By arthur Weinreb
January 25, 2005
On January 20, Toronto’s all news television station, CP24, was broadcasting the inauguration ceremonies from Washington. approximately 10 minutes before George Bush was to be sworn in, host Cynthia Mulligan cut away from the inaugural ceremonies to go to City’s Gord Martineau, who was in Jakarta, Indonesia covering the aftermath of the tsunami. Mulligan seemed taken aback that Martineau had been watching the inauguration as well. It shouldn’t have surprised her--Jakarta was not hit by the tsunamis. after Mulligan lobbed a softball question at Martineau about the $40 million cost of the festivities to honour the reelection of George W. Bush, Martineau then went on a semi-rant about how the money could have been much better spent in aiding the victims of the asian tsunami. Even just $1 million would have been able to do so much, lamented the long time City anchor.
This was nothing more than pure, unadulterated america-bashing, something that the Canadian liberal media elites (apologies to Peter Mansbridge for referring to Martineau as an "elite") just love to do. although the argument can always be made that Bush should have forgone the expense of an inauguration and earmarked the money for tsunami relief, it is only the United States that gets criticized for spending money on other things besides tsunami relief.
Martineau and the rest of the gang at City TV and CP24 literally fawn over and kiss the feet of socialist Toronto Mayor David Miller and other liberal politicians that they idolize. Miller has recently announced that the city will spend $18 million in addition to the $190 million that Toronto already spends on the homeless. Part of this money will be spent on hiring more "outreach workers" to deal with the homeless who will still be allowed to remain outdoors in sub-zero temperatures. But you will never hear Gord or any of the gang at City suggest to the mayor or any of the other leftists on council that they should perhaps curtail their spending on outreach workers or having a car-free day and to send money for tsunami relief. Never! as far as Martineau is concerned, David Miller can do no wrong.
Only the United States is fair game in Canada’s liberal media to be told off about how they should spend their money. and for those who are interested, the amount of money that David Miller has earmarked for tsunami relief --zero.