Canadian mainstream media dropped the 2025 federal budget like a hot rock after just 48 hours. A $78.3-billion deficit, plans to eliminate 40,000 public-service jobs, and billions in new defence spending dominated headlines on November 4 and 5. Then, almost overnight, CBC, CTV, Global News, and the Toronto Star abandoned the story the moment an MP crossed the floor to the Liberals and Conservative caucus tensions surfaced. What the government billed as a “generational shift” disappeared from view, replaced by relentless coverage of Pierre Poilievre’s supposed leadership meltdown.
Even more troubling, the media ignored some of the budget’s harshest and most controversial cuts: a $4.23 billion reduction to Veterans Affairs Canada over four years, jeopardizing mental-health supports and rehabilitation for those who served; a 2% trim to Indigenous Services and Crown-Indigenous Relations totaling nearly $2.3 billion by 2030, delaying clean-water projects and reconciliation; quietly defunding national parks and stretching food-safety oversight thin; and minor policing adjustments the government swears won’t touch front lines. Yet while slashing these essentials, the budget eliminates the luxury tax on yachts over $250,000 and private jets over $100,000—effectively handing tax relief to the ultra-wealthy for their toys.
Millions of Canadians who tune in nightly deserve to know how this soaring deficit will affect their taxes, why veterans are losing billions in support, how parks will stay open with less money, why Indigenous communities are still waiting for promised infrastructure, and whether public safety is truly protected—all while the rich get easier access to luxury yachts and jets. Instead, they’re served endless loops of Poilievre dodging cameras and “crisis” headlines. By November 9, one of the most consequential budgets in years had been buried beneath partisan spectacle, leaving voters clueless about cuts that will hurt real people for years to come.