Within this very blog I have praised Jack Layton for his leadership of the NDP since 2003. While I may not agree with his policies or stances more often then not I can respect someone who has been so successful within the political arena.
Only the Conservatives and the NDP have seen consistent growth in terms of seats and popular vote since the 2004 election.
The NDP in 2004 was a party of cities, Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor, Halifax, Winnipeg, and Vancouver with a few sprinkles of rural and suburban ridings mixed into the equation. They were a party of 19 seats.
As of the 2008 election the NDP was a party of 37 seats. (36 currently due to the current vacant state of Winnipeg North) Where has this growth come from?
We often hear about the great growth in Ontario and the nearly legendary tale of Thomas Mulcair winning an honest to goodness seat for the NDP in the 514. What we don’t seem to hear about is Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Kapuskasing, Timmins, Northern British Columbia, Newfoundland, Northern Canada.
These are the areas that have vaulted in NDP from a party of 19 seats to one of 37.
Early this week an Ipsos poll was released that showed NDP support had fallen to 12% nationally. I am of the mindset that one poll can be wrong, or that one pollster can have a method of data collection that at some times can show either unrealistic drops or gains to particular parties so I didn’t think much of it.
However today’s EKO’s poll shows there may very well be some reality in that 12% as they have shown the NDP support to be @ 13.5%.
What I find off however is how this is being reported, an implication that the drop in support is due to Jack Layton allowing a free vote among his MP’s as it pertained to the long gun registry and how that somehow alienated urban voters?
I hate to say it;
But when it comes to the long gun registry urban voters don’t really give a poop. I mean they do, any issue where you can stick it to Harper is painted as a life and death struggle to snatch away power from the evil right wing overlord currently running the country…
However, the importance of that struggle only lasts a newscycle.
The Liberals threw a party to celebrate that Micheal Ignatieff was able to whip his MP’s into voting party lines and for once the entire party actually listened, heck they should have thrown a parade.
Yet no one in Urban Canada cares anymore, the vote is over, the registry is saved, and now they can fake outrage over the next “evil” Conservative plot.
However, in rural Canada where this issue actually affects the day to day lives of those Canadians they have had it.
The Conservatives had promised to do something about this long gun registry since 2003, and when they finally got into power in 2006 it only took them about 3 and a half years but FINALLY the time had come to get rid of this utterly useless long gun registry once and for all.
The NDP’s growth in Rural Canada came from a very simple principal from the old CCF, and that is respect your constituents wishes and represent them when you take your seat in Ottawa.
When a series of rural NDP MP’s opted to change their vote as it pertained to getting rid of the long gun registry all it did was reinforce a mentality that the NDP is run by the 416 for the 416.
I don’t envy Jack Layton,
The Conservative’s baited a trap for the Liberals, and sadly it was the NDP that got caught within it.
Should be interesting to see how Mr. Layton will attempt to get out of this one.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Why is the Left Afraid of Free Speech?
I recall in University a professor made a comment that has stuck in my head for years,
“Free Speech is only acceptable as long as you are agreeing with my point of view, otherwise you need to be silenced immediately”
It was clearly a joke and he was simply making a commentary on the dynamic of the University classroom, however it’s a line that has stuck in my mind for a long time and always seems to spring to mind during certainly times.
I read that Margaret Atwood has signed a petition to stop Sun TV News, or as every media outlet has dubbed it “Fox News North” even though it is not affiliated with the Fox News Channel.
The term “Fear Monger” was perhaps most used during the reign of George W. Bush in reference to him and the Republicans, however I find that those on the left have done a very effective job of using fear for their own agenda’s as well, I would argue that they have done a better job of it then the Republicans or the self proclaimed “right” has done over the last year.
There has been an outcry to not allow for Sun TV news to be given a license to broadcast in Canada because of its potential “right wing slant”.
Perhaps I am the last realist left, but the days of a creditable down the middle newsman reading the news of the day directly into a camera are dead and buried. News like any other TV program now is a product, and a product that is worth countless dollars to the company that is broadcasting it.
