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Death by a thousand cuts

by Garth Pritchard, Canada Free Press.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005

alberta-- Stephen Harper is dying the death of a thousand cuts — all orchestrated by the Canadian media.

The media gang on the hill made sure that their beloved Liberals were given time to heal by the very fact that they did not attack the Grits on any front .The Conservatives were a different matter. The media attacked them on any and every front — in particularly their leader.

There is a history here: Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, and now Harper.

This is not news. This is reality programming — played out in Canadian news slots.

Headline: Harper to go on barbecue tour of Quebec and Ontario to improve his image.

The eviscerating of Conservative politicians from the west by the central media will only stop when the federal Conservatives realize that they are not going to get elected in Quebec or Ontario in the next two years.

Quebecers are going to vote for a separatist party provincially and a separatist party federally. In fact Quebec is leaving Canada.

Ontario will vote Liberal, maintaining their status quo.

Western Canadians will have to realize that their federal politicians must come home and represent them a la the Bloc Quebecois (and Gilles Duceppe).

If it's not a Western issue, then it's none of their concern. Quebec has reaped huge rewards by having politicians from Quebec working feverishly on their issues. Look at the fact that it was Quebec that finally took the health care issue to the Supreme Court of Canada and won.

No image problems here.

Harper's problems were already in place in early January. While covering the tsunami in Sri Lanka, Canadian Press had four of its members, two reporters and two photographers, covering Paul Martin. They obviously considered me, an ex-journalist, as part of their clan.

The venom directed at Harper and the slashing of his personality was prime conversation. "For Christ's sake, he doesn't want his picture taken on the election trail. I covered the bastard for a week and I didn't get any good pictures," moaned one. Then he proudly opened his laptop and showed me pictures of Paul Martin — complete with a shot of a little teddy bear sitting on Martin's shoulder. This particular photo journalist was very proud of where his teddy bear had been and had a complete series of pictures depicting its travels, including many with the Prime Minister of Canada.

The Prime Minister's office owns Canadian Press and the CBC. They work tirelessly as his propaganda-machine: pictures set up by PMO lackies are daily sent out for consumption by Canadians on television and in their newspapers, while Stephen Harper is slashed at every opportunity.

It's time for the Conservatives to come home and represent the people who voted for them. They are definitely not in Quebec and Ontario. This latest image-building exercise by Harper is doomed to fail. The Canadian media will make it so. The Ottawa-based cameramen are smacking their lips at the thought of asking Harper to flip a burger in the air, hoping that it will end up on the ground and they will work night and day to make him look like a doofus. His image will be systematically destroyed — CBC has already started down this road with interviews of chosen comedians being interviewed in news slots, with the expressed purpose of viciously using humour to attack Harper.

He has no chance. It's just a matter of time.

The central media will very quickly turn on western politicians who have gone underground. Life is good: they are traveling the world on the federal breast. The lure of the all-powerful lady - Power in Ottawa — has taken over.

Ted Menzies, federal MP for Macleod, brags about going to India to moderate a special round table on agriculture in Mumbai, and in Sri Lanka, it was Jason Kenney, a man who spends an awful lot of time on federal airplanes travelling the world, but Calgary, his home base, is very seldom a landing pad. The rank and file of the Conservatives is allowing their elected leaders to be destroyed while they play the part of international jet setters.

The frontal lobotomy supplied in Nepean, Ontario to all western politicians is quite evident. They are sent to represent western Canada; instead they work night and day in Quebec and Ontario complete with leadership conventions in Montreal and Toronto to gain Conservative support.

When Quebec leaves, or better still, demands a new look at confederation, many provinces in Canada will have to make some hard decisions.

In Western Canada, the Conservatives had better start to represent their constituents at home — and forget trying the attempts to get Conservatives elected in Quebec and Ontario.

It is just not going to happen. and the Ottawa press corps — led by CBC — will guarantee it as they focus on the destruction of Harper.

The agency of the government — CBC — gets roughly $1 Billion annually from the Government. and the Liberals guarantee this. The Conservatives are not so supportive of the CBC, and have said so.

as a CBC news employee, who would you support?

On the issue of the infamous transfer of payments, recently an alberta minister stated that there had been an overpayment of $2 Billion to the federal system from alberta. Ralph Klein quickly refuted the story. Our national news people didn't spend one minute after that looking into it. This is a classic case of Pandora's Box. They knew if they lifted the lid, a nightmare would be released.

Unfortunately for reasons only known to Canadian politicians, "Quebec and Ontario! Ontario and Quebec!" is the election cry and the media has focused on Harper's personality. He has been tied to the stake and he is doomed to die the death of a thousand cuts at the hands of the Ottawa media.

Canada Free Press columnist Garth Prtitchard, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker living in alberta.


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