Charles and I were occasionally on different sides during the Liberal Party’s tribal wars. Throughout all of that, Charles was unfailingly decent, and always a gentleman, too.
I was very sad to learn of his passing, as I drove into Ottawa this afternoon. My deepest sympathies to his family and his many friends, on and around the Hill.
Check this out: just got back from the cabin, which I have opened up for the first time this year. In the Fall, I’d put up one of those game cameras, to see if I could spot deer or bear. Look what I got instead!
Who are you, mystery man?
Does positive work?
Canadian politicians such as Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and British Columbia NDP Leader Adrian Dix are hoping the answer — your answer, to be precise — is yes. Both men are currently wagering their political futures on the notion that positive trumps negative. It’s a risky strategy.
In Trudeau’s case, the Conservative Party’s “Justin Over His Head” ad campaign has been underway for more than a week. The spots, which mock Trudeau’s style, appearance and some comments he’s made in the distant past, are showing up during TV programs typically watched by people who don’t think much about politics. The ads are backed by what looks to be a big media buy. And, based on anecdotal evidence, they’re having an effect.
My source, in this regard, is my 11-year-old son. “Daddy,” he said to me last weekend, “have you seen those ads making fun of Justin Trudeau? They’re funny. He looks silly.”
Ouch.
In Dix’s case, the frontrunner in the B.C. election campaign has also been the focus of tough ads produced by a front group linked to his main opponent, the governing B.C. Liberals. The group, “Concerned Citizens for B.C.,” has financed a $1 million ad campaign against Dix, targeting his party’s past spending record and the backdating of an internal memo nearly15 years ago.
Media reports last week suggest that, while Dix is still far ahead as the voters’ preference, the ads are starting to take a toll — they’re getting mentioned, unprompted, on the hustings. That’s never a good thing.
So, Trudeau and Dix are being bombarded with an onslaught of attack ads. In both cases, the leaders have decided not to fight fire with fire. They have explicitly ruled out “going negative” and have decided to appeal to people’s better natures in their advertising.
Can it work? Given the right circumstances, it can. In 1993, when (full disclosure) I was running Jean Chretien’s war room, we federal Liberals didn’t really have any attack ads about then-Conservative leader Kim Campbell. In that campaign, our entire focus was pushing negative stories about Campbell through so-called earned media — newspapers, radio and TV.
So, when the Conservatives unleashed the Mother of All Attack Ads — the infamous spots mocking Chretien’s face — we didn’t have anything to offset it.
It didn’t matter in the end. The Conservative ads offended voters from coast to coast, and helped reduce the once-great Conservatives to two seats in the House of Commons. Staying mainly positive with our advertising worked.
Trudeau, unlike Dix, has responded directly to his opponent’s attack ads with an ad of his own. Perched on the edge of a desk in a classroom, Trudeau says “Canadians deserve better,” but declines to rebut the Conservatives’ allegations. Is that wise? Does his ad work?
Here’s three tips on how to decide for yourself:
n Watch the Grit spot with the sound off. TV is a visual medium. When you force yourself to focus on only the pictures, Trudeau looks pretty good. But when he’s tie-less and in a classroom setting, does he look like a prime minister? Not yet. More like a guy selling Registered Education Savings Plans.
n Watch it with your emotional brain, not your logical brain. As I wrote in my book Fight The Right, political decisions are mostly emotional. The emotional response the Trudeau ad evokes is neutral; it doesn’t make you dislike Harper, necessarily, or like Trudeau. If anything, my emotional response was, he looks young for his age. That may or may not be a good thing. For Barack Obama in 2008, it was good.
n Watch it for the one thing it wants to tell you. This is where Trudeau’s spot is unclear. Is its purpose to diss the Conservatives? To promote Trudeau? To celebrate school teachers? If the objective was introduce Trudeau to the public as Liberal leader, it does that. But the staccato, fragmented delivery was off-putting, for this viewer.
Trudeau and Dix are rolling the dice, hoping their big leads in the polls — and their positive approach — will carry them to victory.
We’ll all know, soon enough, if their high-stakes gamble is going to pay off.
As you may be aware, I am the House Communist© at Sun News. I write a couple columns for them a week, and I go on their TV network a couple times a week.
It’s unlikely you’ve ever seen me on the network, given that it is nestled up near channel 682 on your dial. After the foreign-language channels that you pay for.
I don’t, of course, agree with 99 per cent of what is said on the Sun News Network. In fact, I go on there to gleefully rebut it. I also go on to defend just about every single misdeed and misstep that progressives make, real or perceived (usually perceived). I enjoy it.
