Meet a Subscriber: Yohanna from Winnipeg

A Lean Out reader shares her reflections on the state of Canada (and its media)

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Late last year, a long-time reader commented that Lean Out could be better at building community. It’s easy to feel isolated, she wrote, particularly when you don’t hold mainstream views on the big issues of the day; it would be nice to feel more connected to fellow readers. She made excellent points. And her note reminded me that I’d heard from others who wanted to hear more from people who were not writers and thinkers, but who may have unique insights to share about the state of our world. It occurred to me that we could combine these goals for 2025 — more community and more interviews with regular people — and do a series with subscribers that taps into your experiences and reflections and shares them with the Lean Out readership.

Today, I’m happy to debut a new column, Meet a Subscriber, that will allow you to get to know Lean Out readers across North America and around the world.

Here is our debut conversation, lightly edited for length. Meet Yohanna from Winnipeg, the reader who inspired our new feature.

Tara: You’re a long-time subscriber to Lean Out. By way of introduction, what do you want people to know about you?

Yohanna: I’m a typical Canadian in some ways. I am now retired, and I am a middle-class person. I have a family. I have concerns about life for my children, my grandchildren. I don’t know, I see myself as an average person.

Tara: What are you thinking about the country right now, and how it’s changed in the last decade? How are you feeling about the direction that Canada is going?

Yohanna: I’m quite concerned about the direction of Canada, for a number of reasons. One is I’m very concerned about the state of our government — like right this moment. I’m concerned that our House of Commons will not be operating and that our government is prorogued until the end of March. I’m very, very concerned about that. Because it means that Parliament is not functioning, and our government is not doing their job. It means that questions are not being asked in the House of Commons. I also feel that the government is not considering what’s best for Canadians. I know that polling shows that most Canadians would favour an election, and I feel that the governing party, the Liberal Party, is putting their needs before the needs of Canadians, who I think would like a change.

When I look at our country now, and I compare it to our country 10 years ago, I’m concerned about quite a few things. I'm concerned about our economy. 10 years ago, I think the average Canadian did not think about our economy very much. And I think that is because it was running well. It’s kind of a luxury to not have to worry about things, but I think that that’s the situation we were in back then. Now Canadians are struggling. People are very concerned about the price of food. They are very concerned about how much gas costs, how much heating costs. They’re very concerned about housing.

I’ve seen several people interview young folks with families, people who are starting out. [They are] talking about how they are paying $2,000 in rent, and they are in a one-bedroom apartment, that they have two kids, and they are picking up their third job. I just am quite concerned about those people.

I’m also quite concerned about people who are on a fixed income. Sometimes I’ll go to a Safeway in my neighbourhood. It just so happens that there are a lot of retired folks that live in my neighbourhood. I will watch people go to the meat counter and I will watch them look at the meat — and look at the meat for a really long time. I’m there too; I’m looking for bargains. I’ll see them look and look and look, and then I’ll see them walk away. There is nothing sadder to me than seeing an elderly person who may not feel that they can purchase groceries. That is just very sad to me. So, I am quite concerned about the wellbeing of my fellow Canadians.

I’m also concerned that the government that we have right now seems tone-deaf. Canadians are saying that they are concerned about these things, but the government just doesn’t seem to be responding in a way that would be helpful. They seem more ideological. They have an idea of what they want, the things that are important to them. And if Canadians are struggling, it’s really our fault for not understanding that what they’re doing is best for us. There’s an authoritarianism there that really concerns me.

One of the examples of that that I saw was in the House of Commons, with one of the MPs [Health Minister Mark Holland]. Someone in the opposition [raised] the price of gas, saying that Canadians would have a hard taking their kids on a road trip. This gentlemen stood up and said that those parents should be thinking about global warming; they shouldn’t be thinking about their kids. They shouldn’t be thinking about taking that road trip. And you know what? My heart just broke. I heard so much applause coming from around him, members of his own party. They thought that was funny. They thought that was a joke. They applauded.

I thought about a young family. I thought about them paying high rent and struggling to pay for nutritious food. The kids are on their summer break and the only thing they can afford is to put their children in a car — it might not be the nicest car in the world — and get that tent from Canadian Tire and go to a beach nearby, go to a provincial park, go to a national park. It might not be far away, but it’s going to give those children a wonderful experience. It’s going to give them a Canadian experience, something that so many of us have enjoyed in the past. These are families that don’t have a private cottage. These are families that can’t afford to pay $200 for a hotel room. When those folks [in the House] laughed … honestly, I was horrified by that.

Tara: How are you feeling about the media? What is your level of trust?

