About Western Standard

Western Standard

The Western Standard is a Canadian conservative news and commentary media outlet based in Calgary, Alberta. Operated by Western Standard New Media Corp under president Derek Fildebrandt, it publishes online news and opinion from a right-leaning perspective, with bureaus in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, and Ottawa supplementing its Calgary headquarters. The outlet also publishes a print magazine, making it one of the few Canadian conservative digital outlets with a foot in both online and print media — a deliberate echo of the opinion-journal tradition from which its name descends. Its revenue comes from subscriptions and advertising, from an audience that pays for journalism reflecting its worldview.

Overview

The Western Standard covers Canadian politics — with an emphasis on Western Canadian perspectives — alongside the cultural and economic issues that animate the conservative movement. Its positioning reflects a long-standing sentiment in Alberta and the West: that the country's national media, concentrated in Toronto and Ottawa, do not adequately represent western viewpoints, and that a dedicated western conservative outlet is necessary to correct the imbalance. The outlet's bureaus across Western Canada and in Ottawa give it a footprint unusual for an independent digital publication, allowing it to cover provincial politics in multiple provinces alongside federal affairs — and giving western readers a news organization that treats their region as the centre of the story rather than as a distant dateline.

History

The Western Standard's name carries history: it revives the title of a conservative magazine founded in the mid-2000s by Ezra Levant — the same Levant who would later found Rebel News. The original Western Standard, launched in 2004, was a brash attempt to build a Canadian conservative magazine in the American mould; it published for three years before ceasing in 2007. The revival of the name for the digital outlet connects the current publication to that earlier insurgency — a lineage of western conservative media entrepreneurship that runs from the print magazine through the digital present. For readers who remember the original, the name signals continuity of mission: an unapologetically conservative voice, rooted in the West, unafraid of the country's media establishment. The modern Western Standard was built by Derek Fildebrandt, a former Alberta politician — he served as a Wildrose and later United Conservative Party MLA — who moved from elected office into media entrepreneurship. Fildebrandt is the company's president and majority shareholder, giving the outlet a founder-led character typical of independent digital media.

The outlet's newsroom was anchored by the hiring of Dave Naylor, a former city editor with the Calgary Sun, as news editor and minority shareholder. Naylor's appointment signalled journalistic ambition: a veteran of Calgary's daily newspaper wars bringing mainstream newsroom experience to a conservative startup. All of the company's shareholders reside in Alberta, underscoring the outlet's western identity and its independence from central-Canadian media ownership.

The Western Standard grew through the late 2010s and 2020s alongside the broader expansion of conservative digital media in Canada — a period that saw the rise of Rebel News, True North, the Post Millennial, and a host of smaller outlets. Within that ecosystem, the Western Standard carved out a specifically western identity, headquartered in Calgary — the heart of Canadian conservatism — with bureaus spanning the West.

Content and Editorial Approach

The Western Standard publishes news and social commentary from a conservative perspective. Its coverage emphasizes the issues central to western Canadian conservatism: energy policy and pipelines — the lifeblood of Alberta's economy and the perennial flashpoint of federal-provincial conflict — federal-provincial relations, taxation and government spending, gun rights, and the cultural debates around free expression and identity. The outlet's framing consistently reflects the western alienation narrative — the view, with deep roots in the region's political history from the National Energy Program to the present, that federal policies made in Ottawa disadvantage the West — and its commentary gives voice to the politicians, activists, and thinkers who champion that perspective.

The print magazine extends the brand beyond the daily digital churn, offering longer-form conservative commentary and analysis in a format that recalls the opinion journals of an earlier era. For subscribers, the magazine provides the depth and permanence that the website's rapid publishing cycle cannot.

Coverage and Audience

The Western Standard's bureaus — in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, and Ottawa, in addition to the Calgary headquarters — give it coverage across Western Canada's major centres plus the national capital. This multi-bureau structure is ambitious for an independent outlet and reflects the company's commitment to original reporting rather than mere commentary: the bureaus exist to cover provincial legislatures, local issues, and regional politics firsthand. Few digital-native publications in Canada, left or right, maintain such a distributed newsroom; the bureaus are both a journalistic asset and a statement of intent — that the Western Standard aims to be a real news organization, not just a website with opinions.

Its audience is the Canadian conservative movement, with a particular emphasis on Western Canada: the voters, activists, and donors who form the base of conservative politics in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia's interior. The subscription revenue model indicates an audience willing to pay for the outlet's perspective — readers who see the Western Standard not just as a news source but as an institution of their political movement.

Role in Conservative Media

The Western Standard is part of the diverse and sometimes fractious ecosystem of Canadian conservative media. Unlike the more confrontational Rebel News or the now-rebranded True North, the Western Standard has positioned itself as a news organization with traditional journalistic structures — bureaus, a news editor with mainstream credentials, and a print magazine — applying them to an explicitly conservative editorial mission. Its western identity distinguishes it from the Toronto- and Ottawa-based conservative outlets, giving voice to the regional perspective that has long animated Canadian conservatism. In a movement often divided between populist insurgents and institutional conservatives, the Western Standard represents the institutional pole: a publication that wants to be taken seriously as journalism while making no apology for its politics.

Ownership

The Western Standard is operated by Western Standard New Media Corp. Its president is Derek Fildebrandt, the former Alberta MLA, who is also the majority shareholder. Fildebrandt's path from the legislature to the newsroom is itself a statement about the outlet's character: a politician who decided that shaping public debate through journalism could be as consequential as shaping it through legislation. Dave Naylor, the former Calgary Sun city editor, serves as news editor and holds a minority share — the newsroom professional balancing the founder's political instincts. All of the company's shareholders reside in Alberta — a deliberate structure that keeps the outlet's ownership rooted in the region it claims to represent, and that insulates it from the central-Canadian capital that funds so much of the country's media. The company's revenue is generated through subscriptions and advertising, making it dependent on its audience rather than on corporate or government support.

Digital Presence

The Western Standard publishes at westernstandard.news, its digital home for news, commentary, and subscription services. The website is the outlet's primary publishing platform, supplemented by the print magazine for longer-form content. Like other independent digital outlets, it relies on social media distribution and email newsletters to reach its audience, building a direct relationship with the conservative readers who sustain it through subscriptions — readers who have chosen to pay for journalism that speaks from and to their part of the country.