Celebrating the demise of Sun News Network?

In watching the Sun News Network (SNN), Herbal Magic appeared to be one of the major sponsors--appealing to the stay-at-home parent considering a weight-loss program.  I hear that another popular herb gave actually gave you the munchies, so I'm not really sure how these herbs worked to make you lose weight.

I find myself, and perhaps you too, watching less and less TV news.  That is, unless some major calamity strikes, I am spending more time watching Netflix and PVR'd shows, including sports, for entertainment, skipping commercials.  My news gathering is primarily online from Google News and Twitter, including any video linked to a major news network.  Radio news is my medium for the morning and in the car.

Like newspapers, TV as we knew it, is kind of dying a slow death to the digital age.  And while the freedom of the Internet with net-neutrality is now being put into question by governments and big-corporations, it is more important than ever before to prevent them from taking it over.  Big mainstream media OWNS TV, newspapers, but are also the major Internet and phone providers in this country.  There are smaller outlets, but competing for sponsor dollars is difficult in a smaller market.  All that said, TV still dominates the living rooms and dinner tables and political campaigns live and die based on the live emotion of TV.

I've recently had chats and online discussions regarding SNN going off-air after about four years of production.  "Good riddance" was an exclamation I read often.  How selective are we, to celebrate the demise of a media outlet when opinion disagrees with our views.  Don't see me hoping for the demise of Evan Solomon's show on CBC although I often am at odds of things he's spouted when watching, wait, reading and viewing videos online.

Nay! What we should be celebrating IS the array of opposing views out in media-land, rather than a single state-run TV propaganda machine coupled with an increasing corporate monopolistic media conglomerate.  Celebrate independent thought--don't dismiss it, I say.  It is often the tactic to shut down discussion

It's funny. I often hear lefties saying we need to defend the little guy over government cutbacks and big corporate takeovers, all the while smiling when the CRTC prevents a start-up TV network from being included in the carriage packages offered by, you guessed it, the big corporate media outlets.

That event alone triggered the beginning of the demise of SNN as they were then unable to gain a wider audience to secure needed sponsorship for revenue.

I had friends at SNN--yes some former Conservative Party staffers--hard-working people who strongly believed in their views for a better Canada.

At the start, I visited their seemingly rag-tag offices in downtown East Toronto and stood in Ezra's bookshelf-strewn studio, which, I learned, had a TV camera that was controlled remotely from another room. Neat, I thought.  Now, these assets will have to be sold off.

Ezra Levant, host of The Source, and as shrewd as many think, he certainly grabbed the attention of the Canadian punditry from a vast array of ideologies, stirring controversy, with his brand of defending freedom.

He, along with Brian Lilley, and Charles Adler, all provided a flair in a media crusade against nanny-state bureaucrats, while flouting common-sense idealism and conservative-libertarianism.  David Akin, a respected journalist in his own right, gave the network legitimacy.  While Adler has his ongoing radio show, Levant and Lilley are currently searching and eyeing for new platforms to continue the battle--likely Internet-based.

At a time when Trudeau politicos believe that cozying-up to extreme global terrorists in our backyard with hugs and sunshine will provide rainbows and fluff-based security, at least there was a loud voice in media-land calling out and holding a potential PM to account on this topic while other outlets floundered.

Now that the Sun News Network is off-the-air, that's one less TV outlet in the Canadian media challenging the opinions of the mainstream media and leftorinos.

In fact, no one else was doing it on TV, and now that voice is gone from that powerful medium.

For you, the viewer, take note, whether you agreed with the approach or style or opinions or views of the cast on SNN is not the point of this debate.

The point is that at least you could decide to watch and listen, to change the channel, or turn off the TV and maybe try some of that "herbal magic".

Strikes, Riots, and the In Dig Nation

What a week in Canada!

Postal strike. Air Canada strike.  UFCW strike at National/Alamo/Enterprise at YYZ (at the same time I was renting).   Postal lockout.  Government back-to-work legislation on Air Canada.  Air Canada deal.  CAW union blowhard saying the government shouldn't be involved (wha?).  Government back-to-work for postal workers?  Conservative senators appointed by Prime Minister Harper balking at senate reform?  Then the CBC claims it actually makes a profit when it receives most of its revenue from uh... taxpayers.

