The Globe and Mail has reported that a group of lenders led by five banks has taken ownership of Canwest LP, which owns the Vancouver Sun, the Province, and nine community papers in Metro Vancouver.

Since the mid 1990s, the Vancouver Sun and the Province have also devoted massive numbers of column inches to studies and commentaries from the Fraser Institute, which is the most right-wing think tank in Canada. We can thank the Aspers for that.

From 2005 until the start of the 2009 provincial election campaign, the Vancouver Sun very rarely included NDP MLAs' pictures in the paper, which was an enormous gift to Premier Campbell's B.C. Liberals. Campbell's public affairs bureau repaid the favour by carpet bombing the Canwest press with government advertising.

The Vancouver Sun endorsed the Stockwell Day-led Canadian Alliance in the 2000 federal election. The paper's editorials have also consistently supported Stephen Harper's actions and vehemently opposed the Liberal-NDP coalition to bring him down in late 2008.

In addition, the Canwest press has run very little critical commentary about the war in Afghanistan, which is opposed by a majority of Canadians. And it has been a cheerleader of the government's public-private parterships in health care, which will undermine Medicare.

Don't kid yourself. Neither the Vancouver Sun nor the Province will make an abrupt left turn under new corporate ownership. But there is a chance that whoever controls the papers in the future will realize the folly of the Asper-Conrad Black approach, which has been to promote the right wingers to the exclusion of almost everyone else.

That just ended up marginalizing the corporate press and reduced its appeal, its influence, and its profitability. A smart capitalist owner will realize this and bring about a more balanced approach, if for no other reason than to benefit the shareholders.