Today’s lower voter turnout linked to death of Reform Party
It’s agreed then; the campaign is a race to the bottom. Turnout by all accounts will be dismal. It has dropped like a stone since 1993. There is a reason for this. I found it buried in a cardboard box of news clipping, yellowed and Scotch-taped. It was an old Calgary Herald story by a […]
In truth, Sun TV represents no change in character at all
Sun TV, to debut today, marks a revival of old-time Ottawa journalism. “Good luck,” wrote a former CBC executive, Richard Stursberg; “We would be pleased to have a new competitor.” Bent on dissent, outspoken to a fault, the Sun style is brawling and unapologetic, in the manner of the London Evening Standard that once published […]
Harper should have stayed home and waved from a balcony
Did you hear the one about the reporter who was refused permission to take a picture of the Peace Tower? Every agency of government has a “communications” department funded by taxpayers and mandated to, well, communicate. Reporters deal with them daily in assembling the hundreds of small facts that make up a newspaper or broadcast. […]
This campaign: it’s about one man and how he’s run the government
Is there anyone in Canada with no opinion of Stephen Harper? He is praised as a blue-eyed crusader against Bolshevism, and cursed as a craven schemer who’d cheat at Monopoly. This is not a man who inspires indifference. Apologists portray him as Everyman, but have to reach for it. “True, Stephen Harper is prime minister,” […]
If Harper’s re-elected, feds will run up debt 34 per cent
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, if re-elected, will run up the debt 34 per cent. He has spent it on tennis courts and playground equipment and tax credits on bathroom tiling. If the NDP wrote last week’s budget, pundits would have hollered “Marx” and flung themselves out of windows. But it was a Conservative budget with […]
Journalism pay so poor job listings typically quote no figure at all
Who’d study four years at university for a shot at a job that pays a bus driver’s wage? Thousands would, eagerly. The phenomenon rates as news for any journalist—except the study is journalism, at Carleton University in Ottawa. The tuition totals some $28,000 for the four-year course. Only one in eight applicants ever work in […]
Cutting corporate taxes in a deficit year like stealing money from your children
Just in time for St. Patrick’s, a sentimental and ironic tale—on tax policy, begorrah. Once Jean Chrétien was chieftain and went on a world tour when he happened to land in Dublin. It was June 14, 1999. Spring was in bloom. Ireland had cut corporate taxes to 12.5 per cent, the lowest rate of any […]
Reporters should ask tough questions, that’s how it’s supposed to work
OTTAWA—In newsroom phraseology it’s called “asking the question.” People who work with words might contrive a more elegant phrase but “asking the question” will do. It is purposefully blunt. “Asking the question” implies reporters must press an enquiry plainly, regardless of discomfort or embarrassment it may cause a public figure. The practice goes to the […]
In their winter of despair, Libs can’t even talk hockey
Stéphane Dion was striding into Parliament’s Centre Block, late for Question Period, when a security guard asked him for ID: “Card, monsieur.” Dion was incredulous. He straightened his shoulders and snapped off his toque, too angry to speak. There were apologies all ’round. Forgotten by voters, ignored by pundits, Dion is always there to remind […]
Few among us can resist self-aggrandizing tales of childhood hardship, a deeply satisfying ritual
Belinda Stronach, millionairess, was once campaigning to lead the country when a reporter asked about her fabulous wealth. Stronach did not bat an eye. “I think it’s important to note that I did grow up in an immigrant household,” she said. Her father Frank, rated by Canadian Business as one of the 50 richest men […]
