Conservative magazines have always had a struggle

There is an almost wistful note to a posting on the blog enterstageright about the failure of Canada to spawn a successful conservative magazine as influential in this country as the National Review was in the United States.

Much of the apparent fragility of conservatism in Canada arises from the lack of an intellectual infrastructure outside of various party structures -- and especially of a major, highly influential publication like the early National Review in the United States.

The posting is an interesting compilation of the starts, stops and near misses (mentioning some publications that were never intended to carry the banner -- things like Influence, The Next City and The Idler). Mark Wegierski doesn't pull punches when it comes to cataloguing the shortcomings of various publications. In particularly he says of the Western Standard, the heir to the Byfield stable of publications (Alberta Report):

Although The Western Standard is to some extent playing that role, it is restricted by its newsmagazine format -- which often tends to the superficial -- and its somewhat regional nature.

Not entering into Wegierski's posting is any suggestion that perhaps such a flagship publication for the right never materialized because there wasn't a sufficient audience for it in this country. Perhaps conservatives are also fairly tight with their money, although Conrad Black is reported ot have said in his glory days that he would start a "National Review North". We know how that turned out.