Month: April 2022

As Conservative Party members try to unravel who is who in the leadership race- do not forget the public is also doing the same thing.

As with any leadership race we have lots of candidates with egos bigger than experience. Remember the “He Is Not Ready” slogan the Conservatives used against Trudeau? Well look at our list of leadership candidates.

The latest bunch according to the party web site consists of:

Scott Aitchison     Jean Charest     Leona Alleslev     Marc Dalton

Roman Baber     Leslyn Lewis     Patrick Brown     Pierre Poilievre

As you can see all of them are household names and recognized from coast to coast. In realty most are nice people, but really? You want to be the leader?

Right now, Poilievre is considered to be the front runner.

Yet, a wise old Director of Communications for Joe Clark by the name of Bill Rodgers, used to tell me in our issues management meetings to sit back and watch as the media (of which he was once one of them) love a horse race. They have no interest in a coronation. He used to say give them a few weeks and the media will begin to level the playing field.  He was usually correct.

Are we seeing that now with Poilievre? The story on owning rental property, the Steam Whistle story etc.

Let us sit back and watch who they build up and who they tear now to level the playing field.

Either way enjoy it. Take an honest look at who is running, their experience level, their platform and decide for yourself.

When Trudeau decided to create a slush fund for newspapers who felt they needed extra dollars there was a lot of concern over how criteria was designed. Rex Murphy recently wrote and excellent column here.

While REBEL is the issue today, what will happen down the road? While I personally don’t read, watch or follow anything that media outlet does, and yes, I know who they are, Canadians should be concerned about how the decision making is done, who does it and the impact on freedom of the press.

Freedom of the press can be attacked because of the amount of fake news out there, but, do you want government bureaucrats deciding who is good and who is bad? Who gets money from the Liberal government slush fund and who doesn’t? Perhaps the bigger question is why is there a slush fund in the first place?

There is not a government or politician out there, regardless of party, who doesn’t dislike some segment of Canadian media.

If you think programs are not designed with application criteria specifically to prevent a company from applying as Murphy suggests, think again.

Anyone who has been a political staffer in a minister’s office, the OLO, or PMO knows this is done and quite often too. Think of tender documents for defence contracts, government supplies, standing contracts and so on.

The Trudeau Liberals have lots of ideas on how to regulate the media, assist some media, reign in the internet and fake news etc.

Watch them closely.

This is one of the better political interviews that I have seen in a long time, Jean Charest was definitely on his game. For those that didn’t catch it, whether you like him or don’t, it is worth watching. You have to sit through some ads at the beginning, but it is worth it.

Click the link 674&binId=1.1164511&playlistPageNum=1

Full disclosure, I am still neutral in this contest, but I did work for Charest in his Leaders Office when he was the leader of the PC Party.