While the Globe and Mail continues on its blind path of extolling the fallen (a.k.a. the Harper regime), its readers seem adamant about setting the record straight. These two letters should give the powers that be some pause:
Brand: Conservative
Re Ambrose Buys Time Tories Must Use Wisely (Nov. 6): When most consumer-focused organizations lose a huge chunk of their market overnight, they research, retool, then redefine or reinvigorate their product to try to re-engage their customers and thus regain that lost market share.
Not so the Conservatives.
In her first (as usual, very short) press conference, interim leader Rona Ambrose offered not one “to do” that included any reflection – only that they would work hard to regain power. Most Conservatives who have been interviewed seem to think there is nothing wrong with the product itself – only the way they sold it.
Preserve us from those who seek power only for its own sake, not for the ability to help build a Canada that Canadians actually want.
Gavin Pitchford, Toronto
.........
Muzzled, unmuzzled
Konrad Yakabuski says the suggestion that government scientists “were muzzled or their science suppressed is an exaggeration” (The Grits Are Back In Charge, All’s Right In Ottawa – Nov. 5). He argues that scientists were allowed to keep publishing research in scientific journals.
Yes, but they were unable to issue press releases about those publications or to discuss them with the media, meaning the vast majority of Canadians were unaware of this research – and would have been unable to fully understand the heavily technical articles even if they had been aware of them.
If research results are at odds with what the government is doing, doesn’t the public have a right to know that?
It’s true that there were incidents of conflict between government policy and government scientists’ evidence before the Conservative government.
Perhaps the best strategy to avoid conflict would be for government policy-makers to listen to the evidence gathered by their own scientists.
Carolyn Brown, science writer/editor, Ottawa
Neither of these writers seems to realize that, like most fascists, the Conservatives want complete control of the message. We, the unwashed, ignorant masses, need to be educated in the simplest truth possible. Multiple or complex messages are too much for undeveloped brains. Where do you think you are, in a democracy?
ReplyDeleteThe former government, Anon, showed consistent and deep contempt for the vast majority of Canadians, including their base, for the reason you articulated here.
DeleteIt's disturbing, Lorne, that the Conservatives have so little self-awareness. It's as though they cannot process the joyous celebrations of Canadians and, especially, our public servants who openly revel in their emancipation. None of this seems to penetrate the reptilian hide of the Conservatives. Then again it can't for if they were to acknowledge it they would be admitting their own culpability for the years of oppression that caused it.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to still be drinking the Consecrative Kool- Aid, Mound. I saw Rona Ambrose talking to Robert Fife this morning on Question Period, and she was listing the potential leadership contenders for the party, including Tony Clement and Kelly Leitch, both of whom she extolled as 'fantastic candidates.'
DeleteI rest my case.