Then Canucks lose the Stanley Cup.  Vancouver area hoodlums riot and trash downtown.  (See Rex Murphy's direct editorial on The National about it by the way.)

Such disobedience!  Such righteous rebelliousness!  Such in-dig-nation!

Is it all related somehow?

Probably not, but seriously, why?  Why are anarchists, socialists, and unions flexing their muscles now, now that it's a Conservative majority?  Are they afraid of their "entitlements" being taken away or something?  Maybe.  And maybe they want to blame and take it out on someone.

Me? I blame that senate page with the "Stop Harper" sign.

CBC Vote Compass really really is bias

See!  I told you those Liberals were sneaky!

Turns out the guy who's a PhD analyst for the CBC Vote Compass was an adviser on Ignatieff 2006 campaign--one Peter Loewen.

CBC Vote Compass is BS

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have been using CBC's Vote Compass to determine which party closely aligns with their views and opinions.

This blogger was very closely aligned with, you guessed it, the Conservative Party.  I was actually a bit perturbed though, seeing where the Conservative Party is on the political grid, thinking they would actually be closer to the centre than they were placed.  But I was to the right and south of them slightly.

Then, on advice of a friend, I decided to take the test again, but this time, choosing 'Neither agree nor disagree' and 'No Opinion' on all the questions.  And guess where I ended up?  Smack dab in the middle obviously, and closest with the Liberals.

What a joke. So if I'm completely a-political, I'm really a Liberal?  So who created this Vote Compass thingy?  Well, it was a bunch of University of Toronto students.  Go figure.

The problem with this compass thingy is that it ALLOWS you to have no opinion.  Not only that, but most of the questions are only relevant to today and not on general ideology.   Therefore, it is amateurish and non-applicable to the past or future.

A true compass thingy wouldn't allow it, which is why I recommend www.politicalcompass.org out of Britain. I've been using it for years to track my ideological views.  It is much more extensive and forces you to pick an actual answer.

Where am I on it?  +5 libertarian, +1 economic right.  Well, if you took where I am on it and transposed it to CBC's Compass, guess what?  I'm a Liberal!  Oh, the humanity!

No wonder the CBC is promoting the hell out of it and saying "Wow! Hundreds of thousands of people are using it!"  Why? Because they KNOW the default answer is LIBERAL!

Told ya those Liberals were sneaky.  Look for more sneakiness to come.  It's the only way they'll win. But they won't.

The Culture War continues...

Before I begin, it's quite sad to hear the loss of Colonel Geoff Parker in Afghanistan.  Not a day goes by where I don't stop to think about our troops over there.  They HAVE made a difference and their bravery, courage, and honour will live in eternity. God Bless Our Troops.

The Culture War

Liberal support is down to 25.1% in the latest Frank Graves Ekos poll.  Yeah, yeah, I know. It's Ekos. If the Liberals took Frank's advice on the culture war, then it looks like they need new advice. I still question Ekos polls, especially with the Green Party consistently above 11%, when every other poll doesn't have them so high.  As well, interesting how Frank released this 'unbiased' poll just when the CBC ombudsman said Frank and the CBC weren't biased. Hmmm...

And even if the Liberals didn't take any advice, then the culture war still continues.. The Quebec Assembly sure as hell ensured it endured with their 109-0 vote on demanding the Prime Minister take a stand on abortion.   The PMO responds:

“The Prime Minister has consistently said throughout his political career, before we formed the government and even after, that our government will not initiate or support legislation that reopens the debate on abortion,” said Dimitri Soudas.

So there.

Iggy and the Grits

And in his dull non-specific speech to Liberal supporters at $500 plate dinner in Toronto, Michael Ignateff thinks that the Tories are the ones who started this culture war.  (And if they did, so what, you'd lose anyway.)  Jeffrey Simpson of the Global and Mail has some comments on Ignatieff's "Tired rhetoric, and not much more" speech.

More on Iggy, even before the latest poll numbers, Michael Ignatieff says he's got work to do.  He's been saying that for a while now, hasn't he?  He thinks his rivals have "done a number on him".  Well, boo-frickin'-hoo, Iggy. That's politics.  And with you in dead last of likable leaders, yeah, you do have a lot of work to do.

Other stuff

On auditing MP's expenses.  Here's a solution, why not release the expenses that are over, say, $500?  I don't think every nickel needs to be scruitinized, that becomes a waste unto itself.  Oh, and does this apply to Senators as well?  I haven't heard a peep about that.

