Email to Editor: “Why don’t you rename your magazine Conservative Contractor?”

I received a sarcastic email last month, suggesting that we change the name of Canadian Contractor to Conservative Contractor. The reader said that we had an anti-Liberal bias that offended him – then he asked us to take him off our mailing list. We did.

I thought it would be useful to devote a few paragraphs here to what we are and what we are not. When we started this magazine in 2000, our idea was to give pro renovators and custom homebuilders a magazine that wasn’t constrained from talking bluntly about regulation and taxation in this industry. We wanted to have an outspoken forum where contractors could talk about what was working for them, business-wise, as well as what was making it hard for them to stay in business, including useless regulation and over-taxation wherever they occur.

Over the almost 20 years we have been publishing, we have become a really strong voice for the entrepreneurial, independent contracting firm. It goes without saying that many (not all) of these business owners are fiscally conservative. We do not have a large constituency of readers who are members of the big construction unions but we welcome their contributions, too. We are trying to give our loyal readers a place where they can speak whatever is on their mind.

If we truly were a “conservative” trade magazine, you would not be seeing such a large number of articles from us on Net Zero Energy construction to combat climate change. Neither would you be seeing our frequent articles promoting a more equal balance of men and women in the trades. We will remain a magazine that has no political affiliation, other than promoting policies that are good for the businesses and the well-being of our loyal contractor readers.