If we do have an election this fall I expect to be watching the media as closely as I watch the politicians. Here, before the campaign even begins, is what I expect to see. This is a sentence from Tim Powers in yesterday's Globe and Mail:
Iggy the "world-class leader" has in his nine months of leadership supported a coalition with the socialists and separatists, promised to raise taxes on occasion, abandoned EI reform and cancelled his trip to China after talking endlessly about the importance of that travel.
The prospect of a governing coalition that included the BQ doesn't cause me to feel faint as it appears to do with some, but the fact is that the governing coalition in question consisted of the Liberals and the NDP with the BQ agreeing not to vote it down for 18 months. There's a difference and I'm betting Tim Powers knows there's a difference.
The remarks Ignatieff made about raising taxes were back in April. Iggy allowed at the time that if there was still a structural deficit when the economy recovered that raising taxes would be one possible remedy for it. I remember it well because when he was criticized for his remarks from the right he immediately back-pedaled. I thought his original remarks were a sign of progress, an indication that a politician might actually be ready to discuss the economy as if we're all adults, and was quite disappointed when he appeared to repudiate his original position. But at no time did he promise to raise taxes. He simply didn't.
I didn't have any faith at all in the so-called "blue ribbon" panel that was to review the EI system over the summer. Among other reasons, I expected the Conservatives to do what they've done before: sabotage it so they can then point to it and say "See! Government is broken." If the Liberals got tired of the antics of Diane Finley and Pierre Poilièvre and abandoned the panel, it doesn't mean they've abandoned EI reform. Unless, of course, you're in the Conservative war room.
So the campaign hasn't even begun and we've already got three lies in a single sentence. I understand there's a difference between those who report the news and those who are hired to present opinions. But I would think that even the latter should stay within shouting distance of the truth.
PS to those who support Michael Ignatieff: I hope I haven't raised your expectations because I still don't like him.
He did abandon EI reform, by backing off on his threat to force an election over it and allowing the Conservatives to "study" it instead.
Also, he's the one who PULLED OUT of the coalition (which I'm still bitter about). So we're back up to 3 lies, with 2 of them in that one clause.
I am going to be so miserable. Looking at PB these days, I am already miserable. Steve and Iggy, hyperventilating Young Liberals, electoral "politics" wall to wall ... I am not going to enjoy this.
(One small qualification: I live in a new riding -- ie, new to me, and me to it -- where my vote might actually make a difference. So there's that. But otherwise I am determined to be miserable.)
He did abandon EI reform, by backing off on his threat to force an election over it ...
I take your point. I assumed Powers was referring to the recent decision by the Libs to abandon the panel meetings because the Conservatives had sufficiently monkey-wrenched them to make them useless (except for the propaganda value they now provide Conservatives).
EI reform was really abandoned in January. That's when the leverage the opposition had was at its greatest. But Ignatieff was in a hurry to distance himself from the coalition and settled for some silly soundbites about parole officers and looking stern for the cameras.
If there is an election, I expect it will be the lowest point in our political history (and that is saying a lot given what happened last fall). The Tories are already sending out signals that their strategy will be to polarize the country between "real" Canadians (rural, white, older, Christian) and "internationalist" Canadians (urban, non-white, younger, non-Christian). A few lies at the beginning will be seen as quaint by the end.
I expect the Conservatives to lie. What I'm watching for is all the ways in which the lies are allowed to pass unchallenged or even amplified by the very people who claim to be scrutinizing the politicians and explaining our politics to us.
Of course it isn't all in aid of the Conservatives. But the corporate media, in particular, tend to defend the status quo and at the moment that's a Conservative government.
Note: this comment was edited because I inadvertently referred to the Conservatives as Tories and I swore I'd never do that. - p
Excellent post pogge. I agree that labeling the Harper Conservatives as Tories does a grave disservice to real Tories - even Mulroney. That is part of why they will always be SHITs to me (Secret Harper Imitation Tories). I suspect many Canadians are going to have difficulty wanting to vote for Ignatieff. I imagine we will see him promoting the Liberal team (like Chrétien did in his last campaign). I think Liberal strategists will clue in that the likes of Rae, Dryden, Jennings, Trudeau, McTeague, McCallum, Findlay and yes, Dion, will contrast rather nicely with the bumbling jackanapses of the Harper cabinet.
It might shock some Liberal supporters to hear me say something positive like this but... yes, the Liberals do have a better bench than the Conservatives. It might be worth playing to that.