Category: Other

Last night, former Reform and Independent MP Chuck Cadman lost his battle with cancer. MP Cadman fought hard for what he believed including reforming the young offenders act and for victims rights.

Although many partisan Conservatives will have sour remembrance of Cadman’s last vote, I believe that he held onto his integrity during that vote that saved those that had none. Still a Reformer, he gave his reason for voting to sustain the government: it was what his constituents wanted. As Conservatives, it was not the outcome that we had hoped for, but as democratic reformers, we understood.

Rest in peace, Mr. Cadman.

In a report released by the Fraser Institute this month, it was revealed the Adscam was much larger than Sheila Fraser realized.

Relationships were grown between the Liberal Party of Canada and various advertising agencies in Quebec and Ontario ($7.4 million of legal business between the Liberal party and the agencies, for exchange of $3.9 million in donations). These transactions are completely legal as these exchanges are between private organisations. However, these relationships created favouritism when the Government of Canada had to contract advertising services as $1.2 billion of contracts were paid by the government to these companies with cozy Liberal relations. To emphasize this cozy relationship, the companies involved with Adscam gave 98% of their political donations to the Liberals and only 2% to other parties. Clearly, these advertising companies knew that the Liberals were their best bet for future corrupt deals.

There were other new revelations uncovered by the Fraser Institute report published this month.

Particularly striking were donations made to the Liberal Party of Canada by the RCMP and by the Privy Council Office.

For the “privilege” of protecting the Prime Minister and other members of his campaign team during the 2000 campaign, the RCMP paid the Liberal Party $112,000 for seats accompanying the PM.

The Fraser Institute reports:

“It is an apparent conflict of interest for government agencies, especially those engaged in law enforcement, to pay a governing political party for services rendered during an election. This financial entanglement can impair perceptions of independence and due process that are essential to the proper functioning of those agencies.” — Fraser Institute report, July 2005

One would expect that the taxpayer would pay for the services of the RCMP to protect the Prime Minister. However, it is counter-intuitive that the RCMP (ie. the taxpayer) would pay a private organization (ie. the Liberal party) for work done by the federal law enforcement agency.

The Privy Council Office paid $44,000 to the Liberal Party for similar “services”.

Ipsos Reid released a poll today describing the influence of blogs on the news, the media and upon public opinion.

In short, 58% of online Canadians believe that blogs influence public opinion, 45% believe that blogs influence the MSM and 41% believe that blogs influence politics and public policy.

First of all, there is no doubt that blogs influence public opinion, however, how they influence opinion is not so clear. I believe that blogs have the potential to inform Canadians of different perspectives and information, however, most of blogging influence may manifest itself in the polarization of blog readers. Of course, the same can be said of the influence of columnists on newspaper readers. I’d like to think and am fairly confident that well-written blogs have the same effect on popular opinion as well-written newspaper columnists. The latter has the benefit of authority of course, but blogs have the advantage of world-wide propagation when merited. Most bloggers are not compensated financially for their opinions and this therefore makes them appear more credible.

As for the effect of blogs on the mainstream media, one does not have to look farther than Dan Rather in the United States and the deconstruction of a false story propped up by underlying bias. This is an example of the contrary influence of blogging on the MSM. Indeed, one of the adopted roles of the blogosphere has been to keep the MSM accountable. As for examples of blogging working in concert with the MSM to break and sustain stories, the number of examples is numerous. In fact, fellow Blogging Tories such as Angry in the Great White North, and Blue Maple Leaf have had their analyses recaptured within the mainstream media (examples here and here). Personally, I’ve been interviewed by CTV, the Globe and Mail and have had interview requests from CH Television and CBC Radio. Perhaps the greatest example of blogs on the MSM was the breaking of the publication ban on the Jean Brault Gomery testimony by Blogging Tories and Captain’s Quarters. (Captain Ed broke the story with our help and we redirected Canadians to that “American blog”). Jane Taber of the Globe and Mail called me during the height of the story to learn about the coordinated Blogging Tories effort.

Do blogs have an influence on politics and public policy? Yes, of course they do and I can cite examples! I’ve already mentioned the Jean Brault publication ban, when once lifted, brought the Liberals down to their lowest public opinion standing in 20 years. Another example of the influence of blogs on politics was the emphasis on“Clause K” of Judge Gomery’s mandate, revealing that it left the Justice with no teeth. MPs Monte Solberg, Andrew Scheer, and Steven Fletcher are bloggers themselves and I’m told that while Stephen Harper doesn’t spend much time online, Mrs. Harper is a fan of blogs.

Blogging in Canada, specifically Conservative blogging in Canada, represents a huge potential that is being realized day-by-day. Media, public opinion, and politics all exist within one continuous cycle and the media component is usually dominated by Liberal bias. Bloggers represent those (for the most part) without influence in the MSM. The role of the blogosphere is to inject truth where it is lacking, ideas when it is stagnant, and accountability as it is always needed.