values

Thursday September 12, 2019

September 12, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 12, 2019

There is deep angst in Canada ahead of this fall’s election

We may have voted for hope, optimism and sunny days in 2015 but Canadians don’t appear to be very optimistic heading into the Fall of 2019.

August 14, 2014

Canadians do see a strong economy right now. Assessment of their personal finances has gone from 32 per cent positive (Q4 2015) to 46 per cent today and their assessment of their job security has grown from 39 per cent positive (Q4 2015) to 52 per cent today.

On the eve of the writ dropping, one would assume from these numbers that the federal Liberals would very much like to have the 2019 ballot question be: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”

But it won’t be, because despite these views and some impressive economic numbers at the macro level, Canadians aren’t optimistic about their longer-term prospects. Pocket-book issues and concerns over affordability are a common thread connecting most of the top issues Canadians identify as priorities: healthcare, the economy, housing, climate change, and taxes.

Our concerns are more than economic. There is deep angst about the direction of the country. Canadians are questioning the value and the very role of government, politicians and political parties in their lives and many politicians are going to run into the buzz saw of growing cynicism once they start knocking on doors. For starters:

January 3, 2014

* 67 per cent (unchanged since 2016) agree that the country’s economy is rigged to the advantage of the rich and powerful

* 61 per cent (vs. 56 per cent in 2016) agree that “traditional parties and politicians don’t care about people like me”

* 57 per cent (vs. in 47 per cent November 2016) say the country is “going in the wrong direction”

* 52 per cent (up dramatically from 37 per cent in 2016) agree that “Canadian society is broken”

This level of angst and cynicism among Canadians is going to pose a challenge for all political parties. Delivering policy ideas along with messaging to motivate supporter turn-out will be difficult, and they will need to find a balance between positive, forward-looking messages and empathetic, “we get you now” messages.

Imagine if you were a federal candidate hearing this at the door while looking for a vote: “I think the economy is stacked against me, I don’t think you care about me, I think our society is broken and our country is headed in the wrong direction. Tell me how you are going to fix this and why I should vote for you?” (Global News) 

 

Wednesday January 16, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 15, 2019

From snowflake to virtue signalling

Words are coined, reinvented, sent to pasture.

It’s just about impossible, for example, to use “gay” now in any context other than referencing homosexuality. So long “lighthearted and carefree.” (GLAAD lists “homosexual” as an offensive term in their media reference guide.)

September 1, 2018

Words are my business but I have a bitch of a time keeping up with evolving semantics. (Somebody will complain about b—-.) And Lord knows the Star responds with overweening accommodation to whinges about purportedly inappropriate lexicon.

I once had an editor order me to take “niggardly’’ — definition: miserly — out of a sentence because it was two-thirds evocative of an objectionable term, even though there’s no etymological connection. My argument that readers aren’t that stupid fell on deaf ears.

A word that sticks in my craw, for its ubiquity over the past year, is “racialized.” The term has been around, according to Collins Dictionary, for about 150 years. I don’t recall any wide usage, especially in newspapers, until recently. Racialize is a transitive verb, not an adjective. The adjective is racial: relating to race. Racialized is described by Oxford as “the way in which language is used to colonize, racialize and commodify the other; to categorize or divide according to race.” But we’re all the time writing phrases such as “racialized community” or “racialized policing” as a kind of virtue signalling shorthand.

July 10, 2018

Actually, “virtue signalling” has just about had its day, don’t you think? It’s usually intended pejoratively, snidely. As in tiresomely demonstrating one’s good character or moral correctness. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does it a lot. It’s become his earnest leitmotif. Right wingers are also overly fond of “snowflake,” meaning either over-emotional and easily offended or having an inflated sense of uniqueness. Snowflake should melt away already. (Pearl-clutching still has legs.)

What I’d like to see rubbished: Reach out.

At the Online Boutique

As in, I am reaching out to you blah-blah-blah. Reaching out for comment, reaching out for consideration, reaching out to address your late bill payment. The phrase implies a kind of disingenuous courtesy coupled with an almost tactile engagement across cyberspace. Business environment buzz-slang that has invaded media spun communications and fuzzy-wuzzy professional blather. Sorry, I can’t be reached.

Oh, sorry not sorry. Popularized by Demi Lovato in the eponymous hit song aimed at her “haters.” You’re sorry because you’re not sorry, sarcastic-like. Lack of regret or repentance. Adopted, defiantly (and pre-emptively), by former premier Kathleen Wynne in her campaign ads this past year, she even opened her leadership debates with it. Sorry not sorry that the Liberals were chopped down to seven seats and lost official party status. (Continued : Rosie di Manno, Toronto Star) 

Saturday March 31, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator (www.mackaycartoons.net) – Saturday March 31, 2018

Singh retracts punishment of veteran MP Christopherson after backlash from NDP caucus

Rumblings of discontent in the NDP caucus have been replaced by statements of support for Jagmeet Singh, after the party leader’s swift change of heart over punishing a veteran parliamentarian who broke ranks on a vote in the House of Commons last week.

