I was on Twitter, past midnight, reading some of the things people were saying about the network’s demise. There was a lot of gloating and awful stuff being said.

I slept for four hours, then got up to watch the network disappear. They showed a promo for Pat Bolland’s show, and then that was it. The screen in my bedroom went black at exactly 5 a.m. I stared at it for a while, and tried to formulate what I wanted to say.

It’s not you who I want to say it to, former Sun News Network folks. It’s to those people on Twitter, last night and this morning, the ones who were gleefully celebrating the end of Sun News.

They’re celebrating, I guess, because they disagreed with the opinions that were found on Sun News. They didn’t like conservative opinions being broadcast, so they think it’s funny that 200 people have lost their jobs. I find that completely insane, for two reasons.

Firstly, folks, I disagreed with those conservatives, too. Plenty. On sex ed, on CBC, on abortion, on niqabs, on social programs, on climate change, on Islam, on gay marriage, on Liberals and liberals, on just about anything you can imagine: I would regularly appear on Sun News Network to argue with those conservatives, face-to-face, on-camera. I would argue, aggressively, against the conservative point of view.

And, over almost four years, a funny thing happened: they kept inviting me back. They asked me to come on much more than my day job would permit, in fact. And they were professional and courteous and fair to me. Only once did they try and shut me down – here – but multiple Sun folks called me afterwards to apologize, and to say that it would never happen again. It didn’t.

That’s the first thing: if you disagree with someone’s opinion, debate them. Present evidence. Argue with facts. Be passionate. Because that’s what Sun News Network gave me an opportunity to do, over and over, for four years.

Here’s the second thing: in case you haven’t noticed, our traditional news media are dying.

There are all kinds of reasons for that: the Internet, Google and Facebook and Craigslist, bad business decisions, whatever. We can debate the causes ad nauseum. But the fact is that the media, as we knew it, is disappearing.

Bloggers and social media mavens will celebrate the mainstream media’s demise, too. But they shouldn’t. Because bloggers and tweeters don’t generate actual news – they just comment on it. They offer opinions on someone else’s work. Someone else’s journalism.

When that journalism disappears, mark my words: our democracy will be diminished, and possibly even in peril. I’m not exaggerating. There is nothing that keeps the powerful in check – not Question Period, not a public opinion poll, not even the police – as effectively as journalists do. I’ve worked on both sides, and I know, I’ve seen it: every time a newspaper dies – every time a TV network dies – the powerful grow more so. You may think that’s okay, but I sure don’t. They are not always benign in the way they exercise power.

Anyway. Those are the two things I wanted to say, this bitterly-cold Friday the Thirteenth: if you disagree with someone, debate them. Don’t let out a cheer when they lose their job, and their ability to pay the rent and feed their kids. Because one day, in this economy, you’re probably going to lose your job, too. And it would be pretty shitty for someone to find that funny, on that day, wouldn’t it?

Remember this, too: every news reporter – every news editor, every news producer, every news technician – is a crucial part of a flourishing democracy. And when we lose them, our democracy loses. The Sun News Network ones, too.

And I guess there’s a third thing I wanted to say: Kory – and Matt and Dennis and others – put together an actual national news network, and they had some good folks there. I may have vociferously disagreed with the opinions they expressed – and you may have, too – but I am so, so sorry that they have lost their jobs, at 5 a.m. this morning. I will miss many of them.

So, don’t celebrate them losing their jobs. Don’t be indifferent to the effect it will have on our democracy. Because if you do, you’re just being an asshole.

Anyway. Back to work. I’m lucky to still have a job – and if you’ve got one, you should be, too.

Sincerely,

Warren

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It’s true.

There are some good people there, and I feel very bad for them. They worked hard.

They were good to me, too, over the past four years. My views were almost always at odds with theirs, but they kept asking me back anyway.

Not sure what is happening with the Sun column, but I don’t think it’ll be happening much longer. We shall see.

But, to all those crowing about this tonight, I say: you’re jerks. It’s never good when we lose yet another media voice – even one you disagree with.

So long, Sun. It was fun while it lasted.

