Canadian Election Media Coverage: 5 Questions Not Being Asked…Why?
As Canadians gear up for yet another federal election — the fourth in seven years — voters, at least those who give a toss, are turning to media coverage in hopes of gaining insight into the parties and the issues. Good luck! So far, the media has chosen to zoom in on Jack Layton’s cancer battle and the possibility of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff forming a coalition government if Canadians return another minority government to power.
It’s hard to escape the fact that despite having only six weeks to give Canadians as much information as possible, the media continue not to ask questions that need to be answered:
1. If Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not want another election, why has he been running attack ads against Ignatieff since January this year?
2. Why did Stephen Harper refuse to work with the other parties on the budget? It would not be the first time he would have had to make concessions that would benefit Canadians, not just the ones he considers not members of “left-wing fringe groups” such as women.
3. Why is Stephen Harper repeatedly referring to the electoral process as a waste of time and money? Elections are the cornerstone of any democracy. By any stretch of the imagination, the G8 and G20 summits Harper hosted in Canada — which cost taxpayers $1.1 billion dollars and stripped hundreds of Canadians of their democratic rights to protest — was a far bigger time and money waster. Let’s not even talk about the fighter jet price tags — $23.9 billion and counting. Note to Canadians still under the delusion that Canadian forces focus on peacekeeping: You don’t buy fighter jets to keep the peace and you don’t buy them if you don’t intend to use them.
4. Why has Stephen Harper consistently withdrawn funding from the most vulnerable groups in Canada, especially women’s groups? We Canadians cannot continue to live under the pretence that we are a charitable, compassionate nation because we continue to donate money to countries ravaged by earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes. Not when we continue to prop up a leader who openly oppresses and suppresses women’s groups.
5. How could a coalition government be any worse for Canadians than the current Conservative government, which is stripping the majority of Canadians of their rights, including closing down key Human Rights Commission offices? How could it be any worse than a Harper government that has been involved in electoral fraud, doctored public documents, suppressed the rights of civil servants to speak out and fired or put pressure on key public officials who do not agree with them?
Harper Forces Election Just in Time for Launch of Right-wing TV Network
You would think that the media would be anxious to take the opportunity of an election to bombard Harper and his ministers with these questions — especially when Harper has consistently and without shame manipulated and controlled the media. Instead, they continue the insipid, repetitive media coverage we can be assured not to see with the new right-wing Sun TV News channel set to launch in Canada…on April 18, just in time to influence the elections.
Oh, and in case you hadn’t heard, in 2009 Stephen Harper lunched with Rupert Murdoch, owner of the right-wing American network, Fox News, as well as the network’s president, Roger Ailes. Also present at that meeting was Kory Teneycke, a former spokesman for Stephen Harper who later became a pivotal player in making Quebecor’s SUN TV News a reality.
Let’s hope that the boob-tube’s networks start doing a better job of exposing Stephen Harper. If not, they’ll continue to close in on irrelevance. They’re up against a plethora of websites and social media that are doing a much better job of asking the hard questions and getting important messages about the election and Canada’s shaky democratic future to Canadians.
Get Informed and Get Out and Vote!
In the meantime, Black Canadians — and minorities the Conservative government is specifically set to woo on the heels of tightening immigration and refugee policies — may do better to get their news from more proactive media and social media sites. They should also take a close look at the Harper government record of corruption and their tactics straight out of the racist, right-wing Tea Party handbook.
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The media’s blatant agenda of questioning the need for an election is profoundly disheartening. We’ve heard very little about the troubling decisions made by Harper’s government that unravel the very foundation of Canadian democracy.
The networks need to start focusing on the issues, and not this constant debate over a coalition government. What do Canadian voters get out of that? I thought the media was supposed to keep the public informed.
1. Not wanting an election but being prepared for it is entirely reasonable, especially in the current parliamentary environment.
2.Meagre concessions were made, like topping up the guaranteed income supplement for seniors and the energy retrofit program. These are substantial in that 1. The Conservatives aren’t particularly generous to their opponents and 2. This was supposed to be a deficit slaying austerity budget. Point is, it is untrue to write that the Conservatives weren’t willing to work with other parties. They were.
3. Elections are great. This particular election is a waste of time and money. Every poll for the last two years have shown that general public opinion has remained where the last election left off; with the Conservatives in a minority. Until the opposition can generate some momentum, they should refrain from jumping the gun and quit wasting our time (and money).
4. The foliage needed to be trimmed. Else our children will be inheriting a bankrupt nation like Greece, Ireland or Portugal. Nuff said!
5.The human rights commission stifled free speech and was anti-democratic. Just ask Ezra Levant, Marc Stein and a host of others. It was obvious that the HRC was going to fold under a public backlash. The HRC should have, at least, attempted to be more of a moderate, objective, positive, neutral voice for democratic and charter rights. Instead, it was a despotic organization enforcing statist tyranny; and tax-payer funded to boot.
Elections, whether Canadian, or American, have predominately focused on popularity. That is how charismatic the leader is rather than how well does the leader communicate and actively listen to the people, to nature, and to spirit. How sad it is that the leaders of all parties find it difficult to communicate and dialogue together for the betterment of nature, man and spirit. Perhaps a overhaul in the systematic voting process is what is needed, not the same old competitive agendas. We need to start living with each other, not dominating each other.
Yes, while Harper doesn’t want an election, he knew this was coming. Had to prepare for it. I suggest readers look into why he spent our tax dollars into smash ads against Ignatieff. I am not a fan of Ignatieff, but as it turns out, the smash ads have a purpose to not just throw us off voting for liberal party or other parties. But for non-conservative voters, it has the purpose to discourage voters from even coming out to vote. In my book, right now, any party is a better choice than the Conservatives lead by Harper.
I am not sure, but I definitely feel that our media is in his back pocket (Harper that is). He has done so many cuts to programs, and so many things that the majority of Canadians would be shocked to find out, yet none of it is reported. And the few that gets any light is loosely mentioned, couple weeks to couple months after the cut has already been made. The last time I checked, I live in Canada and occasionally feel sad for our American neighbours down South since so many of them are unaware of what their government is slowly doing to them (taking away their civil rights and having their freedoms partial to the government’s judgment). I am pretty sure that this has been happening to us now, and only some of us are becoming aware of it because our media is not being responsible. In the past, if any of these programs were cut under Liberal government, it would be terrifying headlines all over the nation. Not a squeak here.
I hope people vote. And I hope when it comes down to it, we vote strategically, to have Harper out. I actually thought when he got elected, that maybe, it was a good thing. But over the years, I am pretty sure he is not just a Bush clone. He’s way more cunning than Bush.
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