Media / Media Bias
Harper keeps those cards and letters coming in
By Arthur Weinreb
Friday, March 11, 2005
A few weeks ago Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper wrote a letter to the editor of the National Post. The point of the letter was, as far as can be figured out, to accuse the National Post of not being a conservative newspaper because it criticized the Conservative leader for not being conservative enough.
Not only has the Conservative Party turned into the Liberal Lights, but Harper is becoming "Stephane Dion Light". Dion, the current Minister of the Environment is the Liberal cabinet minister who is known for his penning of numerous letters.
After the National Post published an editorial critical of the defense provisions in last month’s budget and Stephen Harper’s reaction to it, Harper wrote another letter to the editor. The main criticism levelled against Stephen Harper by the newspaper was that he was too quick to declare his support for the budget, thereby ensuring the Liberals from the outset that the budget would be passed. The Post’s editorial board was hardly alone in their criticism that Harper should not have been so quick off the mark to indicate his of the budget document and the newspaper accused the Conservatives of abandoning defense; one of the party’s core principles.
In the letter to the editor that could aptly be described as a whine, Harper moaned that to defeat the budget would force an election that no one really wants at a cost of approximately $250 million.
No one, not even the big, bad National Post, was suggesting that Harper and the Conservatives "force" an election. What Harper’s critics have been saying is that instead of praising the budget as a "conservative" one, he should have held off his support and attempted to force favourable amendments to the document prior to the budget vote being taken.
It is sad to see the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition having to justify a core principle of his party in a letter to the editor of a national newspaper. If Stephen Harper had the ability to do his job as an opposition leader, there would have been no need for the letter; or for that matter, the editorial.
And…
On Tuesday, a public funeral service was held for Peter Schiemann, one of the four RCMP officers who were gunned down last week by 46-year-old James Roszko.
The funeral service was broadcast live on CTV NewsNet and in Toronto on CP24. While the funeral was taking place, the CBC, Canada’s national network, continued with its regularly scheduled programming. While the Mountie was being laid to rest after the worst police killings since the 1880s, CBC Newsworld was talking about Quebec maple syrup on the program, Absolutely Canadian.
The fact that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the network that bills itself as the guardian of Canadian values, refused to broadcast live coverage of the funeral was "Absolutely Disgusting".
Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: aweinreb@rogers.com
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