the six legacy media outlets: CBC, Globe and Mail, National Post, CTV News, Toronto Star, and Global News.
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Even with few submissions, The Beaverton is highly popular among r/Canada users
We also evaluated the cumulative Reddit score that submissions featuring links from each outlet received. On Reddit, users can give one “upvote” or “downvote” to any submission or comment to help shift its popularity up or down in a community or discussion. These votes are referred to as “Reddit Karma”.
Analyzing these votes showed us how popular satirical news is on Reddit. On r/Canada, we found that The Beaverton, a satirical Canadian news site, is particularly popular. While featured in just 13 out of 900 posts, The Beaverton received nearly the same amount of upvotes over those 13 submissions as outlets like the Globe and Mail did in 107 submissions. The Beaverton received the fourth highest total of upvotes in our dataset. It is the only source in this dataset with a clear comedic lens.
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Users on r/Canada have an appetite for non-traditional avenues into political discussions. This suggests the potential power of comedy to serve as an important access point for civic conversation and engagement.
Media ownership
Since major Canadian media companies own multiple news outlets, looking at individual sources only tells us part of the story. When we grouped submissions based on the companies that own these news outlets, CBC still remained #1. However the companies that own the next five legacy media outlets most referenced above (Globe and Mail, National Post, CTV News, Toronto Star, and Global News) made up 49.7% of all submissions (their parent companies being The Woodbridge Company Limited, Postmedia, Bell Media, Torstar Corporation, and Corus Media).
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*Though The Canadian Press is listed separately, it is partially owned by The Woodbridge Company Limited, Torstar Corporation and Multiple (Woodbridge, Torstar, Power Corporation of Canada)
**Though Rogers Communications is listed as having six different outlets, all six are CityTV outlets
We’ll note that although PostMedia produces Canadian journalism, the majority of PostMedia shares (66%) are currently owned by American media conglomerate Chatham Asset Management. So although we classify them as Canadian media and they do produce journalism about Canada, they are American-owned.
Postmedia outlets were some of the most common sources on r/Canada. They made up 6 of the top 16 most commonly sourced outlets amongst r/Canada submissions.
15 different Postmedia outlets were included in our dataset:National Post, Toronto Sun, Financial Post, Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Edmonton Journal, London Free Press, Kingston Whig Standard, Windsor Star, Simcoe Reformer, Telegraph Journal, Winnipeg Sun, and Regina Leader Post. We found that although Postmedia outlets were posted frequently on r/Canada, compared to other Canadian legacy media outlets, Postmedia submissions received significantly less upvotes.
American media (not including PostMedia outlets) made up 6% of all submissions, and other international media made up 4% of submissions. The most frequently recurring media companies (discussed above) made up 70% of submissions. This leaves less than 20% for all other submissions, which includes satirical news (solely The Beaverton), non-news posts (such as discussion posts, links to government services, and polling and election projections), and articles from academic institutions, organizations, and think-tanks. In this breakdown, there is very little space for Canadian independent media or smaller media companies onr/Canada.
While the consolidation of legacy corporate media is one factor in their ubiquity on r/Canada, it is likely that the moderation rules of r/Canada are also contributing to the type of sources that are posted or are even permitted to be discussed on the subreddit.
Vague rules and moderation efforts make it unclear which Canadian news sources are permitted
r/Canada has rules about what type of content can be posted. The following section of their rules page is the most in-depth explanation of what sources they restrict:
Low content posts are not permitted. These include but are not limited to: National Post First Reading, Financial Post Posthaste, and CBC First Person submissions, along with YouTube/video posts (especially self-promoted), primarily video/audio stories on websites (including ones accepted as reputable sources), "clickbait", podcasts or similar audio links, Twitter, other social media, advocacy groups, new media organizations without an established track record, political party-affiliated media, or fringe media groups. We do not accept blogs or substacks. If you would like to submit content from these sources please send a modmail first.
This vague guideline makes it difficult for users to discern what sources are allowed to be posted and which aren’t. This could cause a chilling effect, limiting what users try to post on the subreddit. Simultaneously, some users have reported that posts from certain independent outlets have been taken down because they contain links to “fringe” outlets, but without a public explanation or justification of why certain outlets are considered “fringe” by the moderation team.
We believe that this is reducing the visibility of non-mainstream Canadian news sources. This includes independent Canadian media, non-profit media organizations, and independent journalists and “new media” journalists who publish news on different platforms and via different mediums than legacy media. Arguably, these are the kind of sources most in need of exposure on Reddit in order to survive.
This lack of media diversity and unclear regulation about which Canadian outlets or websites are permitted on r/Canada is evidence of the power of moderators to shape online political conversation for millions of Canadians. This subreddit aims to represent Canada and Canadian discussion, yet is run by a handful of unelected moderators who volunteer their labour to moderate these spaces for free. Recognizing the unpaid labour that moderators on r/Canada provide, we suggest that Reddit itself should be providing more tools to encourage democratic expansion through new moderation policies and community-rule making practices. Our analysis also suggests that Reddit needs to be more transparent and accountable about the kinds of media sources that are permitted or not on a subreddit. Not only that, but users should have public space to voice and advocate for their desired policy revisions, i.e. arguing for or against the inclusion of a particular source. Keep an eye out for a more detailed analysis from VERIFIED about Reddit moderation practices, post-election.
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