Setting the bar

By-elections are sometimes a chance to preview the strategies and tone of any future, general election campaign. If that's the case with regard to the by-elections currently under way,  I think it's worth paying some very close attention to some of the tactics on display. Politicians get away with this garbage when people are tuned out and disinterested. If you want a higher level of discourse from your politicians, you have some responsibility to keep them honest too. 

I'm talking in particular of a disgraceful little episode involving the Winnipeg Free Press this week. How the Free Press  participated in the mud-dive is probably another story in itself, but let's look at what we do know:  

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff gave an interview to the Free Press, in which he delivered some remarks that the paper (for who knows what reason) twisted into a racist slur against the Filipino community in Winnipeg. Ignatieff was slammed in an editorial. Highly unusually (and bravely), a Winnipeg Free Press reporter wrote a story to assert that Ignatieff had not said what the editorial alleged. The Liberals issued a transcript of the interview. The Winnipeg Free Press formally apologized and retracted. 

But the Conservatives have decided to ignore the apology and retraction, and repeatedly are issuing statements to condemn Ignatieff for his alleged slur against Filipinos. Why? Because they think it will work.  Backbenchers such as Shelley Glover and Joy Smith have used their time in the Commons before Question Period to condemn Ignatieff as a foe of tolerance and the Filipino community.  Political operatives may have many  names for this tactic, but you know what your parents would call it if you tried it in the schoolyard and you probably have a vague idea how it would be treated in a court of law. And don't get me started on how this would be treated in a church, which many of these government MPs purport to embrace.

Once upon a time, the Commons was regarded as equivalent to a legal forum; people didn't deliberately tell mistruths in there. Contempt for political foes is one thing -- contempt for the institution is breath-taking. 

 And just to put the icing on the cake, Glover also used a government announcement yesterday to accuse Ignatieff of advocating marijuana use for young people, again, exploiting a cynical twist on partial quotes.  Your taxpayer dollars paid for that news conference; you should be demanding that the Conservative party foot part of the bill. 

I don't particularly care who wins the by-elections, but as a long-time observer of politics, I can tell you that this isn't business as usual. If this is the kind of campaigning that is allowed to stand, if we just shrug, Canada will get the base, cynical politics it deserves. 

 

Comments

[Anne Peterson]

Thank you for holding their feet to the fire. Very few members of the media do.

[Mike D]

Maybe next time the Free Press decides to lay people off, they'll start with an editor or two, instead of the fact checkers. It's a sad commentary on the times that in the US, most of the young adult demographic freely admit their first choice as a source of news is The Daily Show -- a show that openly calls itself a "fake news" show. I suspect that up here, there is a similar, startlingly high demographic that assigns more credibility to Rick Mercer than to the so-called mainstream media. I know that there are signs of rumblings in the Opposition ranks but when it comes to actually calling the government's bluff, they just collectively shrug and let them go right on lying. Not yet the "winning conditions", doncha know? If anyone should ever wonder why thinking people shun political careers as though they were terms in Millhaven with Canada's best-known criminals, they will one day find their answers when the legacy histories of our current elected representatives are all written and archived.

[MCBellecourt]

Ms. Delacourt, it would appear that we already have the base and cynical politics, and those of us who actually bothered to vote are paying for the laziness and lame excuses for the abstainers.

The area I live in is especially bad for voter apathy. It took me only 10 minutes to cast my vote, from entering the building to actually leaving--and I live in a small city.

I spend a lot of time, money and energy on top of an already full plate trying to get people off their fannies and into the polling booth, but the message couldn't be installed in these people if I were to pound it into their thick heads with a baseball bat, figuratively speaking.

I'm not so sure I'll do it this time around. The frustration factor, after being directly or indirectly involved in politics in some way for over two decades, is depressing. And, you would be surprised at how many younger people think that is is OK for their bosses to prevent them from voting! I talked to literally hundreds of them, and only a handful of them knew that it is illegal for an employer to prevent them from voting.

I agree with Anne Peterson in saying thank you for holding politicians accountable. They just don't "make" 'em like you anymore.

All the best.

[Cam]

Really reflects poorly on MPs Shelly Glover and Joy Smith.

Their office phone numbers are easily found via the internet. Call their offices and let them know what you think of these tactics.

[johnnyk]

The base and cynical politics are already here courtesy of the Lee Atwater playbook.

