A Four-Part Series:
Part 1 here.
Part Two of Four
BC voters routinely flip-flop between voting for the socialist NDP and then voting for an ostensibly non-socialist, so-called “right-wing” alternative. No population that understands political philosophy—and actually has one—would flip back and forth between socialists and right-wing free-market political parties, and this reveals much about the sophistication of BC voters.
In Vancouver politics the same thing routinely occurs—they vote neo-communist (the “COPE” party) in an election immediately after voting for a center-right, ostensibly “free-market” party (like “TEAM” or “NPA”), then back again.
And it’s not as though the population is divided equally as in the United States recently—the left will win hands down one election, then the right hands down the next.
Similarly, only a rather ignorant unsophisticated populace would vote for the socialist NDP in a provincial election, even while voting Reform (in pre-Conservative Party days) or Conservative as they did in the last federal election. There is simply no remedy for the intellectually painful consequence of asking your pal how he’s voting in the provincial election and he says: “NDP”. Then asking how he voted federally and he says “Conservative”, then as to how he voted in the last civic election and he says “COPE”.
That mind-bender betrays the common complete lack of political philosophy and knowledge of politics, and of course for those of us who actually have a political philosophy in BC, it’s like hearing finger nails on a chalk board. Are ya for free markets or not, Bucky?
Political writer Ann Coulter wrote, “Swing voters are more appropriately known as the ‘idiot voters’ because they have no set of philosophical principles. By the age of fourteen, you’re either a Conservative or a Liberal if you have an IQ above a toaster.” That sentiment is lost on BC voters, whom I am loath to call “idiots” simply because they are my compatriots and I still need my dry-cleaning done, but calling a spade a spade is sorely lacking in Canada and so I will.
The media in BC, as liberal-left as the rest of the country minus Alberta which has some actual conservative media, is drunk on simply being popular, rather than on being a source of information and enlightenment about world affairs, economics, politics, or anything more heady than Britney Spears. Vancouver Sun columnists Malcolm Parry dominates the columnist space in that paper with his ?-page full-color multi-photo gossip and general BS column (always featuring an overly revealed but always very lovely full-color female breast in a cocktail dress or low-necklined blouse as shot by a photographer standing on a chair above and right of said breast), and the column is located extremely visibly early in the paper. Meanwhile, clear-thinking common-sense conservative free-market thinker Michael Campbell’s little one-inch column is buried in the Business section which, apparently, sadly, few read.
I always say if you want to learn about a people, then short of visiting them and talking to them and learning about them properly, read their papers for a week.
There’s nothing wrong with a paper being overtly left-wing or right-wing—but only if the population can grapple with it maturely which they can’t in BC. So the media dutifully maintains a squishy, brainless, “middle-of-the-road” editorial stance, but of course leaning liberal-left as the old media always does because people in the media are more liberal-left than the rest of us. Similarly, the number one talk-radio show and its host Bill Goode are as apolitical, squishy middle as can be, to the point where people with an actual informed opinion tune out.
But it’s not as if he’s that way on purpose—it’s simply because he has no philosophy except what he himself describes as being “moderate”. Of course any conservative would add that he’s “moderate” only to a blind liberal—he’s as clearly a liberal as almost all old media people are, to the point where they don’t even know they’re liberals anymore. Goode also co-anchors the evening news on CTV TV in Vancouver where his middle of the road to nowhere style is more appropriate than in his phone-in radio talk show.
The Vancouver papers hold themselves out to be impartial and objective unlike, say, Calgary’s Western Standard, all the while espousing a liberal-left editorial viewpoint. The population doesn’t see it—they’re awash in liberalism from all sides, and lack their own political philosophy to compare it to in any case. And there’s no escape: The Vancouver Sun is one of the two daily papers, but both of the majors are owned by the same company, Canwest/Global.
The Sun has on page three—that’s the first page you see every day after reviewing the scandalous populist front page), a huge daily political commentary piece written by staff editorialist, the aforementioned Vaughn Palmer. I don’t want to disparage Palmer—he knows everything there is to know about the behind-the-scenes action in Victoria, as well he should.
