The (Right) News Rundown
- This past week's' BC story highlights yet another danger of social media.
- In the last week of April, Premier Clark was campaigning with local Liberal candidates in a North Vancouver grocery store, a local resident named Linda Higgins came over to Clark and started off what would later become a conversation that media outlets said portrayed the Liberals as "arrogant" "aloof" and "uncaring".
- The conversation? Higgins introduced herself to Clark, who replied "Nice to meet you Linda," and Higgins then fired back quickly with "I'll never vote for you", which Clark then replied "You don't have to. That's why we live in a democracy!" Clark then walked away to meet other people who were waiting to talk to her. As Clark walks away Higgins replies with "Thank goodness, hopefully you won't get elected in" and then turns toward the news camera filming the entire encounter.
- After the "story" was aired on the evening news that night, and blew up on social media with people who were anti-Liberals, and the slacktivism rallying cry became #IamLinda , suggesting that the people on Twitter sympathised with Higgins, and wished they too could tell Clark they weren't voting for her.
- This led to news media posting or mentioning certain Twitter links that insulted the Liberals. Something to remember is that when the media wants to say something but can't because of libel laws, they will reprint or show what other people say on Twitter as fact to suit their narrative.
- A few days later, after the incident would normally blow over, news media ran with the headlines "No apology from Clark as BC Liberals throw in the #IamLinda towel" and "#IamLinda encounter continues to plague Christy Clark, BC Liberals". What are they really trying to suggest with these headlines?
- What the media is missing is that by not engaging in an argument with someone who obviously didn't want to change their mind, Clark actually took the high road, and looked very diplomatic about the situation. Politicians are told all the time that people won't vote for them, and often try to pick a fight to make the politician look bad. However, the media and social media coverage of this story is awful because in this instance, they're blasting her for doing the right thing. Clark in this situation is right, we do live in a democracy and don't have to vote for a specific candidate, and when the media shapes the narrative of a story, it begs the question of whether the media is there to tell us the news, or if they are there because they want to tell us what they think of the news.
- Jordan Bateman: The Liberal's fiscal plan is "head and shoulders" ahead of the other parties. The NDP and Green Party platforms will lead to a huge tax increase on voters. It's in the platform of both the NDP and Green Party.
- The NDP and elite are calling those who make more than $150k the "super elite". This can be accomplished with a dual income family of 2 teachers, for example.
- If a voter is looking to vote based on pocket book issues the choice is clear that the only party who will enable taking home more money is the Liberals.
- "Look across the Rockies at what's going on in Alberta, that should send a chill across your spine"
- There's no silver bullet to tackle the issue of property pricing in the lower mainland. In most cases sales and new housing starts are limited by local governments imposing red tape. All large major cities are facing this problem of increasing property prices (Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco).
- The BC CTF takes issue with the 114,000 new affordable housing units that the NDP are promising. This will ultimately cost taxpayers $22b. The housing industry is tied up as it is and already produces 20,000 new units a year. Adding an extra 10,000 units is not feasible.
- The Liberal government says it will use its powers to shut down debate to get its agenda through Parliament.
- Liberal House Leader Bardish Chagger announced on Monday that her government will make more use of time allocation, a practice that limits debate on specific bills or motions that will force votes and move the process along.
- Chagger cites the opposition's unwillingness to accept changes to parliamentary procedure, failing to remember that the controversial Liberal parliamentary motion M103 was recently passed.
- The government said it will make five changes to the Parliamentary rules – including establishing a weekly Prime Minister’s Question Period – which immediately angered the opposition parties, who said such a move should have the consent of all parties in the House.
- The Conservatives and NDP said they intend to use all delay tactics at their disposal as a protest. Those options include forcing standing votes on routine matters, which causes delays as bells ring throughout Parliament Hill to alert MPs to return to the House for a vote.
- “The NDP [and] the Conservatives are more united than ever in terms of fighting against this,” said Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen, who spoke to reporters alongside NDP House Leader Murray Rankin.
- “It’s a power-grab by the Liberals, plain and simple,” Mr. Rankin said. “The Parliament is for the people of Canada. It’s not to make the government’s work more efficient. It’s to hold the government to account.”
- What listeners might realize from this story is that the Liberals, not content with having a majority already, are doing everything they can to try to push their agenda through Parliament as soon as possible without debate from the other parties of MPs duly elected to represent the people's interests.
- When the Conservatives and NDP unite on an issue, it's a big deal. It's clear that the two vastly different parties see the danger in making Parliament less democratic.
- The article also notes that this fall will be the halfway point of the Liberals' term in power, which is the usual time to prorogue Parliament, which kills all bills that haven't received Royal Assent. This would explain why the Liberals are trying to push their changes through, as they are trying to look like they've done something positive in their first half of their term in power.
- Prior to the 2015 election the Liberals said they "will not resort to legislative tricks to avoid scrutiny". With this, it's clear that they are blatantly doing just that. Those who voted for "Real Change" are surely upset that little has actually changed.
The Firing Line
- "The Conservatives chastised the defence minister in question period Thursday for remarks he made in a speech last week linking the start of the Syrian civil war to climate change."
- In his speech at the Canada 2020 conference last Friday, Sajjan spoke of how a failure to understand “ripple effects” led to military failures in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq.
- Sajjan gave climate change as an example of an issue “creating grievances in many different parts of the world.”
- Meanwhile: The page has already been turned by the media in this week's news cycle from the comments that Sajjan made regarding claiming he was the architect of one of the major operations undertaken in Afghanistan while he was posted there.
- The media used grandiose words such as "chastised" and "laid into". While the conversation and news stories continue to be posted online the majority of TV coverage on the nightly news has shifted away from this matter. The opposition is rightfully holding the defence minister to account but the media seems to be following the government talking points that no further action is required of the minister by not reporting this week on the ongoing discussion going on in the House of Commons.
- For those who will remember during the Conservative government Bev Oda was forced to resign over a $16 glass of orange juice and other expenses. She was Minister for International cooperation. Initially the Harper government didn't request or force Oda to resign but through continued media coverage this action was ultimately forced.
- The question that must be asked is, what's worse: why is the media not continuing on with this story? Both cases ultimately resulted in a large breach of public trust.
Word of the Week
consequence |ˈkänsikwəns|
noun
1 a result or effect of an action or condition: many have been laid off from work as a consequence of the administration's policies.
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Show Data
Episode Title: IamLinda vs. Sajjan
Teaser: A story of narrative with the overblown #IamLinda conversation versus the dishonesty of Canada’s Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan. The BC chapter of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has a look at the party platforms. And we have a talk about consequences.
Recorded Date: May 6, 2017
Release Date: May 6, 2017
Duration: 36:07
Edit Notes: None