I was chatting with a couple folks in the Canadian publishing industry last night, and we were (like everyone else) dissecting last week’s election results. And, particularly, the results as they related to the Liberal Party of Canada.
The continued preoccupation with the Liberals fascinated me. The party has been reduced to a wispy shadow of its former self in every part of the country – but here we are, I said, still talking about them. They have less than three dozen MPs, little fundraising strength, and even less organizational depth. They have no leader, and no unity. But the media were still decamped outside the Liberal caucus meeting space, yesterday afternoon, waiting patiently for someone to come out and talk to them.
As I say, this fascinates me, and you can see ongoing preoccupation with the Grits here and here and here and here and here and here. In fact, seven out of seven of the main stories promoted on the influential National Newswatch site are about the Liberals.
If you’re Jack Layton, this has to drive you bananas. (If you’re Stephen Harper, you’re delighted, because you would prefer the media didn’t exist, or at least never wrote about you.) Why, Layton might say, are the media still so focussed on a political party that has been reduced to a third-place rump? Who cares what they do, and who their leader is?
They’re fair questions. My hunch: the media continue to write about the Liberal Party of Canada out of habit. They grew up with the party; it’s been a fixture in their professional and personal lives. They haven’t yet processed the huge change we all witnessed last Monday night.
What’s your view? Am I right? Comments are open.
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