Category: Federal Politics

Labour Day is now in sight and the real election campaign can begin. Not that we have been bored with August or eager for the clamour of the combatants but it does spell the end of the foolishness of the news media and their tame pollsters. Editors have not been calling August the Silly Season for no reason over the past 100 years.

August has always been the time for “Man bites dog” stories. It has been a time for tall tales and frying eggs on sidewalks. You could blame it all on the heat here in the northern part of the world.

But September is not only back to school, it is back to reality time. It is time to discard those ridiculously warped automated telephone call results that newspapers call polls. It is time to face responsibility and pay for a summer’s fun.

It is hard to tell what the reality is in this country when you have such open biases of the news media. The major Quebec newspapers and French-language television network are owned by the leader of the separatist Parti Québécois. No bias there! Most local newspapers across the country are controlled by a major Conservative Party supporter. And the only truly independent newspapers are in Toronto with its four newspapers where there should just be two. And the largest English-language newspaper in the country has decided to support the New Democrats and the party’s fusty little leader.

Luckily the television networks will now set aside their summer hiatus and start to take a serious look. And they will not like what they find. Their good friend (except for the CBC) the Hair has laid down so many restrictions on their coverage, following his travels and travails hardly seem worthwhile. Hopefully the Hair’s opponents, whom he despises and reviles, might finally get their acts together.

And there is obviously no more of those televised debates to rely on. The Hair is above it. He dislikes being the object of attack. As a reputed front runner, New Democrat Tommy Mulcair has decided he can also be picky and he is sure not giving that kid Justin Trudeau another chance to attack him.

It will now become a typical Canadian election. The media will be less than helpful. The voters will be confused. Decisions made today, will be cast aside tomorrow and we will await the decision of the electorate.

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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

As the Ottawa trial recesses until after the election, the description of Senator Mike Duffy as a busker is more apt than we thought. A street entertainer such as a busker can hardly save his or her best stunts for the finale. You have to use those better stunts early to capture your audience. And, thinking back over the trial, so far, that connection is clear.

The only thing we are not clear on was the real entertainer Duffy or was it his lawyer Donald Bayne? While Duffy did his thing, Bayne was unrelenting and driven. He earned his fee. It almost makes you wonder, who is paying this bill?

But is Duffy even a bit player in this current election campaign? In the midst of what looks like a developing global recession, does Duffy matter a hill of beans?

Not that Duffy is done. He has just been sent out to play while the court recesses.

And a recess was needed. The Duffy trial has been a distraction. We all know of the intense loyalty of those the Prime Minister anoints as staff. Nigel Wright, the PM’s former chief of staff played the part of the perfect subaltern. He told his story repeatedly and with a straight face. Only a fool would believe him.

And we found out that there are people in the prime minister’s office who sometimes do not read their e-mails. And when the e-mail deals with the most important subject of the day for these sycophants, we might also have a hard time believing that.

What few seem to remember about this trial is that the defendant is a former news reporter, now Senator, who has been charged with being bribed. Nobody is charged with bribing him, but he is charged with accepting a bribe. He is also charged with breaches of trust. It seems that the Senate of Canada is a place operated as a gentlemen’s club and Duffy was in breach of some of those loosely written rules. And to top it off, he has been charged with fraud. And that can be a sticky wicket because the prime minister knew damn well that Duffy made his home in the Ottawa area. Yet it was the prime minister who appointed Duffy to the Senate as coming from Prince Edward Island.

It seems to this commentator that when the trial resumes they can find Nigel Wright guilty of offering a senator a bribe. Then they could find Mr. Harper (no longer prime minister) guilty of fraud. Mr. Harper and Mr. Wright could share a cell.

But, maybe we also need to make the sign bigger: It’s the economy, stupid!

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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

While always having great respect for reporter Chantal Hébert of CBC and Toronto Star fame, she cannot forecast an election based on visiting Iles-de-la-Madeline. And it is also far too early. Much has yet to happen before the votes are counted. Mind you, we can both agree that the Bloc Québécois and Conservative parties are both whistling past the graveyard in Quebec this October. It is which party will benefit most from their demise that is very much open to question.

Ms. Hébert agrees that the Harper Conservatives have only a few seats left to lose in Quebec and will probably lose them. The last time the Conservatives dived like that was in the 1993 election. The only riding worth watching for Conservative votes is Mount Royal. This long-time Liberal stronghold in Montreal has been a target of Harper’s very expensive pandering for the Jewish vote. The riding has a story to tell.

