HAPPY AFTERNOON, SASKERTOON It’s 19 degrees and sunny at the moment, on a daytime stretch that started at 4:54 a.m. and won’t end until 9:14 p.m., for 16:20 of daylight. Not to shabby! Let’s get on with it.
1. LIKE STEPHEN HARPER BUT WITHOUT THE EVIL STRATEGIC CUNNING Regina-Qu’Appelle’s member of Parliament somehow won this weekend’s Conservative party leadership. How about that. The farmers might’ve helped. The Leader-Post’s Barb Pacholik has a fine, Regina-focused piece on his rise while CBC’s Eric Grenier crunches the numbers behind Scheer’s unlikely defeat of front-runner Maxime Bernier. Read more on Scheer here.
What else? Well, if the reality-based world wanted to get upset over something they could point to Scheer’s late 2016 call to shut down CBC news. Bernier said public media puts the government in a “glaring” conflict but I think he was being dishonest. The real reason he wants to shut down CBC news? CBC reporting and analysis is (generally) good, and good reporting causes problems for dishonest politicians. It’s the old Harper playbook: destroy your critics because you can’t win honest debates against them. It’s why Harper muzzled government scientists and it’s why Conservative MPs so frequently refused interview requests.
Speaking of fact-averse notions: the CBC is a public broadcaster, not a government propaganda outlet. If it was run by the government, CBC would’ve given Stephen Harper an easy ride, right? Spoiler alert: it didn’t.
As for private media, anyone who wants to review how news companies treat their sacred mission of informing the public might want to check this out.
One last thing: radical Christian groups are cheering Scheer’s win. The anti-choice organization We Need A Law even sent me a press release congratulating Scheer:
“We recognize his commitment to consistent values, and appreciate his solid voting record. Scheer voted in favour of bills like Cassie and Molly’s Law and Roxanne’s Law, which show care for pregnant women and pre-born children. Pre-born human rights were highlighted during this campaign in a way they have not been for a long time. It is encouraging to see open discussion around the injustice done to pre-born victims of crime, and awareness raised about the prevalence of sex-selective abortion in some Canadian communities.”
Gross. You never hear social conservative politicians talk about helping the poor. Their religious moralizing is cheap.
2. TRUMP… SHRUG So his son-in-law wanted a secret channel to talk to Russia? How is this not treason? What can you even say. No wonder Europe’s pulling back. Keep alienating your allies America, I guess.
3. THE END OF STC Awful. An essential public service is being trashed and good jobs are being wiped out because #BradBungledTheBoom. Everyone knows that any private company picking up the STC slack will demand and get handouts from the government, right?
4. CANADIAN DOCTORS APPARENTLY THINK MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION WILL HARM TEENS Despite the fact that Canadian teens are huge potheads even though Marijuana is still illegal. Well, I’m skeptical it’s possible to make laws banning people from weed until they’re 25 so Canada just might have to go the public education campaign route. I know one pro- legal pot newspaper that would be thrilled to run ads expressing factually supported concerns about marijuana…
5. BICYCLE THIEVES SUCK No one takes bike theft seriously enough but they should because it’s a crime against the environment and it’s toxic to the cause of human decency. For the money involved, bike theft makes the world a much, much uglier place. The fact that it’s also widely culturally acceptable (IMO) is maddening. Anyway, here’s a depressing story about stolen bikes and the Roughriders.
6. A GOOSE-STEPPING, NAZI-SALUTING WHITE SUPREMACIST SLAUGHTERED TWO PEOPLE IN PORTLAND ON SATURDAY And mainstream U.S. media treated it like a regular crime, which they wouldn’t do it the killer was Muslim. Double standard much?
7. GREAT WHITE SHARK JUMPS INTO FISHING BOAT, SURPRISING FISHERPERSON Like it says.
8. DRUNK TIGERS DRIVING Golfer Tiger Woods has been arrested on a DUI charge in Florida. Now you know, if you didn’t.
See you tomorrow!