Yohanna: My level of trust in the legacy media is not what it was 10 years ago, or five years ago. I’m very selective about my viewing. I don’t necessarily believe everything that is said when I listen to a story on the legacy media. I’m very concerned about omission. So, when I see a story on the legacy media, I’m often asking myself, “What is the other side?” Because often the other side isn’t there.

For example, when we had our big convoy of truckers into Ottawa, at that time, I was looking at the legacy media. I was looking at all of the stations. I was trying to learn about it. Honestly, judging by what they said, I was quite alarmed. And so, I was watching. I thought, “Okay, well, when they get there, somebody is going to be interviewing these people, and I’m going to find out who these people are. Who are these people with the bouncy castles? Who are these people with the big trucks? Who are they? Because they look like my neighbours. They look like people in any town or city in Canada. They have kids. They have dogs.” All I was hearing was negative things. I mean, I understand why people wouldn’t like how noisy they were. Or maybe they would have liked their protests to be shorter. I don’t live in Ottawa, so I can’t really comment on that. But I was waiting for the stories — and I never, ever saw anybody interview a trucker, or one of the people there. I only heard other people being interviewed about them.

That’s when I started really thinking. This is an important story for our country. I may not agree with why they are there — or I might agree — but nobody has given me the opportunity to learn. After that point, I started looking for more independent media options. I read your letter about why you left the CBC, and so I did want to support Lean Out. I started looking for other places where I could find that different perspective that I wasn’t hearing in our legacy media.

Tara: What do you most want from our media in Canada?

Yohanna: I’m looking for media that share stories from a wide variety of perspectives. I’m looking for the whole story. For example, maybe it’s a story about wildfires, because we had that big fire in Jasper. I saw articles about climate change and why that had contributed, but it was harder to find articles about how maybe mismanagement of the forest, the fact that deadwood hadn’t been cleared, [contributed]. So, I want to know the different perspectives, the different reasons why something happened, or may have happened. And then I want to be able to look at that and decide for myself.

That is what I’m looking for. That is what I’m desperate for.

I pay more attention to media that does not receive support from the government. In an ideal world, we would have media that does not receive support from the government. I’m not saying that people are trying to be biased or skewed in their coverage. I kind of trust that people are trying to do the best they can. But I think it would be a natural tendency, just because you might want a government to stay in power if you know that your publication is going to continue to receive money. So, I’m looking for media that does not receive government funding.

I’m also looking for objectivity and fact-based reporting. I want the facts. I just want the facts. I want information presented in a factual way. I do not want people trying to scaremonger, fearmonger. I don’t want people trying to appeal to emotions rather than critical thinking. I want people who are willing to just present the information to the best of their ability, in a factual way.

In terms of what I’m looking for in terms of commentary — people like you who share different perspectives, and there’s people on our legacy media who also have that kind of job — I want critical thinkers. I want people who ask good, thoughtful questions. I want people who don’t believe everything they hear. They are thinking about things with a little bit of skepticism, and they are going to do that investigative work. But if they think they know the answer and they are not willing to question …

I mean, for me, when I looked at the trucker convoy, I had just one simple question that led me to think that I wanted to hear their story and it wasn’t being told. I kept looking at the bouncy castles. I kept thinking to myself, “OK, if these people are so bad, why are there bouncy castles there? Why are there children?” I want people that ask questions. That’s what I’m looking for.

Tara: What would it take for you to start having more faith in our media? What would be a sign to you that we’re getting our acts together?

Yohanna: I would like to see our legacy media, some of our national papers and national outlets, take responsibility for when they did not do their job. I know that often all of us, when we don’t do our job — including me, we’re not perfect — we want to just move on. It’s kind of like, “Okay. Well, that was then. Everybody was kind of upset then. Everybody was worried then. Things happened. We didn’t do our job. We didn’t ask the right questions. But maybe people didn’t notice. We’re just going to move on.” Well, people did notice. There were some big stories in Canada where people didn’t do their job.

I would like somebody to say, “You know what? We haven’t been doing our job. Canadians are saying that we’re not sharing everybody’s perspective, that maybe some of our news stories are biased — either because of what we’re saying, or by omission, by not showing that other perspective. We hear you; we’re going to do better. We’re going to go back and we’re going to try to look at that story from a different perspective. We’re going to talk to some of the people involved.”

Honestly, if somebody takes responsibility, I’m willing to give them a pass. I really am. They could also say, “Going forward, we’re going to do a better job.” But I think that if they continue on the path that they are on, more and more people will start looking at independent media, and less and less people will be looking at our legacy media. I don’t think that we’ll have that place where we can all go — where the average person can get the information and we’re all getting similar information.