Living as I do close to both Toronto and Hamilton, it is my practice at 6:00 P.M. each evening to flip back and forth between Hamilton's independent station, CHCH, and the CTV Toronto for my local news. Sometimes, despite resources that are constrained compared to those of CTV, CHCH offers some insightful coverage. Friday night offered one such example.
In covering Stephen Harper's visit to a Brampton manufacturing plant, a visit that was billed as “a question and answer session with members of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters” ... “moderated” by Jayson Myers, President and CEO of CME and Jason Langrish, Executive Director of The Canada Europe Roundtable for Business” report Scott Urquart that this billing was essentially a lie:
... the two men read prepared questions to the Prime Minister, and he gave them prepared answers, that neatly emphasized government policies. No questions were taken the floor — and certainly not — from the media.
Not even to clarify — or possibly challenge the accuracy of the Prime Minister’s power point presentation.
While this kind of manipulation, distortion and control is nothing new to those of us who follow the cruel parody that openness and democracy have become under the Harper cabal, it was nonetheless refreshing to see that kind of editorializing and slant happening at the local level.
Here is the video of the news item. Enjoy:
Lorne, they did their home work. The PM came there fully prepared so did the moderators and they opened up to the audience with their ideas. They did not keep the ideas to themselves. That is their way of showing openness.:)
ReplyDeleteNow Harper wants to control as to what is taught at the university level. That completes the totalitarianism. Simply incredible.
Harper's brazenness, LD, is commensurate with his contempt for the Canadian people.
DeleteThat's a man running scared, Lorne. First Flanagan craps on him saying he's too despised for his attempts to smear Trudeau to work. Then his numbers plummet. Preston jumps in with both boots slamming Harper's Fair Election Act as undemocratic and deploring the government's inaction on climate change. Now a tell all book on Harper-Wright-Duffy is about to hit the market and, I hear, the audit of the Senate is just about finished and will result in dozens of senators in the Duffy-Wallin boat. Is Harper going to run over that many of his own appointments? There's not much he can do these days without blowback.
ReplyDeleteFrom what you describe, Mound, I would say that Harper is about to receive the much-deserved 'fruits' of his diseased governance.
DeleteI have been following Manning's pronouncements about what ails the Tories, but I disagree with his refusal to blame it all on Harper. Even a casual political observer can see, I suspect, that what his government is reaping is almost exclusively attributable to the tone set by Harper, along with his actions, both direct and indirect, that are an indictment of his pathology.