It was a critical moment. It was not quite an epiphany. It was the realization that the much acclaimed panel on CBC late night news is not as smart as we thought it was. This is the panel with the Toronto Star’s Chantal Hébert, Post Media’s Andrew Coyne and pollster Bruce Anderson. And if news reader Peter Mansbridge would just shut up and let the panellists talk, many think this would be a consistently excellent bit of television.
But not when the panel buys into the lies of Stephen Harper. These people are supposed to be smarter than that. Can you imagine trying to go to sleep last Thursday night with images of the three pundits bowing low before Emperor Stephen Harper? The three of them actually said they believed Mr. Harper was acting like a world leader and doing some good for the Ukraine.
And if they believe that maybe they would like to go salmon fishing in Mr. Harper’s favourite tar sands tailing ponds in Athabasca. If they honestly believe Harper is a world leader, they should explain to us what Harper and friends were doing in Israel recently.
If they do not realize that Stephen Harper is flagrantly flying where and when he pleases to win votes back in Canada, these pundits have been smoking too many of Justin Trudeau’s favourite after-dinner toke up.
The only thing that we can say in their defence is that foreign excursions have never won a Canadian Prime Minister re-election before. Both Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney made world tours before losing office. Even Lester Pearson won a Nobel Peace Prize and could never win a majority government.
These pundits are just promoting another stupid lie on Stephen Harper’s behalf. He hardly needs the help. Stephen Harper is a master at lying. He was spending Canadian taxpayers’ money advertising the success of his job action plan before the provinces agreed or one person was trained. If that is not an expert liar, you must have a new definition of lying.
Harper is the guy who wants the Americans to tell us how to protect the environment. Hell, they have already done enough damage to their own country. We hardly need their help to screw up ours.
Maybe the CBC’s brilliant panel should explain to Canadians what good this new Fair Elections Act is going to do. They had better be quick or too many Canadians are going to get the impression that it is just another way to help elect Conservatives.
But most Canadians have their own answer to the question, “When has Mr. Harper lied to you before?” Ask any veteran.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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