To say that these so-called attack ads the the Cons are aiming at Iggy are lame, would be charitable. They are slightly right of stupid. But, you know, the ads are not aimed at me or possibly at you. Attack ads are aimed at those folks that do not follow, or care to follow, political debate or happenings and get their news from TV.
Fair enough, I suppose. Lead them by the nose until you win their minds? Pretty callus way to treat the serious business of governance, but then all parties have done it once or twice. The Cons are just the masters of the black-art.
Let's look at the realistic side of attack ads. The Cons say that they are paying for the ads and maybe they are. But who funds the Cons and how is that funding received? The reality is that you and I are funding the Cons attack ads. The ads, by some estimates, have cost around $3 million so far. Since contributions to political parties receive tax receipts equal to seventy five percent of the contribution, that means that there will be approximately $2.2 million in subsidy through the tax department to fund the stupidity.
Did anyone ask you if you wanted to contribute to the attack ads? They certainly did not ask me.
Showing posts with label attack ads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attack ads. Show all posts
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Dear Canada: An open letter from abroad
By JanaLee Cherneski
Concerning:: I'm a Rhodes Scholar completing my doctorate in Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.
Dear Canada,
I write with sadness to confess I have been unfaithful to you, my home and native land. It seems I lack national sentiment, or so I have been told by our governing party’s most recent advertising campaigns.
Why am I anti-nationalist and unfaithful? Sporting not one, but three Canadian flags lovingly stitched by my mother onto my backpack, I have abandoned you to travel and study outside your borders. I am unfaithful because, like Michael Ignatieff, I have left you to study in England. Because on Canada Day, I, alongside other Canadians working and studying overseas, unfurled my Canadian flag with pride in London’s Trafalgar Square instead of back home in Saskatchewan.
We Canadians abroad who wave our flags from afar on July 1st, who carry our Tim Horton’s mugs, who search out specialty stores that sell maple syrup and Molson beer, clearly must be less patriotic than our peers who stay at home.
For we, like Michael Ignatieff, are now of the world: we have become ‘cosmopolitan.’
Dear Canada: you are one country, but are you not cosmopolitan too? As John Ralston Saul tells us in his most recent book, you are a Metis civilization, historically formed out of aboriginals and the arrivals of newcomers over the centuries. You are composed of not one (or even three) languages or cultures, but rather many.
You house people of many views and experiences and professions; and you are connected to even more outside your borders. You consume coffee from Colombia, bananas from Ecuador, chocolate from Switzerland and movies from Hollywood; use computer chips from Japan, phones fabricated in China, wear clothes made in India and shoes made in Spain.
Like it or not, Canada, you are a member of a global community: you yourself are a cosmopolitan global citizen.
You need the world beyond your borders and you need the people beyond your borders and that world also needs you. Which means you need your people to have experiences outside your borders. And you need them to cooperate with people on the outside, as well as people on the inside, because both are equally important. You need to appreciate the talents of all your people all the time, regardless of where they are in the world or where they have come from.
We, the immigrants from other countries who chose to come to you, we are yours. And we, who are born in your borders but leave you for a time, we remain yours. None of us are citizens of the world who come from nowhere: we are all Canadians living in one global village.
Our cosmopolitan identity doesn’t stop with our people: our national livelihood is global too. International exports account for more than 40 per cent of our GDP. International trade, especially of our commodities, is the fastest-growing area of the Canadian economy and our country relies on B.C. lumber, Alberta oil, Arctic oil, prairie crops, hydro from Quebec and Manitoba, mining from all over, steel and the auto industry in Ontario, and oil and gas and fisheries from the East Coast. A recent study says one in three Canadians is in some way dependent on exported goods or services for their income.
What this means for Canada is not just that we are dependent on our resources and international trading partners but that we are dependent on our own people who work in these industries: our commodities workers are vital to our prosperity. In turn, their livelihoods — like the livelihoods of all Canadian citizens — depends on our ability to understand the international community and befriend it. Thus, as we harvest the profits of our industrial workers, we must also harvest the international experience of some of our other citizens.
We are interdependent — we need each other. In this international world we need our workers and our politicians and our ‘elite’ intellectuals. Most importantly, we need them to communicate and to cooperate. Especially as we face this current financial crisis.
Why, then, are our current leaders talking about spending money on advertising campaigns to attack each other? Why would we even think about spending money to attack one of our citizens instead of to provide tools for the people of our country to learn and to communicate with each other?
We need people who can cooperate across difference. We must empower leaders who foster community rather than conflict: leaders who succeed for society through a politics of unity rather than succeed for themselves through politics of division.