I find Fox News no different then MSNBC except for the fact that their brand of zealotry is for different ends of the political spectrum, yet I hear more cries about the bias and general evil as it pertains to Fox News then I do MSNBC.
Bias exists within news, this occurred the second that Social Commentators were given two hour long programs on news channels under the illusion that they were reporting news.
CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CBC Newsworld, CTV News, and everything in between have all found themselves in this same situation. The only difference as it pertains to someone’s opinion of how either Glen Beck or Keith Olbermann report the days events on their program has solely to do with the viewers own political bias. If you hate Beck and love Olbermann chances are you have an Obama/Biden bumper sticker on your Prius, and if you hate Olbermann and love Beck chances are that you have a Bush/Cheney 2004 sticker on the gun rack in the back of your pick-up.
(Please take note of the above sarcasm)
Both represent what “News” has degraded to over the course of the last decade, and neither offer a down the middle view of any issue, and neither is worse then the other.
However I assure you that someone will attempt to sway me one way or another, but based on my opinion of the situation they are both zealots for their own cause and someone you agree with is easier not to dislike then someone you disagree with.
The issue I have with various Canadian media outlets and “personalities” in attempting to censor Sun News TV is that regardless of how they frame the argument the fact is that they are attempting to censor news, and determine what should be reported on and what should not.
I recall a time where I could tune into the news and get the story, most of the story from both sides.
Now I need to watch Fox, CNN, MSNBC, CBC, and CTV as well as read online to get all angles of a particular story before I can draw my own conclusion.
Reality has become nothing more then CSI: News.
The viewer needs to spend a long period of time in order to get enough information so that they can have the entire story and then piece together all of that information to figure out just what the actual whole story is.
The Toronto Star, love it, hate it, or otherwise be indifferent to it, is not a balanced down the middle newspaper, nor is the Toronto Sun.
If the Toronto Star opted for an all news channel would we see the same degree of outcry against it?
I think we all know that we would not.
I fail to understand why people like Margaret Atwood who has enjoyed the benefits of living in a nation where the opinions of all can be stated freely are now in favor of censorship?
Because her political alignment is not in agreement with that of the Sun News TV folks?
I think I would have a lot more respect for the argument if someone was simply honest about their reasoning behind it.
The reality is that to make such bold conclusions about a form of media no one has even seen yet seems to be nothing short of using fear as a means of forwarding your own politics,
But what do I know?
I am of the mindset that the market should be allowed to decide for itself.
Let the folks at Sun News TV spend the millions of dollars needed in order to set up this station and broadcast it,
If there is no such market for their branding of news in Canada then they will crash and burn and the market would have silenced that particular slant.
Attempting to stop it before it has even broadcast news story one leads me to believe that there is a fear that there may actually be a market for news told from a different angle, and if that is the case there is no argument against this sort of station other then:
“Free Speech is only acceptable as long as you are agreeing with my point of view, otherwise you need to be silenced immediately”
I don’t feel that Canadians need to be told what is within their best interests, I have faith that Canadians have the sense and the intelligence to make those choices on their own.
The outcry against Sun TV News seems to be made up of propaganda and opinions, and I find it hard to take such criticism seriously when the network is yet to broadcast a single news story or even announce the bulk of its staff or content.
There appears to be a lot of fear mongering occurring against something we haven’t even seen yet, and I tend to be against any form of filtering information that is provided to the public so they can make their own choices,
Yet once again we see a vocal minority trying to play father knows best with the majority of the population.
Tragic, but true.
“Free Speech is only acceptable as long as you are agreeing with my point of view, otherwise you need to be silenced immediately”
It was clearly a joke and he was simply making a commentary on the dynamic of the University classroom, however it’s a line that has stuck in my mind for a long time and always seems to spring to mind during certainly times.
I read that Margaret Atwood has signed a petition to stop Sun TV News, or as every media outlet has dubbed it “Fox News North” even though it is not affiliated with the Fox News Channel.