[Jon Drake]

I've just read the reporter's comments and others. It is clear to me Iggy didnt get this right and the Tories are on to his mistake. Too bad for the Liberals you are compounding it by pointing it out for all to see.

[Neil]

I am quite sick of this Glover woman constantly pontificating that "she has 19 yrs as a police officer". She is probably captivated by the various 15 yr episodes of Law and Order and the CSI crap. People of her stature is the reason I am turned off with all things political - like a good many others.

[Cam]

Really Jon? Really? You read an apology and acknowledgement of an error and you get that from it?

[Susie]

You probably will not print this comment. Where was your condemnation in the past when the Liberals were telling untruths, i.e. calling Helena Guergis a liar (Iggy did this outside the House) and Wayne Easter accused her of abusing people at an airport?

[Man-O-Man]

The Winnipeg Free Press used to be considered a "liberal" paper. It has taken a sharp turn to the right lately and it's too bad. Today's edition includes a lame atempt at portaying the hypocricy of the Harper conservatives over the killing of an environmentil bill passed by a majority in parliament and killed by the conservative majority in the senate without even a nod towards discussion or reworking the bill. This is exactly what the conservatives condemnded about the previous Liberal government. But the Free Press chose to blame the Liberals for their own hypocricy. With a few exceptions, the Free Press makes sport of attacking every political persuaion except the conservatives. Just what we need in this country. Another right wing rag.

[Terry]

I think the comment "Let's not insult the voters of Winnipeg North, let's give them a real choice" is pretty disrepectful of the Conservative candidate in the riding. So if we are going to hold people to account let's start with the guy who started the whole ball rolling hjere

[Frank Docherty]

This is just another example of the Harper Conservatives' "obtuse cancerous henious neglect" for the constitution of person, foundation of integrity, and trust of elected representation to provide a standard of care for the values and principals of Canada, and all that Her flags stands for. It was Stephen Harper, not Michael Ignattieff, who authorized the orders to allow the violation of the Geneva Convention in Afghanistan. National and International obligations are the responsibility of the PMO. Failing to provide that due dilligence and attempting to toss your opposition into the fire is arson - and borderline treasonous. Actually beleiving that you can get away with it while the world is watching, is insane. On the street, this is the type of conduct more commonly known as "organised crime."

[hollinm]

You can see how Ignatieff's comments could be interpreted as reported by the WFP. However, instead of supporting anything a Liberal says or does maybe Ms. Delacourt could start taking some of her own advice and quit being a paid propagandist for the Liberal Party of Canada.

[Ewen Scott]

Shelley Glover and Joy Smith could be aliens who do not know any better

[jad]

Mr. Ignatieff seems to be confused as to the difference between legalizing marijuana and decriminalizing it.
Perhaps someone could explain it to him.

[Michael M.]

Well said Susan! This type of nonsense is becoming all too common.

The media was almost admiring of Rob Ford's campaign manager's dirty tricks. He proudly boasted about how his male communication staffer masqueraded as a young woman on twitter to befriend the man Ford had promised to help get drugs for his addiction. All to scam him out of the recording he made of their conversations. The man thought he was getting sympathy, concern, help and advice from a young woman who lived with her cat - but he was really being screwed over by a young vicious thug.

Nobody seems to think this was over the top.

I'm also suspicious of why during federal elections and by-elections in Toronto we keep getting cars damaged in their own drive-ways if they have a Liberal election sign on their lawn. This has happened to seven people I know - from St. Pauls to Willowdale. Now they don't ask for signs anymore.

Seems to me that the ghost of Richard Nixon is alive and well in certain political circles.

All parties need to promise to stamp out this sort of disgraceful behaviour.

[Anne Peterson]

I saw Shelley Glover lying in QP yesterday. It is government by lies and no one holds them accountable. Certainly not the media. Often their lies are what my mother would have called weasel lies. Some philosopher long ago must have written a treatis on kinds of lies. Lies of omission. Lies by inference. But now it's just blatant lies. This government never stops. "Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost if we allowed Emerites to land here", said one of them yesterday. Millions of jobs would have been be lost if the climate change bill hadn't been killed (a few days ago by the Prime Minister). Dictatorship by lies. That's what we have.

Proportional representation please.

[Inge Jordan]

Why cannot someone on the Liberal side of the House get up and make a statement about Shelley Glover's despicable lies? Being thrown out of the house for using unparliamentary language would be well worth it and a small price to pay. Say it as it is, call a spade a spade.