Manning Conference featured red-carpet style soirée, while Senators get social … media, that is
Picture this: nearly 600 suited-up students, MPs, and industry leaders exchanging ideas, discussing policy issues and nibbling on appetizers, all with the chance of networking with one of the 14 candidates for the federal Conservative Party leadership. I’d be lying if I said the Trillium Room at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa didn’t look like […]
Fake news not new, not easy to define
TORONTO—What is fake news? The question is dominating political debates after Donald Trump’s extravagant use of the term. The problem is an old one, though it was never raised before because the news, fake or otherwise, were handled only and exclusively by what we call “conventional media.” Debating impartiality of the conventional media in the […]
‘Yelling into an echo chamber doesn’t get you anywhere,’ Clark tells Conservatives ‘to engage’ broadly in the age of social media
OTTAWA—In a time of traditional media concentration and the proliferation of online digital news, the Conservative Party’s best bet for success will be to move beyond communicating with “friendly” publications and engage broadly, said former veteran journalist Tom Clark at the Manning Conference’s panel on political communications in the age of social media on Saturday. […]
#cdnpoli: social media like Twitter can polarize voters and over-simplify issues
The effective use of social media may at one time have given a politician an edge over their opponent. But in a world where President of the United States Donald Trump uses 140-character tweets to address and announce policy issues, and Justin Trudeau is known as the ‘selfie prime minister,’ having at least a bare-minimum presence on […]
Trump isn’t going to be impeached anytime soon, numbers just aren’t there
TORONTO—Donald Trump isn’t going to be impeached. Not anytime soon, anyway. The numbers just aren’t there. Impeachment is about overturning the will of the people. Impeachment shouldn’t ever be easy. In the United States, impeachment has been designed to require a supermajority of legislative votes—and is reserved for what the U.S. Constitution calls “high […]
Did someone say Joe Trudeau? Trudeau-Trump meeting went smoothly, almost
They almost got through it without incident, Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump, in the meeting between the two leaders in Washington, D.C., last week. Mr. Trudeau didn’t get preachy, Mr. Trump didn’t say anything too crazy. There was a photograph that showed Mr. Trudeau looking at an outreached hand of the U.S. president with what […]
What is happening to the Conservative Party of Canada?
GATINEAU, QUE.—The once-mainstream Conservative Party of Canada is in danger of turning into something ugly—a vehicle for intolerance, anger, harsh economic and social remedies, coloured by a sour mistrust of anyone who sees life differently. The question is whether moderate Conservatives, traditional Conservatives, red Tories—even those labels have become sneer-worthy—will intervene before its too late. […]
Politics is getting fast and furious
OAKVILLE, ONT.—One Twitter meme phrase I see a lot of these days says: “Life comes at you fast.” And boy does it ever. In fact, life comes at you especially fast if you work in the realm of politics. I’d even say that one of the most drastic differences between the politics of today and […]
Comedians stepping up as media falls short
It seems only fitting that Samantha Bee is staging a “Not the White House Correspondents Dinner” April 29 to cull the squeamish from the herd attending the conventional Hilton event which, this year, may or may not feature President Donald Trump’s stupendous elevation from punch line to headliner. “The evening is sure to bring plenty […]
Angus launches website for possible NDP leadership run
NDP MP Charlie Angus is acting more and more like someone who’s planning to run for the NDP leadership, but he’s playing hard to get. He recently launched a campaign-style website, charlieangusndp.ca, and promoted it through his Facebook page in attempt to gauge the level of support that’s there if he decides to vie for […]