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That’s what they called it, in the Watergate days: ratf**king.  No less an authority than Wikipedia defines it as “an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks.”  Donald Segretti, forged letters, false accusations, nasty leaks, that sort of thing: ratf**king.

Which brings us, in a circuitous fashion, to Eve Adams. Justin Trudeau’s inner circle initially sought to justify the floor-crossing of one of the most dutiful members of Stephen Harper’s Talking Points Chorus as this: after a lifetime of unswerving Conservative fealty, she finally figured out that Harper’s guys are “mean-spirited” meanies, and she suddenly wanted to work with people who are nice.  When that didn’t work, they said her “values simply didn’t align” with the Conservative anymore, particularly in respect of income-splitting – a policy she had been enthusiastically touting in the House of Commons a few days earlier.  They tried other rationalizations, too.

None of them worked.  Rank-and file Liberals are livid; the media are gleefully considering comparisons of Justin Trudeau to Stockwell Day.  The long-serving Liberal MPP in her desired riding has said she’d be the Liberal candidate there “over my dead body.”  The long-serving federal Liberal incumbent has said he won’t endorse her.  And so on.  It’s an unadulterated mess.  It’s a fiasco.

Having pumped several rounds of lead into all of their extremities, Trudeau’s inner circle have been reduced to a single, solitary argument to justify Adams-gate: that her fiancé, Dimitri Soudas, is going to give the Liberals all manner of dirt about Stephen Harper and his Conservatives.  He “knows where the bodies are buried,” to use the cliché du jour.

Uh-huh.

There are several problems with the notion that the Adams fiasco is somehow worth it, because her fiancé “knows where the bodies are buried.” Here they are, expressed in questions.

1. Justin Trudeau has promised, repeatedly, that he would do politics differently, that he would not use negative ads, that his Liberals will stick to the high road, blah blah blah.  How, then, does he justify diving into the muck, and doing what he promised he would never ever do? Is it because he is worried that Harper is getting more popular, and Trudeau less so?
2. Having run out of options, it was clearly in Eve and Dimitri’s interests to intimate that they possess all manner of State secrets, hoo boy, watch out, etc.  They had nowhere else to go – of course they’d be attempting to sweeten the pot, whilst holding a pair of twos. But what if what they possess is dated, or irrelevant, or wrong, or unusable? What then?
3. Knowing Pseudas a little bit, as I do, I can attest to the fact he is not suicidal, whatever else he is. He knows very well the sad outcome of myriad notable floor-crossing tales over the years: Jack Horner, David Emerson, Colin Thatcher, Jean Lapierre, Gordon Wilson/Judi Tyabji, Jag Bhaduria, John Nunziata, Anna-Marie Castrilli, Jim Pankiw, Joe Peschisolido, Pat O’Brien, Tim Peterson, Wajid Khan, Danielle Smith, and on and on and on.  Have the Grits considered the advisability of relying on information from a fellow who has nothing left to lose – when they, assuredly, still do?
4. Having run a war room or two over the years, I verily swear the following: this Segretti-style stuff is MAD – mutually-assured destruction.  You may have something on them, but they always (always) have something on you. If the Grits are so desperate as to use Dimitri’s Dirt™, are they not worried that the Conservatives possess, say, unhelpful sworn affidavits about them? Are they not concerned that, having hit below the belt first, they invite a response that is twice as bad, and in the same general area? Believe me: they should be.
5. Scandal stuff doesn’t work.  It just doesn’t.  Voters have heard the media and the political parties scream “scandal” too many times, since Watergate. Until they see someone hauled away in handcuffs and orange overalls, they don’t believe the histrionics – cf. the by-election outcome in Sudbury, Clinton’s stratospheric post-Lewinsky numbers, Harper getting more popular after the Duffy/Wallin/Brazeau scandals, Wynne’s massive win in the midst of various (bogus) OPP investigations.  Scandal stuff doesn’t work.  Why does anyone think Dimitri possesses anything that somehow will?

Anyway.  Apologies for the length of this, but I sometimes feel compelled, like a trained medical professional, to tend to the ravings and madness of political folks who litter the battlefield.  I feel sorry for them.