October 24, 2017

In the face of public criticism from members of his caucus, Singh announced Tuesday night that he would reinstate Hamilton MP David Christopherson to his role as deputy chair of the powerful procedure and House affairs committee. The move quashed a decision Singh made just days earlier to dump Christopherson from the position as punishment for voting against his party on a Conservative motion — defeated by a majority of Liberals and New Democrats — regarding a controversial change to applications for summer jobs funding.

Applying groups must now “attest” that their mandate respects the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including abortion rights.

Following the about-face by Singh, MPs played down any suggestion of disunity in the NDP fold. Christopherson himself said in a statement that, after speaking with Singh in recent days, he has “complete trust in his leadership.”

Other MPs expressed similar sentiments when pressed by reporters outside the House of Commons. Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay), who ran second against Singh in last year’s leadership race and spoke out against the decision to punish Christopherson, said the speed with which Singh reversed the move “reassured people” in caucus. 

September 13, 2017

It is the second week in a row that conversation around the NDP has been dominated by questions about caucus’s faith in Singh’s decisions. MPs held an unscheduled meeting March 19 to discuss how Singh reacted to reports that he attended rallies where people expressed support for Sikh separatism in India, venerated a militant leader there, and in one case discussed the legitimacy of political violence as a means of resistance.

Two days later, in front of a collection of applauding MPs, Singh categorically denounced all forms of violence and said he won’t attend any more rallies if he knows someone will advocate violence as a political tool. The party leader had said in a previous interview with the Star that, while he opposed terrorism, questions of violence against oppression in the Sikh context were too complex to be answered in a “simplistic manner.”

Then this week, Angus told the Globe and Mail that Singh’s decision to punish Christopherson for breaking rank on the summer program vote showed “a lack of respect.” Quebec MP Romeo Saganash told the paper he agrees with Angus and called the decision “unfortunate.”

(Source: Toronto Star) 

 

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Friday September 1, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 1, 2017

Andrew Scheer unveils full shadow cabinet leaving Kellie Leitch off front bench

May 30, 2017

Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer unveiled his full shadow cabinet Wednesday notably leaving fellow leadership candidate Kellie Leitch off his party’s front bench while promoting others to key critic posts in the House of Commons.  

May 19, 2017

Pierre Poilievre, an MP from the Ottawa area, was given the Finance critic role ahead of Quebec MP Maxime Bernier, who finished second in the Conservative race. Bernier, who announced publicly months ago that he wanted the finance role, has been given a senior critic role on the Innovation, Science and Economic Development file as CBC reported Tuesday. 

Leitch’s leadership campaign, which saw her finish sixth in the race, drew criticism and accusations of intolerance for vowing to strengthen the vetting process for new immigrants. The former cabinet minister also pledged to screen all new immigrants for “Canadian values,” drawing widespread criticism, including from some of her fellow leadership candidates.

February 7, 2017

Brad Trost, the Saskatchewan MP who finished fourth in the leadership campaign, was also left off the shadow cabinet list. Trost did not serve as a minister under prime minister Stephen Harper and campaigned on social conservative values that opposed the “gay lifestyle” and abortion.

Another leadership candidate, Deepak Obhrai, was also left out of Scheer’s shadow cabinet. Obhrai served as the parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs in the Harper government. (Source: CBC News) 

 

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Monday February 7, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday February 7, 2017

Kellie Leitch’s immigration policy could damage Conservative Party: Peter MacKay

Peter MacKay, one of the people who helped create the modern Conservative Party, says positions on immigration from one leadership candidate may damage the party’s brand.

MacKay was asked what he thought about Kellie Leitch’s policy to screen immigrants for what she terms “Canadian values.”

 The question of what are Canadian values is far from clear, MacKay said.

September 7, 2016

“When you drill down into that type of discussion the first question that comes to mind is, who makes that decision? And what is that bar going to be? And how possibly could somebody coming from a country that has no understanding of what it means to be a Canadian meet that criteria?”

The former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party helped unite the party with the Canadian Alliance to become the Conservative Party. He decided not to run for the leadership last September and has rarely weighed in on the race since announcing that decision.

He says he’s concerned for the long-term health of the party.

“As somebody who has invested a lot of time and effort into building this party and putting us in contention and somebody who cares deeply for the country, you need competitive parties. You need, in my estimation, a Conservative party that is vying for government,” he explained.

“I do worry about certain positions that have been staked out. Having been through a leadership contest, I know that the rhetoric sometimes gets heated, but it does pose the risk of causing brand damage for the Conservative Party,” MacKay added. (CBC News)