About Watchman
When it first began publishing in 1890, the Watchman was a politically independent Roman Catholic newspaper. It printed Catholic and general news, sermons, fiction, poetry and advertisements.
The Watchman supported the repeal of the Scott Act and it opposed the disenfranchisement which resulted from the closure of the Legislative Council. At the end of the 1890s, religious articles disappeared from the pages of the Watchman and the paper acguired a Conservative bias, Liberal
corruption and overspending being habitually attacked.
The Conservative bias had disappeared by 1905, however, when the Watchman became politically nonpartisan. Agricultural articles began to appear in the paper during the first decade of the twentieth century. By 1910, the Watchman's political alinement had again changed and it began to support the Liberal party, promoting Laurier, reciprocity and the provincial Liberals. During the last decade of its publishing history, the news coverage in the Watchman became very limited,
with large numbers of anecdotes and short essays appearing in each issue. Editorials during this time dealt with politics, transportation, the war and foreign news, among other topics. The Watchman ceased publication on January 21, 1921.