But Chantal is looking for a second orange wave. It is like a religious fanatic anticipating a second coming. You think it might be interesting if it happens but this cynic is not about to bet money on it.

A second orange wave is dependent on two factors. The first is the messianic potential of New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair. And, frankly, this guy has the Christ-like qualities of a gerbil with whiskers. Give him credit for trying but the truth is he is a typical, stuffy little Quebec Liberal with all those dull, predictable right-wing traits. As hard as the news media will try to keep him in the ring for the entire campaign, he likely does not have the political stamina for the long haul.

The second reason Ms. Hébert gives for this second coming is the overwhelming desire of Quebecers to rid this country of Mr. Harper. While we certainly agree with that idea, we must suggest that there are better ways than by voting NDP. It was a reasonably sound idea four years ago but it caused a Conservative majority government. That was certainly not the intent and voters will want to do it a little smarter this time. While Mr. Harper made the mistake of stirring up interest in the election somewhat early, very little thought has been devoted to it so far.

Frankly, the orange wave hit its zenith in Quebec four years ago. It can only go downhill this year. Chantal needs to go back to Quebec at the end of September and get another reading. The intentions she notes then might be closer to the final results.

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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

During his years as Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau would often remind your writer that we were both members of an exclusive club. Its full name was the Get-Off-Your-Ass Group. It had one meeting in Peterborough, Ontario in 1967. It was a group of left-wing Liberal MPs and party people who were trying to get a more progressive agenda moving in Ottawa. While the writer’s role in the party at that time was head of Liberal Party communications for Ontario, we saw no reason to tell the news media about our meeting.

But we had not counted on the craving for publicity by the local MP. As he told us, he had only told his local paper. When we were informed that a CBC television crew and a Globe and Mail reporter were in the lobby of the hotel, we needed a new strategy. To this publicist, the obvious answer was to throw new MP Pierre Trudeau at them and let the chips fall where they may.

That was not quite how Pierre saw the solution but our counter-argument prevailed and he agreed to cooperate. After a terse briefing, Pierre Trudeau was launched in a campaign that ended with him as Prime Minister of Canada. And it was all because of another MP’s desire for publicity. There were also some remarks that Pierre had offered in an early session of the GOYA Group that had struck a chord.

Pierre and Justin’s mother had probably not even met at that time. Justin needs to take a page from his father’s book. He needs to better follow his instincts. His palace guard are stifling him these days. And their schedule for policy announcements is wrong. These things have to be more instinctive than logical. You have to feel it.

There are still too many holes in Justin’s platform. The voters do not have enough policy meat to chew on while the candidate is resting. This might be a long campaign but you hardly solve that by taking lots of days off. You have to count on pitching stories that the media can spend days developing for you.

You have to make sure that earlier pronouncements are clear and unequivocal. A good example is the Conservatives building the story that the Liberals will end income splitting for seniors. Trudeau made it very clear months ago that his ending income splitting for rich families did not include seniors. The only problem is that many Conservatives do not want to understand the distinction and are adding to the confusion.

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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

The news media recently recorded a very angry Conservative supporter at a Stephen Harper campaign event. Since the Prime Minister was stonewalling the media anyway,  they were looking for something to bring back to their news editors. The vulgar language the guy used might have indicated that he is no gentleman but he needed to vent his feelings.

That person represented many thousands of Conservative supporters across Canada. And these people are angry. They are having their core beliefs challenged. Their parents might have been Conservative supporters before them. They have a tradition of conservatism to maintain. They feel betrayed by Senator Mike Duffy, battered by the economy, angered at the stories in the news and betrayed by Peter MacKay, John Baird and other losers who have deserted the Good Ship Harper.

These are the people who do buy into the silliness that Trudeau is not ready to be Prime Minister. They realize that, if anything, that campaign against Trudeau is helping the dastardly New Democrats. And it is far too early in a long campaign for all this rancour.

Many of these stalwart Conservative Party supporters are going to end up the campaign doing the unthinkable. Some will spoil their ballot. Others will find some excuse not to vote despite all their good intentions. Very few will switch parties.

