I’ve always considered it a problem that Canada’s largest newspaper chain is owned by a U.S. hedge fund with ties to Donald Trump.

But it’s suddenly an urgent problem, now that Trump has been re-elected president of the United States and seems hell-bent on annexing Canada.

Newspapers play a vital role in a functioning democracy. They provide the key ingredient: a well-informed citizenry.

Because of their centrality to the democratic process, Canadian tax and investment laws have aimed to keep newspapers Canadian-owned.

Unfortunately, however, those laws are full of loopholes. And so, in 2010, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government had no trouble permitting the takeover of Canada’s largest newspaper chain — with more than 100 media outlets, including leading dailies like the Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen — by a company called Postmedia, even though Postmedia was owned by several U.S. hedge funds.