But he is under contract, it would seem, to act as the official opposition to the government. I don’t mean opposition to the Liberals, I mean opposition to any government in Victoria. And this is appropriate for an ignorant, unsophisticated populace. Palmer seems bent on bringing about delicious resentment, suspicion, and an unhealthy degree of discontent with whomever is in power. I say “unhealthy” because without taking an actual side, all the readership is left with are question marks in their toaster-like minds, leaning toward voting “for anybody other than those guys”; and resentment simply left on its own without a sound remedy is clearly unhealthy—if not mentally then certainly for the stability of our economy (—is it free-market? Is it not?…). We’re encouraged to be “toasters”.
I suppose the Sun likes to pretend to think we are politically smart enough to make up our minds on things—and likes to posit itself that way to make us feel grown-up, but sadly as I’ve briefly explained, we are not.
Palmer’s column criticizes and nitpicks not based on a political philosophy necessarily, but rather on the government and the party and personal characters in power per se. He is anti-government but not anarchists, anti-whomever’s-in-power, but not Libertarian. When the government does something clearly good, he accuses them of not blowing their horns and communicating and getting that message out well enough to the public. When they communicate their goodness, he accuses them of scandalously raiding the public treasury of dollars for partisan advertising despite promising not to.
The Sun officially backed the federal Liberals in the last election, but I think they are simply abiding by the mandate given them by their owner Canwest/Global who are liberals through and through, and who merely allow a nod to the right to appease the populace somewhat. As such, Vancouver’s other paper, Canwest/Global’s The Province, OK’d the Conservatives in the last election—but they didn’t really back them—merely said something like “you wouldn’t be insane to think they are better than the Liberal thieves, we guess, if you have to, well whatever”.
Most papers are similar in their reportage, in fact, but Palmer’s editorial column, probably the most-read and easily the best-placed column in the nation (page three and right-in-your-face every day), betrays an activist, anti-whomever attitude, designed to appease toaster-heads, and satisfy their marketing department’s quest for a degree of popular turmoil—not in order to raise awareness of issues, but simply to sell papers.
If they wanted to raise awareness, they’d present both sides of every issue without bias. They’d demand information (just once even!) about the future plans from the NDP’s Carol James as they constantly do with the BC Liberal’s Gordon Campbell (whom Palmer describes as “right-wing”), especially when the media has succeeded in raising the NDP’s fortunes from zero in the last election to about 50 percent odds on favorite right now—simply by not ever questioning or reporting on the NDP’s statements, their follies and lack of position on issues, or their plans. They’d also place Palmer’s column on Page-B5, and move conservative columnist Michael Campbell’s column from Page-J68 to Page-B5 or something close to it. And they wouldn’t report, in a news article, that Fox news Channel was “the ultra-right-wing champion of George W. Bush, big tax cuts and the war in Iraq”.
With their kind of “they’re always wrong and here’s yet another example” advocacy, instead of explaining politics and political philosophy (explaining the news), it’s hardly a mystery as to why an unsophisticated populace of ignorants would shift (provincially) between an out-and-out socialist party, and one or another non-socialist party. They’re always being told by the main media (toasters all of them) that whomever is in power should be shown the door—and that one should not really consider voting conservative. Of course a population being guided by squishy-talk is no guidence at all, so they go ahead and vote Conservative federally simply because they hate whomever’s in power there (federal Liberals—a traditional stylish target of loathing). They have no clue.
We don’t have a viable right-wing, conservative alternative in this province, though the new BC Conservative Party tried to play that card starting in September 2004. You’d think that would be the topic of considerable discussion in the media. But no, it is not. The main media apparently see it as all but irrelevant.
I’ll explain in my next columns why the BC Liberals are not in my favor, and yet (what would be) the new BC Conservatives—are on the wrong track for me.
More in Part Three of this series.
By Joel Johannesen
This editorial is posted at ProudToBeCanadian.ca. Here is the exact link to the editorial:
http://www.proudtobecanadian.ca/threads/showflat.php?Number=1280
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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