If an ex-MP gets caught, it's front page news and the opposition demand his wife gets booted from cabinet. Harper goes one further and boots her out of the caucus and as a candidate. Then she goes on CBC and cries crocodile tears while the Liberal Party president says she was mistreated.  BUT!  But if it's a sitting Liberal MP who gets caught, then barely a sound is made and he remains in caucus.  Double standard galore!

Prime Minister Harper fights the good fight

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister and his army of cabinet ministers have been fighting THE GOOD FIGHT against the European global-socialist weenies on the proposed global bank tax.  In speaking to a group of students, he has also said that at the upcoming G8 and G20 summits in Canada, that the economy should be the focus, not "side shows". That's an obvious jab at Liberals.  He recently told United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that climate change would probably not be a high priority on the agenda either.

With the Greek government and economy in turmoil, raising major doubts about the Euro, this has had immediate effects on Canada's economy.  The Loonie and Canada stocks have taken a hit.

So to all you out there, Harper's right.  And to use the old Democrat adage, "It's the economy, stupid."


There's so much more going on, it's difficult to keep up, but I hope this post helps.

Marci Macdonald's book

Have a read of this review by Naomi Lakritz of the Calgary Herald on Marci Macdonald's crappy book "Armageddon Factor", which assumes every policy of the Harper gov't is based on Christian-fundy influence.  "Shrill nonsense" she says.  I agree, but let's go further and just say liberal bullshit nonsense.

The following bit from the article defines where I believe Canadians are at in their ideological beliefs and why this made-up "culture war" by Ekos pollster Frank Graves, the Liberal Party, the CBC, and others is already failing.

"Ordinary Canadians, regardless of faith, were equally outraged that their tax dollars had been frittered away on such garbage; and clearly, the government's response showed it was listening to public sentiment, not that its strings were being pulled by a small group of evangelicals."

Exactly.  Common sense is prevailin.

It's interesting, you know.  The Liberal Party used to defend these same common sense ideas as it's where the majority of Canadians were.  They've lost it and are scraping to get back by any means necessary.  Thing is, Canadians just don't believe their tripe anymore.  I'm not saying they believe everything from the Conservatives, it's just that the Liberals under Ignatieff have really lost the middle ground and it's going to take a bigger scandal that the Guergis-Jaffer affair and worrying about Ignatieff ,of all people, talking about torturing terrorists (a.k.a. 'Afghan detainee transfer issue').  

 

Nothing has stuck. In fact, it's only made the Liberals look like they are trying everything to scrape back and Canadians haven't seen anything in this Conservative government they could really vote against.  The economy is picking up, better than most countries in fact and Canada is asserting itself globally with good old common sense.

So back to the book.  I'm not going to read it, for obvious reasons.  But I ask you to take particular notice of the continued barrage of a made up culture war tactics by lefties in the opposition parties and the mainstream media, and then watch how much Canadians actually give a shit.

A View from the Right on his view of the left wing media

Fellow Blogging Tory, Zednik at "A View From The Right" provides a scathing review of the leftist Canadian media's response to the recent G8 summit, which our Prime Minister attended and accomplished many-a-thing, despite reports by U2's Bono.

So within a week Harper and his Tories helped create a framework for a
greenhouse gas agreement that includes both the United States and Russia, and
gave us four more viable trading partners in Europe, as well as helping form a
huge aid package to Africa.

Yet all that was reported was that he refused to meet Bono and therefore hates Africans, and he is “really mean” to the Maritime Provinces, and is “Anti-Environment”

But I wanted to further comment and say that Conservative media relations therefore need to improve somehow, because even when our Prime Minister does good things, it doesn't translate into good vibes for Canadians and their view of him, although he still leads the leadership pack.

I, for one, did not realize any of these things were accomplished at the G8 summit. Not at all.

But I did know and was also quite happy that Mr. Harper actually turned down an unelected non-politician such as Bono. As much as Stephen Harper and I like U2's music (more of the old stuff though), he thus spent his time more wisely with actual national leaders in putting together a big African aid package. And Bono turns around and cuts him down. Maybe Bono needs to find another "good" cause rather than up his ego with the media. How about writing better songs?

Anyway, in summary, Harper better than you think, CBC bad, and Bono Vox? Well he's just all bad talk now.