The term “Fear Monger” was perhaps most used during the reign of George W. Bush in reference to him and the Republicans, however I find that those on the left have done a very effective job of using fear for their own agenda’s as well, I would argue that they have done a better job of it then the Republicans or the self proclaimed “right” has done over the last year.
There has been an outcry to not allow for Sun TV news to be given a license to broadcast in Canada because of its potential “right wing slant”.
Perhaps I am the last realist left, but the days of a creditable down the middle newsman reading the news of the day directly into a camera are dead and buried. News like any other TV program now is a product, and a product that is worth countless dollars to the company that is broadcasting it.
I find Fox News no different then MSNBC except for the fact that their brand of zealotry is for different ends of the political spectrum, yet I hear more cries about the bias and general evil as it pertains to Fox News then I do MSNBC.
Bias exists within news, this occurred the second that Social Commentators were given two hour long programs on news channels under the illusion that they were reporting news.
CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CBC Newsworld, CTV News, and everything in between have all found themselves in this same situation. The only difference as it pertains to someone’s opinion of how either Glen Beck or Keith Olbermann report the days events on their program has solely to do with the viewers own political bias. If you hate Beck and love Olbermann chances are you have an Obama/Biden bumper sticker on your Prius, and if you hate Olbermann and love Beck chances are that you have a Bush/Cheney 2004 sticker on the gun rack in the back of your pick-up.
(Please take note of the above sarcasm)
Both represent what “News” has degraded to over the course of the last decade, and neither offer a down the middle view of any issue, and neither is worse then the other.
However I assure you that someone will attempt to sway me one way or another, but based on my opinion of the situation they are both zealots for their own cause and someone you agree with is easier not to dislike then someone you disagree with.
The issue I have with various Canadian media outlets and “personalities” in attempting to censor Sun News TV is that regardless of how they frame the argument the fact is that they are attempting to censor news, and determine what should be reported on and what should not.
I recall a time where I could tune into the news and get the story, most of the story from both sides.
Now I need to watch Fox, CNN, MSNBC, CBC, and CTV as well as read online to get all angles of a particular story before I can draw my own conclusion.
Reality has become nothing more then CSI: News.
The viewer needs to spend a long period of time in order to get enough information so that they can have the entire story and then piece together all of that information to figure out just what the actual whole story is.
The Toronto Star, love it, hate it, or otherwise be indifferent to it, is not a balanced down the middle newspaper, nor is the Toronto Sun.
If the Toronto Star opted for an all news channel would we see the same degree of outcry against it?
I think we all know that we would not.
I fail to understand why people like Margaret Atwood who has enjoyed the benefits of living in a nation where the opinions of all can be stated freely are now in favor of censorship?
Because her political alignment is not in agreement with that of the Sun News TV folks?
I think I would have a lot more respect for the argument if someone was simply honest about their reasoning behind it.
The reality is that to make such bold conclusions about a form of media no one has even seen yet seems to be nothing short of using fear as a means of forwarding your own politics,
But what do I know?
I am of the mindset that the market should be allowed to decide for itself.
Let the folks at Sun News TV spend the millions of dollars needed in order to set up this station and broadcast it,
If there is no such market for their branding of news in Canada then they will crash and burn and the market would have silenced that particular slant.
Attempting to stop it before it has even broadcast news story one leads me to believe that there is a fear that there may actually be a market for news told from a different angle, and if that is the case there is no argument against this sort of station other then:
“Free Speech is only acceptable as long as you are agreeing with my point of view, otherwise you need to be silenced immediately”
I don’t feel that Canadians need to be told what is within their best interests, I have faith that Canadians have the sense and the intelligence to make those choices on their own.
The outcry against Sun TV News seems to be made up of propaganda and opinions, and I find it hard to take such criticism seriously when the network is yet to broadcast a single news story or even announce the bulk of its staff or content.
There appears to be a lot of fear mongering occurring against something we haven’t even seen yet, and I tend to be against any form of filtering information that is provided to the public so they can make their own choices,
Yet once again we see a vocal minority trying to play father knows best with the majority of the population.
Tragic, but true.
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