The Gods of the Copybook Headings

Brother Can You Spare a Billion?

Paul Godfrey goes begging for tax dollars:

Media supremo Paul Godfrey wants the federal government to subsidize the flagging newspaper industry. It’s not a new idea. Ottawa has been in the business of quietly helping Canadian publications for more than a century.

But it raises two questions. First, is it a good idea for the press to go hat in hand to Ottawa? Second, would the proposed new subsidies work?

Godfrey heads Postmedia, the biggest newspaper chain in the country. It’s a chain that’s unapologetically conservative in its politics.

I'm afraid Thomas Walkom - the author of the above piece - has a poor grasp of what conservative actually means. That's not very surprising coming from a Toronto Star columnist. That Paul Godfrey has no idea what the word means is sadly not surprising at all. Establishment Canadian Conservatives make American RINO squishes look like Ayn Rand heroes.

As Walkom explains at length in his piece the Canadian media has been whoring itself out to the government since John A was in knee pants. That's not a joke. Pre-Confederation governments were notorious for providing indirect subsidies to friendly newspapers through government advertising contracts. For decades Ottawa has subsidized the mail delivery of subscription magazines. During the First World War even the British government was partially subsidizing the newswire service Canadian Press. 

As Brian Mulroney was fond of observing: There's no whore like an old whore. Canadian newspaper journalists are very, very old whores.

The long and the short of it is that no one wants what the newsmen and newswomen of Canada are selling. People don't want journalism they want celebrity news, sports, lifestyle blather and the weather report. The average reader doesn't give a damn about the comings and goings on Parliament Hill or any of the ten provincial legislatures. They will not pay money for journalism good, bad or indifferent. This has probably been the case for decades, a dark reality masked because for a very long time newspapers were a comparatively efficient way for private individuals (the classifieds) and large business (full page ads) to reach consumers. The internet has blown that all to hell. What's left is kitty litter lining. 

Whatever the intrinsic merits of newspapering and other forms of reasonably hard journalism, the people of Canada have spoken: They don't care. Paul Godfrey is handing out buggy whips in the middle of a superhighway and expecting the taxpayers to reward his futile efforts. However sad, tragic or unjust it's a simple commercial reality. It is not the business of government to bail out journalists from their obsolescence or readers from their militant ignorance. 

 

 

Rebel Without a Drink

There are some things so stupid only a Canadian politician could rationalize them:

His name is Gerard Comeau, though his lawyer calls him “Joe Canadian.” A retired steelworker with a taste for beer and a frugal streak, he’s the unlikely face of a revolt.
And yet a shopping trip by Comeau to pick up 15 cases of beer in 2012 -- some 354 bottles and cans -- triggered a legal fight that shook the ground on which rest many of Canada’s arcane inter-provincial trade rules.

Comeau’s penalty for illegally bringing alcohol across a provincial border was tossed out last month when a judge ruled such bans were unconstitutional. While Comeau’s lawyer says the case is a victory for small brewers and could hurt giants like Anheuser-Busch InBev SA and Molson Coors Brewing Co., the case goes far beyond beer and is spurring a renewed push to overhaul Canada’s complex web of internal trade barriers that add another drag to an economy already grappling with an oil-price shock.

These laws have been on the books for nearly a century, yet only recently did a Canadian judge rule them unconstitutional. Keep in mind the constitution these laws are flagrantly violating is the original 1867 version not the Trudeaupia 2.0 version dropped on us back in 1982. The judge also defended his decision by citing original intent. Much to my shock - and no doubt yours - there are justices on the Canadian bench who from time to time believe in originalism. These are people who actually give a flying damn what the Fathers of Confederation were trying to accomplish.

Give me a moment. I'm almost giddy.

For our American readers let me clarify: Most Canadian judges believe in a living constitutions. Actually I'm underselling it. For them the Canadian constitution isn't just living, it jumps and jives its way through life not giving a tinker's damn about silly old fashioned things like its actual text. In fact if you'll bear with me for a moment our constitutional jurisprudence imagines our founding document as a tattooed and pierced activist marching around Parliament Hill waving a placard. It's often remarked by American conservatives that to the Left the US Constitution is whatever the Supreme Court says it is. That's a bitter joke in America. With Section One of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ain't a joke, it's business as usual.

As Martha Stewart was fond of saying, this decision is a Good Thing. The power of the state has been curtailed and the freedom of the individual expanded. Yet I'm left with a certain sense of being overwhelmed. This is but one example of an unconstitutional trade barrier. There dozens upon dozens of varying degrees of absurdity. As with supply management these barriers are blatant money grabs, an arcane way of gouging Canadian consumers and reducing competition. There is not even a fig of justification. These laws survive because the ordinary Canadian shrugs his shoulders and repeats our national mantra: "What ya gonna do about it?"

