It is interesting to see how Trudeau gets a pass from most of today’s media on his screw-ups.
On the other hand, Premiers such as Ford and Kenney get savaged in the media for every misstep.
This is not to say that that they have not screwed up, they have. Ford’s latest fumble and back-walking on his last announcement is one of the best examples. As Don Martin said, he needs some adult supervision in his office, and he needs some staff capable of calming him down. It is time for Ford to shop around for such staffers.
Trudeau however skates away with only a rare reprimand from the media and most often it is just a one-day story, or his involvement is buried at the end of the story where few people finish reading.
In any other country the media would be skewering the Prime Minister for his complete failure on the vaccine front- the media would be screaming about the daily number of total cases, the daily number of deaths and the total number of deaths to date and why it is taking so long, why we compare so badly to other countries around the world?
Remember the USA media and Trump. They posted the totals on the screen throughout their broadcasts. Just think if you could fly to the USA today you would have both shots withing two weeks. Yet the bulk of our media eagerly report every pronouncement of vaccines arriving months from now while ignoring the fact that other countries have them right now.
Biden giving us some of the USA supply is treated as a victory for Trudeau as opposed to a complete embarrassment that he screwed up so badly he had to go begging for vaccines from our neighbour.
Interesting times we live. Interesting media accountability too.
Keith Beardsley is a former Conservative political staffer and former Deputy Chief of Staff for Issues Management to the Prime Minister as well as a senior advisor for five federal political party leaders.