It has always been interesting to watch these frustrated Tories handling this type of conundrum. The one thing for sure is that they are not inclined to vote Liberal. These people have reviled liberalism all their lives. It is cant rather than logic. They buy into conservatism in trust the same as they buy into religion. They have little understanding of why they do or the ideology involved.

The fellow the media were trying to interview at Mr. Harper’s meeting could not articulate his feelings. It was his irrational frustration that he spewed at them. It shows just what can happen when you only let supporters near the leader. They are not all as well programmed as Mr. Harper.

But people needed to hear that rant—vulgarities and all. It was the strongest rational you will ever hear to bring people out to vote in this election. Mr. Harper is counting on the fatigue factor. He is counting on young people losing interest. He is counting on people to be confused as to which opposition party can best fix the Conservative mess. He is counting on that angry man’s vote.

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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

On balance, the Toronto Star is a reasonably responsible newspaper. Its editors do go a little overboard though when attempting to make a point. Take the current election campaign. The Star’s editors expect that a campaign almost three times the length of normal will be dull as dishwater unless a little spice can be thrown in. To this end they are promoting the election as a three-way race.

Canadians are not used to a three way contest in a federal election. They are confused by what it might mean. And that is the opportunity the Toronto Star editors are looking for: they will then explain it for the hoi polloi.

First of all they need a pollster who can tell the story for them. They need a guy like Aesop. This guy was a story teller noted for his moralistic stories for children—more than 2500 years ago. What would be better than have the story told in polls that kept that three-way fiction in play?

Enter Forum Research. This might be just one more research firm that can connect telephone lines to computers and annoy citizens with recorded telephone calls. It is considered likely that a third of those calls are ignored because of call display, another third are answered by children who press buttons at random and another third who press buttons quickly to get rid of the call. The research firm then applies its patented smoothing to the raw data and gives the sponsor the information the sponsor wants.

And the operative words there are ‘the information the sponsor wants.’ As you know there are many ways to avoid telling the truth. Nobody is accusing the Star editors of not telling the truth. It is just that there is selective truth and if you select carefully, the truth can tell just about any story you wish.

A good example of this is the past week was a Forum Research report that said the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair was the favourite for Prime Minister in a recent poll. The editing had carefully left out the information about how people might vote. We expect that this information was left out of the story because many people knew that after the Leader’s Debate on television there was an interesting readjustment in voting intentions. That change was not part of the Toronto Star’s Fables for Canadians.

The point here is not the foolishness of the Toronto Star. Our concern is that Aesop was a moralist. You could always look for a moral in any of his fables. It is just a bit harder to find the moral in some of Torstar’s fables.

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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Part 9 of our series for Canada’s federal candidates.

The sad demise of small town and neighbourhood journalism in Canada has led to a dearth of opportunity for local candidates to be heard during election campaigns. The corollary of that is: do any of the candidates have anything to say? The truth is that the entire sales message for most political candidates is contained in their election signs.

But there are still candidates who need to be heard. To suggest that they will get that opportunity at the voters’ doors, in all-candidate meetings in local church basements, in social media contact and in city media recaps of local campaigns is totally inadequate. It leaves the campaign with recourse only to mailers and campaign literature. And does anyone today know how to use them?

It was 30 and 40 years ago that local campaigns relied heavily on tabloid style literature. These were usually printed on newsprint and gave more space to pictures of the candidate than to ground-breaking copy. To keep costs low, we worked up a standard format where we could insert a couple pages of the local candidate. Then we could spread the cost of the rest over ten or twelve ridings.

Nobody wants to work with that approach today because of those awful ten-percenters that Ottawa has been doing for Members of Parliament for the past ten years. Anything political that looks grey gets a straight trip to the recycle box.

The favoured approach by all parties today is the magazine format on glossy paper. These are typically four-page efforts on a 40 centimetre by 25 centimetre, four-color, single-fold full bleed sheet. (Don’t worry your printer will know what that means.)

There was one of those mailed pre-writ by the Conservative candidate in our riding. You opened it to see what he was saying for himself and you got a shock. It told you nothing. This guy is totally without redemption. He is not old enough to have a biography. He has never held a job long enough to have a career. And if you asked him why you should vote for him, he would tell you something inane about Stephen Harper. There is absolutely no reason to vote for him.

But if you have something to say for yourself, your designer knows the proper use of white space and can do a decent layout, these things can work for you.

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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]