We sometimes mock the Americans for their overheated political rhetoric. If they are too aggressive in their political life we are by comparison far, far too timid. 

 

That Which Survives

When the spirit has left, what remains are the sterile urges for mere survival:

But when the Church of England advertised for two new leaders to help guide potentially thousands of worshippers who believe they may be “called” by God to the priesthood, faith, it hastened to say, was not necessary.

Red-faced officials have now made an embarrassing climb-down after inadvertently inviting atheists and members of other religions to lead a major new clergy recruitment drive intended to help secure the Church of England’s future.

I love the word "inadvertently." For decades the idea of atheist vicars has been something of a running joke. The Church of England - along with its once formidable mainline Protestant competitors - has been trying to remain "relevant" for so long that the whole of Christianity thing often gets overlooked. Long-time readers will know that I'm an infidel in good standing, an old fashioned scoffer at the church door. However I find the decline of the C of E  fascinating from a sociological standpoint.

The decline of Christianity as a cultural force has left a Mack-truck sized hole in the spiritual and intellectual life of the Western world. Over the last century that hole has been filled by various political ideologies and more recently by a revitalized Islam. The Roman Church has - more or less - stood athwart modernity yelling stop. It's large institutional competitors have decided to go along for the ride, jumping onto political and cultural fads, only to be left flat footed when everyone else moved on. Having compromised with the world so thoroughly the Anglican Church thought nothing of handling its evangelizing work over to non-believers.

Man makes plans and God gives a very, very bitter laugh. 

With Conservatives Like These...

Meanwhile in Ontario:

Maintaining a low profile seems to be part of his plans as the Liberals slide deeper into voters’ dog house: Wynne is the least popular premier in Canada with a personal approval that hovers around 20 per cent. A Forum Research survey indicated the Tories could come close to a majority government if a snap election were called. Brown’s personal approval is stronger than Wynne’s at 27 per cent, though 48 per cent of Ontarians still know little about him. That figure doesn’t bother him: taking time to rebuild the party, crafting a palatable platform and building ties to voter groups alienated by previous PC leaders takes precedence over photo ops for now.

[...]

Brown envisions a new “pragmatic conservatism.” If powerful union interests contributed to the demise of his predecessors, he’ll build bridges. Firefighters and police unions were first, and his work on coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder has bolstered that effort.

So John Tory without the irritating smugness. 

The voters of Ontario have spoken with one voice: They love free stuff! One day - in the not so distant future - the bond market vigilantes will make their return and punish the voters very, very harshly. But that's tomorrow. We've had a thirteen year spending spree on the part of the Dalt-Wynne Dynasty. If not for the absurdly low interest rates of the last decade the party - in both senses - would have been over a very long time ago. But so long as the credit is cheap, the voters are greedy and the crown prosecutors kept at bay, the party will continue. 

The leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives understands this simple reality. He knows that to gain power he must pass himself off as Kathleen Wynne without the stench of corruption and abuse of power. Brown will promise voters all the Free Stuff they want, except with a shiny youngish face rather than the haggard lying face of the current Premier of Ontario. If contemporary politics sounds like meaningless rhetoric and non-essentials that's because it is. There is an iron-clad consensus - socialists of all parties - that the purpose of government is to bribe voters with the money of the Rich. What constitutes "rich" is left undefined because - inevitably - the rich will have to include anyone still foolish enough to hold down a regular job. 

There are somethings which cannot be taught. They must be experienced good and hard. My suspicion is that Patrick Brown - who spent nearly a decade as a back-bench nonentity on Parliament Hill - isn't clever enough to realize that Ontario is on the verge of fiscal collapse. He cannot see past the next election cycle and is driven purely by a desire for power. Virtually the whole of his adult life has been spent either holding or pursuing elected office. Patrick Brown is that most lamentable of creatures: The professional politician. 

Après moi, le déluge is what Louis XV is suppose to have said. If Patrick Brown does become Premier in 2018 he will learn its meaning in both official languages.  

 

Princess of Trudeaupia

The Trudeau Family makes itself comfortable:

Speaking in Quebec City earlier this week, Ms. Grégoire Trudeau bluntly said she and her current assistant can’t manage the number of demands that come from being a high-profile, bilingual and much sought-after speaker. Various groups and charitable organizations regularly invite Ms. Grégoire Trudeau to promote their causes, but the constant requests are proving impossible to address under current circumstances, she said.

“I’d like to be everywhere, but I can’t,” Ms. Grégoire Trudeau said in an interview with daily newspaper Le Soleil. “I have three children at home and a husband who is Prime Minister. I need help. I need a team to help me serve people.”

If you really want to serve the people go work as a waitress. 