I’m a Liberal from Alberta, so I am used to being surrounded by conservatives. They don’t scare me. At Sun News, in fact, they’re pretty good to me. With the exception of one celebrated incident, they let me say and write whatever I want. That hasn’t ever happened to me at any other media joint, including the ones owned by self-described progressives.
Anyway. The CRTC hearings about Sun News have been of more than passing interest to me, even though I’m just a Sun contributor, not an employee. Mainly, I’ve been interested in the Sun opponents who have been invited to appear. Here’s a short summary of some of the ones who are showing up.
Anyway, I’ve had some fun, but you get the point, I hope. CRTC, by all means, do your job. Hear from both sides.
But, for the love God, can you get a better crop of opponents?
Christie Blatchford is a columnist for Postmedia. Postmedia promotes Blatchford all over the place, putting her face on billboards (when they shouldn’t), and letting her write whatever the Hell she wants (when they shouldn’t).
On the rare occasions when I am tricked into reading one of Blatchford’s cop-loving, native-hating screeds, I am reminded of Ezra Pound. Yes, Blatchford reminds me of Ezra Pound.
Pound, as you will recall, was an acclaimed poet and writer. Some of his works, like The Garden, I committed to memory in my youth. But even in a work as great as that one, there were subtle and disturbing hints about what his politics would become – particularly, for me, the line about “the filthy, sturdy, unkillable infants of the very poor.”
Pound would go on to become a fascist, and an unabashed fan of Hitler and Mussolini and Mosley. He wrote pieces calling Jews “the disease incarnate.” By war’s end, he was placed in a cage by the Allies, and had a mental breakdown. He died in disgrace, and deservedly so.
I am not saying, of course, that Christie Blatchford is a fascist. She is, however, a great stylist, who uses her undeniable writing skills to defend the Right, and attack the weak – such as when she likened natives she dislikes to “terrorists,” for example. I don’t despise her for her views, even though they are often despicable. I despise her willingness – like Pound – to cheapen the gift that God gave her by writing hateful garbage.
Her column today on Rehtaeh Parsons, today, is hateful garbage. I won’t link to it, because it really, truly is that foul. But, essentially, Blatchford writes an entire column – without one named source, without any sources at all, in fact – to seemingly promote the notion that Rehtaeh Parsons wanted to get raped, and that the police were right not to do anything about it. You can find it yourself, if you have the stomach for it. It made me want to throw up, personally. Is she at all aware that an inebriated 15-year-old can’t consent, under Canadian law? And that’s not all: why are the police in Nova Scotia showing evidence to Blatchford, when they’ve announced they’re reopening a criminal probe? That merits a judicial inquiry all on its own.
Anyway. I, we, get Christie Blatchford. She plays a part, like columnists often do. She plays a role. She’s the pro-police, leftie-and-native-hater at Postmedia. If you want to read someone who will always defend the indefensible, but with a clever turn of phrase, Blatchford’s your gal.
There are plenty of writers who will defend the indefensible, unfortunately. But what makes Christie Blatchford a special case – what makes me despise her writing – is that she uses her talents so recklessly.
Hey, Christie Blatchford: Rehtaeh Parsons was the victim. She was gang-raped, and hounded, and harassed, and driven off this Earth by hate. Her death diminished us all, every single one of us.
And you? You don’t give a shit about that.
UPDATE: Rehtaeh’s Dad doesn’t like what she’s written either. Here.
UPDATED AGAIN: And Rehtaeh’s mom hits Blatchford hard, here. (See below.) Blatchford is indeed twisted, and she indeed degrades what happened to Rehtaeh, as her Mom says. No one would disagree.
Going after Deb Hutton? Seriously?
That’s going way too far. It’s shameful, in fact.
Spouses, and families, are always off-limits.
If I was still involved, this wouldn’t be happening. I can guarantee you of that.
UPDATE: More here.
And that wonderful quote corresponds exactly with my long-running view about religions (or any human institution, frankly): there are idiots in every organization. The Muslims have them, but so do Christians, Jews, you name it. There is no monopoly on virtue, just as extremism is no exclusive club.
That doesn’t in any way exclude the criminal acts of idiots, of course. Investigate and prosecute, to the fullest extent possible under law. But don’t – as white supremacists and/or bigots like Kathy Shaidle, Arnie Lemaire and Kate McMillan and their ilk regularly do – suggest that Muslims alone are evil.
Every group has its fair share of evil people. And idiots, too.
Wonderful story, about Jerry and his friend in Toronto. Here.
Quote unquote, with some minor edits for space. John Wright, in the comments last night on wk.com: