Andrew Coyne Resigns as Opinion Editor at National Post After Newspaper Rejects Election Column

Just saw this right now, at the Toronto Star, "Andrew Coyne leaves editor role over National Post’s election endorsement."

And on Twitter:

So anyway… I have resigned as editor of Editorials and Comment for the National Post, effective immediately. I will remain a columnist.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

2. Postmedia executives and I had a professional disagreement. Their view was that the publication of a column by the editorial page editor…

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

3. … dissenting from the Post’s endorsement of the Conservatives would have confused readers and embarrassed the paper.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

4. My view was that that was what I was paid to do as a columnist: give my honest opinion on issues of public interest.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

5. I don’t see public disagreement as confusing. I see it as honest. Readers, in my view, are adults & understand that adults can disagree.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

7. To be clear, the owners and managers of a newspaper have a perfect right to set the paper’s editorial line as they wish.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

8. Likewise they have a perfect right to decide who and what they wish to publish in their pages.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

9. Nobody has a God-given right to be published and the country will get along very well without me telling them how to vote.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

10. My concerns were and are merely a) that there should be no suggestion that I was personally endorsing or voting for the Conservatives.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

11. And b) that I could not do my job as a columnist if I was obliged to stay silent where these conflicted with those of management.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

12. While Postmedia’s intervention was unprecedented in my experience, I could not allow the precedent to stand.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

13. So to protect my reputation and to preserve my editorial freedom as a columnist, I felt it necessary to resign the editorial position.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

14. I think that’s all I need to say on the subject. If anyone’s still interested, I will be voting for the NDP candidate in my riding.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

15. The short-form reasoning: the Conservatives don’t deserve to be re-elected, and the Liberals don’t deserve a majority.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015

*6. The confusion, if any, would have been to have left the impression that the paper’s views were mine, or that my views were the paper’s.

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) October 19, 2015