There is no job called "First Lady of Canada." Until somewhat recently - Margaret Trudeau incidentally - the wife of the serving Prime Minister was hardly ever mentioned in public. Laureen Harper spent nearly a decade in the role without bothering anyone and with minimal support. The office of British Prime Minister has been in existence for nearly three centuries and even specialist historians would be hard pressed to name more than a handful of Prime Ministerial wives. There is nothing in the laws, customs or traditions of our system of government that regards the spouse of the PM as anything more than a bystander to the functions of the state.

But that was then. As we are continually reminded: It's 2016!

Justin's father dispensed with the hum-drum limitations of his role as First Minister, creating the modern Imperial Prime Minister who rules with a rod of iron. It was under the elder Trudeau that ministers became clerks and back-benchers so much parliamentary cannon-fodder. The thing about absolute monarchs - or sandal clad philosopher kings - is that there is no limit to their purview. All things fall under their sway. Consequently those who serve under the New Sun King's remit must wield great power as well. To suggest otherwise is the gravest example of lèse majesté.

Because Justin Trudeau is important so must every member of his entourage, including those who have no official capacity. Mrs Trudeau - we're old fashioned here at GCH and refuse to Ms anyone - is arrogating to herself the prerogatives of a Queen. Her mere presence is now necessary to the proper functioning of the Canadian state. One begins to wonder how anything was done in Canada in the 148 years before her arrival at 24 Sussex Drive. Yet somehow we muddled along in this old Dominion of ours. 

At the centre of this whirlpool of conceit is this remarkable example of self-absorption on the part of Mrs Trudeau:  

“It’s hard to choose, because it’s touching when people ask for your help. People really lay out their suffering in some of the letters that I receive. I tell myself: ‘I’ll try to send a message that will reach as many people as possible,’” Ms. Grégoire Trudeau told Le Soleil.

Mrs Trudeau is not a trained psychiatrist, counsellor, medical expert or technical advisor of any sort. She has a degree in communications and once worked as a personal shopper for Holt Renfrew. Her resume is so thin it makes her husband look like George C Marshall. Like her husband she is the child of upper class Montreal privilege. What actual help such a being could provide to the "people" of Canada is hard to define. Perhaps a pep talk on the importance of being born rich and beautiful and marrying well. 

The voters demanded change last October. We replaced a flawed man of substance with a man-child as Prime Minister. Not surprisingly Canada's new "First Lady" is as useless and vain as her predecessor was accomplished and professional. 

 

Deliverology

Corporate speak comes to Trudeaupia:

For the time he was available, Mr. Mendelsohn explained how, in a nutshell, his results-and-delivery role is about ensuring departments are clear on their goals, that they have their operations structured in such a way to achieve stated objectives, and that measurements are regularly taken to assess progress.

“It includes being really relentless about measuring progress in your success and seeing whether you are achieving your goals or objectives or purposes, and recalibrating or readjusting if you’re not,” Mr. Mendelsohn said.

Those of us who have worked for large corporations - especially those poor bastards who have worked at HQ - will feel their skins crawl at such mindless chatter. When we on the Right talk about introducing a greater private sector mentality into government operations this is not what we mean. When Justin's "Deliverology" guru speaks this way he is importing the worst aspects of private enterprise into government: Inane office politics. 

The point of corporate speak isn't to communicate information, it's to spin information in a manner pleasing to the executive leadership. In other words it's importing the worst aspects of government into the private sector. What Mr Mendelsohn is doing isn't "delivering results" but pretending to deliver results. Most likely Comrade Gerald realized that while ordinary Canadians were enamoured with Justin's luscious locks and superb boxing skills, they will eventually realize the Prime Minister is an immature lightweight who has never held a real job. 

Part of the image making process is spinning against your weaknesses. Margaret Thatcher was perceived as soft and incapable of leadership simply because she was a woman. Her handlers skillfully trained her voice, dress and manners to seem just a little more masculine without her coming off as butch. Stephen Harper was perceived as a heartless accountant ready to crush the poor underfoot - if only - so they dressed him in fluffy blue sweaters and forced him warble out Beatles hits on an old piano. Since Justin Trudeau is Zoolander without the intellectual subtly and depth, his handlers are desperately trying to portray him as the second coming of Frederick Winslow Taylor. 

It will fail. Miserably. But between now and then will be an eternity in Canadian politics. 

Saying that you are "relentless about measuring progress" is meaningless in politics and government. All organizations establish some type of metric to evaluate their success at achieving designated goals. These are however internal metrics. A CEO might very well establish a series of metrics in order to make the organization "lean and mean." Whether those metrics have any relation to objective reality is not consequent on the employees having met the metrics. A organization is successful if it's clients think it has met their needs properly. Since this is rather complicated - and often takes years to do well - many CEOs just fake it and hope to make it. They establish impressive sounding goals and high sounding metrics, while on the backend manipulate the calculations to produce the desired results.