I am worried, Canada. I am partly worried for myself: when I come back to serve you with the knowledge and experience I have gained from afar, will you call me opportunistic and turn on me too? But I worry more for you: once you start rejecting the skills and knowledge of your own citizens where will that leave you, dear Canada?
_____________________
I couldn't have put it better myself.
It boggles the mind when your government tells you that international exposure and knowledge is equivalent to treason... or, at minimum, a cardinal sin.
Concerning:: I'm a Rhodes Scholar completing my doctorate in Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.
Dear Canada,
I write with sadness to confess I have been unfaithful to you, my home and native land. It seems I lack national sentiment, or so I have been told by our governing party’s most recent advertising campaigns.
We Canadians abroad who wave our flags from afar on July 1st, who carry our Tim Horton’s mugs, who search out specialty stores that sell maple syrup and Molson beer, clearly must be less patriotic than our peers who stay at home.
For we, like Michael Ignatieff, are now of the world: we have become ‘cosmopolitan.’
Dear Canada: you are one country, but are you not cosmopolitan too? As John Ralston Saul tells us in his most recent book, you are a Metis civilization, historically formed out of aboriginals and the arrivals of newcomers over the centuries. You are composed of not one (or even three) languages or cultures, but rather many.
You house people of many views and experiences and professions; and you are connected to even more outside your borders. You consume coffee from Colombia, bananas from Ecuador, chocolate from Switzerland and movies from Hollywood; use computer chips from Japan, phones fabricated in China, wear clothes made in India and shoes made in Spain.
Like it or not, Canada, you are a member of a global community: you yourself are a cosmopolitan global citizen.
We, the immigrants from other countries who chose to come to you, we are yours. And we, who are born in your borders but leave you for a time, we remain yours. None of us are citizens of the world who come from nowhere: we are all Canadians living in one global village.
Our cosmopolitan identity doesn’t stop with our people: our national livelihood is global too. International exports account for more than 40 per cent of our GDP. International trade, especially of our commodities, is the fastest-growing area of the Canadian economy and our country relies on B.C. lumber, Alberta oil, Arctic oil, prairie crops, hydro from Quebec and Manitoba, mining from all over, steel and the auto industry in Ontario, and oil and gas and fisheries from the East Coast. A recent study says one in three Canadians is in some way dependent on exported goods or services for their income.
What this means for Canada is not just that we are dependent on our resources and international trading partners but that we are dependent on our own people who work in these industries: our commodities workers are vital to our prosperity. In turn, their livelihoods — like the livelihoods of all Canadian citizens — depends on our ability to understand the international community and befriend it. Thus, as we harvest the profits of our industrial workers, we must also harvest the international experience of some of our other citizens.
We are interdependent — we need each other. In this international world we need our workers and our politicians and our ‘elite’ intellectuals. Most importantly, we need them to communicate and to cooperate. Especially as we face this current financial crisis.
Why, then, are our current leaders talking about spending money on advertising campaigns to attack each other? Why would we even think about spending money to attack one of our citizens instead of to provide tools for the people of our country to learn and to communicate with each other?
We need people who can cooperate across difference. We must empower leaders who foster community rather than conflict: leaders who succeed for society through a politics of unity rather than succeed for themselves through politics of division.
I am worried, Canada. I am partly worried for myself: when I come back to serve you with the knowledge and experience I have gained from afar, will you call me opportunistic and turn on me too? But I worry more for you: once you start rejecting the skills and knowledge of your own citizens where will that leave you, dear Canada?
_____________________
I couldn't have put it better myself.
It boggles the mind when your government tells you that international exposure and knowledge is equivalent to treason... or, at minimum, a cardinal sin.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Cons go to the attack... again
It took the Cons about 30 seconds to whip out the attack ads against Ignatieff. This comes about 20 seconds after Harper declared that he wanted cooperation between the "major parties".
Great! And the talk shows are pushing it along. Mouthpieces like CFRA's Michael Harris are convinced that they know more about being a Liberal that do real Liberals. The grassroots of the party are beginning the long road of expanding support for the party. The fact that the leadership at the federal level is settled (and it is settled, Michael) means that the local executives can get to work with no distractions.
Unless and until the talk show mandarins acknowledge that they are simply being mouthpieces for Adolph Harper, the real democratic process in Canada being eroded.
Unless and until the talk show mandarins acknowledge that they are simply being mouthpieces for Adolph Harper, the real democratic process in Canada being eroded.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
