The Globe and Mail is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it falls slightly behind the Toronto Star in overall weekly circulation because the Star publishes a Sunday edition, whereas the Globe does not. The Globe and Mail is regarded by some as Canada's "newspaper of record".
The Globe and Mails predecessors, The Globe and The Mail and Empire were both established in the 19th century. The former was established in 1844, while the latter was established in 1895 through a merger of The Toronto Mail and The Empire. In 1936, The Globe and The Mail and Empire merged to form The Globe and Mail. The newspaper was acquired by FP Publications in 1965, who later sold the paper to the Thomson Corporation in 1980. In 2001, the paper merged with broadcast assets held by BCE Inc., to form the joint venture Bell Globemedia. Direct control of the newspaper was reacquired by the Thomson family through its holding company, The Woodbridge Company, in 2010. The Woodbridge Company acquired BCE's remaining stake in the newspaper in 2015.
The predecessor to The Globe and Mail was called The Globe; it was founded in 1844 by Scottish immigrant George Brown, who became a Father of Confederation. Brown's liberal politics led him to court the support of the Clear Grits, a precursor to the modern Liberal Party of Canada. The Globe began in Toronto as a weekly party organ for Brown's Reform Party, but seeing the economic gains he could make in the newspaper business, Brown soon targeted a wide audience of liberal-minded freeholders. He selected as the motto for the editorial page a quotation from Junius, "The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures." The quotation is carried on the editorial page to this day.
By the 1850s, The Globe had become an independent and well-regarded daily newspaper.