Famous firsts are never so poignant as little-known lasts
Famous firsts are never so poignant as little-known lasts. It is the end of eras that make us pause: the last province to enforce prohibition (Prince Edward Island, 1948); the last CN Rail excursion by steam locomotive (1963), the last commercial use of Morse code (1999). Add 2008: The last cry for a federal bailout […]
Will the 21st century put an end to the election slogan?
Will the 21st century put an end to the election slogan? Evidence suggests slogans are as pointless as torchlight parades, yet persist as a make-work scheme for focus groups. Who’s that? “People who are selected on the basis of their inexplicable free time and their common love of free sandwiches,” wrote cartoonist Scott Adams of […]
Hillier: a general who likes an armchair politician
Rick Hillier is a general who acts like an armchair politician. How interesting his days must be. Unlike real politicians, the chief of defence staff need not answer in public for his mistakes. When Hillier walks down a hallway the employees salute. He gives orders and everyone takes them, knowing that dissent is a court-martial […]
Dion’s media treatment is probably terminal
“I’m never afraid of anything,” said Stéphane Dion, owl-eyed. Some reporters smirked. They don’t believe the Liberal leader. They think he’s afraid of Conservatives and elections and losing. They think he is afraid of paper cuts and Chihuahuas. On This Hour Has 22 Minutes he is savaged as a stuttering half-wit who wets himself in […]
How do you stack up against Statistics Canada’s poverty line of $20,778?
The game “What I Used To Make” is popular wherever reporters gather. Reminiscences of hardship are a treasured pastime for journalists big and small. George Bernard Shaw, on winning the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, recalled as a struggling newspaperman in 1885 his net income was $5.46. My first job in journalism paid $700 a […]
Politics rarely strays far from shades of ethnicity
In our immigrant nation, politics rarely stray far from shades of ethnicity. An upcoming election is a good example, though, from my viewpoint, many newsrooms seem oblivious to it. Alberta votes on March 3 in an election called by Premier Ed Stelmach, the first Ukrainian-Canadian to lead the province. English is his second language, and […]
Harper might want to rethink Quebec strategy in next election
Valentine´s Day can only bring more good lovin´ for Quebec. Whatever pre-election scheme Prime Minister Stephen Harper is secretly hatching must be spectacular. Previous love offerings included promising Quebec a seat at UNESCO in 2005, designating Quebec as a "nation" in 2006 and using federal funds to underwrite a $950-million tax cut for Quebecers in […]
Emptiness of war comes through in Manley report
It is the war in a nutshell: We must spend more lives and money to justify lives and money already spent. Blood for blood, dollar for dollar–it´s as grim as that. As The Victoria Times Colonist put it, "Parliament should decide whether we will continue to send young men and women to kill and be […]
Likelihood of land crash in 2008 rates among most under-reported political stories on Parliament Hill
Have Canadians put themselves at risk by running up a record $1-trillion in household debt backed by inflated real estate “values”? “There’s likely to be a more challenging economic year ahead,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a Globe and Mail reporter five weeks ago. Many homeowners face the storm with a bubble for shelter. Yet […]
This just in…new ethics campaign coming in journalism, take cover
A new ethics campaign is washing through journalism. Take cover. These rogue tides can leave the most unwitting victims all wet. Laments over media ethics seem motivated by a belief journalists must set some public example of private virtue. Ha! Reporters are paid to do a job, not personify purity. Plumbers fix pipes, bakers make […]