The Eve Adams thing was a huge mistake, folks.  Don’t make it worse with ratf**king.

Now, here, a video for your viewing pleasure.

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Look, I’m no fan of what Justin Trudeau did this week.  Most real Liberals aren’t, either.

As I will opine in a column on Friday, he should have:

1. Welcomed Eve Adams to the party;
2. Said she was going to sit as an independent;
3. Said she would be welcome to run for a nomination;
4. Said she was going to get no special treatment, none; and
5. Said she could join the Liberal caucus when and if she’d done the above, and won.

I’ve met her, and I actually think Eve is pretty intelligent.  She’s certainly figured out a way to get an eleventh-hour lifeline thrown in her direction, which takes some strategic smarts.

You may agree with that, or not.  On one thing about which we all need to agree, however: some of the criticism of her is taking on a distinctly sexist tone.  Just this morning, someone commented on my Facebook page that “there’s no whore like an old whore.”  Similar stuff is showing up elsewhere.

Ten years ago this Spring, we saw similar epithets flung at floor-crosser Belinda Stronach. She was called, variously, a dog, a whore, a bitch and a prostitute.  Those are quotes.

We can all disapprove of what Eve Adams did, but her gender isn’t in any way relevant.  Any commenter on this website who doesn’t understand that, and abide by that, will be banned.

Period.

 

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I don’t know what’s worse: accomplishing nothing that is notable in your life – or accomplishing something when you are young, and never again repeating it.

Such were my reflections, yesterday, when I got word through my agent that a big U.S. TV series wants to buy the rights to two songs Pierre and I wrote: I Am A Confused Teenager and Invasion of the Tribbles.  Songs we wrote when we were sixteen years old.

The latter you may be familiar with: British superstars Palma Violets play Tribbles at the end of every show (like here at Glasto), and released a special edition E.P. on which they covered it.  The Summer before last, I joined them onstage in L.A. to play it.

Confused Teenager isn’t as well-known, but – as I saw to my surprise, when I went looking on the Internet this morning for a link to share with you – it has been played on just one link nearly 26,000 times.  26,000 times! When we were sixteen years old, we could have never imagined such a thing happening.

Anyway, it was nice that someone wants to possibly use the songs on their TV show.  It isn’t the first time such a thing has happened – one SFH song (by Royal Niblet) is on the soundtrack for this movie, and another SFH song (by me) is on the soundtrack for this one.

What’s weird – what’s bittersweet – is that these songs I helped write, when we were kids growing up in Calgary, have become more noteworthy than anything I have done since.  Like I say, I don’t know what’s worse: doing nothing, or doing something once and never getting a chance to do it again.

In that regard, I think I’m going put some stuff aside and reach out to Bob, finally. All this melancholy musical remembrance has me thinking life is, indeed, too short.

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Worth a read, though I’m biased.

Right here.

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BREAKING: Announcing my plan to cross office floor to chat with members of #NDP & #CPC. I will then return to my desk. Thank you. #cdnpoli

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) February 10, 2015

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…and the reviews aren’t so good.  Mine, for what it’s worth, is appended at the end. Feel free to add yours in comments.