I have worked for corporations where the key metrics were - for all intents - utterly random. At first I assumed that I was missing something, that there was some hidden method in the madness. And so there was. The method was not to properly evaluate the performance of employees, but to create an arbitrary process which could be interpreted any which way the managers and executives wanted. Star performers could never consistently meet their goals and so never get a good bonus. Utter incompetents would have brilliant quarters followed by terrible results, which in turn would require more "coaching" resources from other departments. Since it was impossible to accurately predicate anyone's results the managers could promote, fire and punish almost with impunity simply by cherry picking the random results. As most of the employees were fairly daft and cowardly none of this metrical legerdemain was ever tested in court. 

I doubt Team Trudeau is intelligent enough to establish something so cynically clever, yet it gives you an idea of how pointless most metrics truly are even in the private sector. The only metric that matters in business over the long run is profits. Any activity which cannot be directly linked to the bottom line is a waste. By creating a series of false metrics the executive leadership can muddle the issue to hide their failures and incompetence. The key difference is that the private sector is subject - more or less given our highly regulated mix economy - to the discipline of the market. Government is subject only to the whim of a largely disengaged, over taxed and poorly educated electorate. Deliverology is Trudeaupian kabuki theatre without the pretty costumes. What remains is the ugly lie of modern government and its cynical operators.

Tories In Dark Places

I am shocked, shocked to find Conservatives at the CBC:

A member of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's board of directors has resigned from his position to seek the presidency of the Conservative Party of Canada, The Tyee has learned.

Brian Mitchell, a Montreal lawyer, confirmed that he resigned Sunday after eight years on the government-funded broadcaster's board of directors and its pension board of trustees.

So yes there are Conservatives at the state broadcaster, they just have nothing to do with broadcasting. But you knew that already. We had a Conservative government for nearly a decade and that government dutifully appointed loyal party hacks to the board of directors. So far as anyone can tell it didn't have the slightest impact on either the quality or political slant of the broadcaster. Yet through out that decade we were told repeatedly that the Harper Tories were undermining the independence of the Mother Corp. That myth persists well into the neo-Trudeaupian era: 

Polling conducted for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting by Nik Nanos last September showed 49 per cent of Canadians feel the prime minister's ability to appoint members to its board gives the government too much influence over the CBC.

But what's the alternative? Allowing a crown corporation to act independently of any parliamentary oversight is a betrayal of responsible government. Those receiving government  funds - or operating under the special grant or leave of the government - must be under democratic control. A state sponsored entity beyond the control of elected officials is by definition a rogue agency. In other words if you think the CBC is broadcasting Toronto centric, self indulgent leftist twaddle, imagine what they'll get up to without Parliament at least pretending to monitor their operations. That doesn't even get into the featherbedding and cronyism for which the Mother Corp is notorious. 

What the CBC's few remaining advocates miss is the essential contradiction in the idea of state sponsored journalism. The great value of journalism is its ability to hold powerful institutions in our society to account. When the most powerful element in any society - the government - is paying for journalism there is always an inherent threat to the independence of the journalists. 

As a result the history of state sponsored journalism through out the world has swung back and forth between two extremes: Toadying and exaggerated hostility. Either the state journalists become flacks for their political masters, or they acquire the manner and status of tenured professors allowed to indulge their personal views. In Canada the latter attitude has mostly prevailed. The CBC's journalists are able to engage in their own private wars because no federal government since Pearson has had the guts to rein them in. Woe betide the MP or cabinet minister who dares question the impartiality or accuracy of the Mother Corp's minions. The Choir Invisible of the Canadian Left will scream censorship and portrayal their colleagues in the CBC as latter day Galileos. 

Private journalists are ultimately accountable not to their editors or publishers but to their readers and viewers. If they produce journalism no one wants to read, that journalism dies. This is why so many journalists are fond of state broadcasting. So long as their political views align with those of their employer, the readers and viewers are irrelevant. Whether the CBC is watched by millions or dozens it receives exactly the same sum from the federal coffers. They can write or broadcast ludicrous and even defamatory pieces against their personal enemies with few repercussions. Years ago The Rebel's Brian Lilley wrote a book detailing some of the CBC's abuses of journalistic power. It contained only a small fraction of the known instances where the Mother Corp has played fast and loose with the facts.

This leads to a powerful but often overlooked truth: Public broadcasting is an essentially Orwellian phrase. It means the exact opposite of what the words are suppose to mean. It is not journalism dedicated to the public interest but journalism expressly designed to defy desires of the public as expressed by the workings of the market. It is state journalists twisting the news to met their personal agendas - far more than large corporations - that present the true threat to good journalism in modern Canada.