• Andrew Coyne, Post: “Justin Trudeau delivers a crawlingly demeaning performance while welcoming Eve Adams…feigned high-mindedness…gut-emptying shame…particularly painful…jaw-dropping self-abasement..For [Conservative secrets], Mr. Trudeau would endure any indignity.”
• Chantal Hebert, Star: “Liberal embrace of Eve Adams doesn’t add up…a counterintuitive choice…it is unclear whether the timing of Trudeau’s announcement on Monday was meant to praise the addition of Adams to his ranks or to bury it.”
• Lawrence Martin, Globe: “[The cabinet shuffle] doused the news of Tory lightweight Eve Adams’s floor-crossing to the Liberals. The Liberals should have figured the shuffle was coming and held off on their little coup if they wanted more attention for it.”
• Robyn Urback, Post: “Justin Trudeau entered the morning presser accompanied by Mississauga-Brampton South MP Eve Adams…There were audible gasps from the gallery — and giggles. No, no you’re not supposed to laugh! Stop it.”
• Murray Mandryk, StarPhoenix: “It’s this kind of cynical manoeuvre that feeds the public’s appetite to stay as far away from politics – and polling booths – as possible…[it] only serves to cement the negative image most voters already have of the way politics is done in Canada.”
• Paul Wells, Maclean’s: “Harper is the major-party leader most respondents would trust to run a large company, counsel an investor, or negotiate a contract. Respondents imagined Trudeau would be the best leader to sing a song, babysit a pet or survive in the wilderness. [On the day of Adams’ floor-crossing and the cabinet shuffle], both leaders seemed hard at work deepening their differences.”
• Les MacPherson, StarPhoenix: “[Trudeau] looked about as comfortable with Adams by his side as Jimmy Kimmel with a large snake delivered into his arms.”
• Warren Kinsella, Nobody In Particular: “Adams got what she wanted.  Trudeau didn’t. He should have said ‘no’ to the idiots who came up with this stunt. He didn’t.”

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When Barack Obama’s Democratic Party loses the support of the likes of Anti-Flag, they’re probably in big trouble.

Consider that, in 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama and his Democrats won power because they captured previously elusive constituencies: Hispanics, African-Americans, and so on. But Obama won both of his mandates because he was the overwhelming choice of young people, most of whom don’t usually vote.

In 2008, Obama received the support of nearly 70% of those who were 18 to 29 years of age. In 2012, Obama’s under-30 support slipped somewhat, but he was still the clear favourite of America’s youth. In both years, young Americans put Obama in the White House.

So what happens in 2016 then, when that demographic starts to drift away from the Democratic Party?

Chris Barker – otherwise known as Chris Two in the legendary Pittsburgh punk band Anti-Flag – is arguably one of the most political guys, in one of the most political bands in the world. His band has put together 10 albums over a nearly 20-year career, and has composed multiple anthems against war, imperialism, capitalism – and has rallied support for Occupy Wall Street, Amnesty International and Greenpeace. In 2008, for instance, they played outside the Republican National Convention – until the police pulled the plug, and shut them down.

A few weeks later, Chris Two attended the inauguration of the aforementioned Barack Obama, hopeful that it would represent a change in American politics. To Chris, it didn’t.

“While the election of Barack Obama was received by world-wide sigh of relief, and a belief that we had aimed ourselves towards a better direction for America and the rest of the world…it didn’t,” Chris says. “I went to the inauguration and I felt moved, and I felt there was hope, in that first month. I bought in. I since then feel as if it’s been politics as usual – with almost more secrecy.

“And that’s actually made us more afraid of the Democrats than the Republicans. The Republicans had no [desire] to hide what they were doing. They just did it. But now, with Obama’s administration, you see far more happening behind closed doors. And that, to me, has been the most concerning thing of the two terms of Barack Obama.” And, when you consider the sad tales of the NSA’s domestic spying program, as well as the demonization of whistleblowers, you know he’s right.

Chris – who plays bass and sings in Anti-Flag, along with singer/guitarist Justin Sane, guitarist Chris Head, and drummer Pat Thetic – is careful when he speaks. While his band is well known for wild, fist-pumping shows – which this writer has, full disclosure, attended many times – Chris Two sounds as knowledgeable as a regular CNN talking head. More so, in fact.

“On some level, it feels like we are moving backwards – to the election of a Jeb Bush, for example,” Chris says over the phone line, during a stop on the band’s current tour across North America. “That’s tough for me to say. But the finger on the pulse of the youth vote that I have comes from the people who come to our shows. And those people feel as I do, and that we need to stop this endless cycle that we’re on.”

There’s a feeling of hopelessness that is again pervasive among young voters, Chris says – a feeling that they cannot influence who will be their next “president or prime minister.” Or, when they try to do so, the new boss will be just as bad as the old boss.

“The biggest threat, however, is throwing our hands up and removing ourselves from the democratic process,” Chris concludes. “Because, you know, it’s not going to stop. If you don’t speak, someone is going to speak instead.

“If you’re not accounted for, that matters.”

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