The Harperites have scaled up their attacks against the CBC and the remarks made by EKOS President, Frank Graves.

“Make no mistake, we will continue to challenge Frank Graves’s credibility as a neutral pollster on party politics,” the Conservative Party says in a memo circulated to MPs and supporters.

“The public broadcaster is spending the public’s money, not Liberal Party money,” the memo says. “If the CBC is serious about reversing its declining status and influence within the Canadian population we recommend that they re-consider their position.

“At the very least Mr. Graves’s partisanship should be disclosed to viewers each and every time he appears on-air.”

What a bunch of clap-trap! Like I said in my post yesterday, of COURSE he’s biased! We ALL are! He is markedly less biased than most because of his job!

A good article in the G&M this morning notes that:

…They forget, for example, that the CBC has hired Kory Teneycke, the former director of communications to the Prime Minister, who is now being paid with taxpayer dollars to tout the Tory line and do Mr. Harper’s bidding.

The Reformatories, boys and girls, are practising what you might call hypocritical cherry-picking!

If the Cons are holding on to the “how dare you suggest that a wedge be driven into the country, thus dividing it“  call…

Dean Del Mastro, the Peterborough Conservative MP and parliamentary secretary to the Heritage Minister, had been pushing for the probe. He was outraged over Mr. Graves’s “culture war” comments, believing the pollster was driving a wedge between east and west after Conservatives have worked so hard to unify the country.

…then they need to look in the mirror a little more often! No Prime Minister since Trudeau (who I admire, but face it – he did pit east against west) has sought to divide this country more than Harper! West versus East, secular versus non-secular, rural versus urban… you name the schism and Harpy is there dancing merrily over it! Factional splits are seen as opportunities for the ever-cynical Harperites.

Look no further than the gun registry – a tool that needs some improvements but is a useful database that is used by police forces across the country. But for the Cons, it is more useful to exploit the registry for political purposes… ignoring its benefits.

If the argument that the ReformCons are hitching their donkeys to is the use of public funds for partisan purposes, then what about these?

But for me, the most enjoyable thing is a journey through ReformCon blog-land or a perusal of random comments on main stream media stories. Here’s a sampling:

From the Globe and Mail story:

The Party needs to reign in the CBC. It is primarily staffed by Socialists and Bolsheviks who are trying to undermine the State. If they won’t change their ways they should be brought in front of a government tribunal and made to explain themselves.

Hmmm… I wonder if there is someone named Lenin on the payroll…

If Harper was a genuine small-c fiscal conservative he would immediately begin to eradicate the deficit/debt by changing this embarrassment to a private pay for view station, sell the complete far-left bias and extremely unbalanced CBC and force the bimbos to get a real job, or simply shut down this bimbo-driven humiliation to humanity.

Bimbos? really?

From torydrroy.blogspot.com

Complain about grit hack frank graves

Senator Findlay wants us all to complain to the CBC about biased liberal hack frank graves. I have already written to the cbc ombudsman. I already give the maximum, I can  to the party. I urge you all to write to the cbc ombudsman and donate money to the Tories. Let’s teach the cbc, and the liberal hack frank graves, a lesson. I also urge you not to answer ekos when they attempt to contact you. We should boycott this liberal front organization.

From onwardjames.blogspot.com

There are times I think that we should have our version of the Tea Party, — a start with Ontario with manipulative Liberal Dalton McGuinty — however, I believe that Prime Minister Harper, perhaps the best Prime Minister in the history of Canada, considering the times and events, has done a superb job with notable ministers behind him for a UNITED CANADA.

You get the picture.

Supporters of the ReformCons like to pile on like a bunch of brain-starved zombies whenever they feel like they are being unfairly treated or portrayed!

And they call we lefties overly sensitive?

And here’s the kicker: over at a post called Inconvenient facts always ruin an attempted narrative at Scott’s Diatribes, the author cites a Tweet from Glen McGregor:

By my math, since CPC formed government, “Liberal partisan” pollster Frank Graves has done $5,657,710 in work for Harper govt.

Followed by:

Also, EKOS has done two polling contacts worth $131,440 for Privy Council Office under Harper.

Glen muses he perhaps should do a story on that in his paper. I really hope he does, to get it out there to a wider audience what a silly thing this attempted line of attack is. Sometimes, facts can be very inconvenient when you’re trying to push out propaganda.

Maybe now is the time for an election… gotta remove the DeceptiCons (Hey! I just made that up!) and their lemming-like minions from any position of power before they destroy all that has made Canada a great country over the past 140+ years!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

The latest EKOS poll results are out and surprise, surprise, the ReformCons are hovering around the 32% range…

Sigh. Watching the movement in the latest polls is becoming about as predictable as a Mike Weir Saturday melt-down…

But wait! There is something interesting coming out of EKOS! Franks Graves – President of EKOS research – is apologising for some remarks he made to G&M columnist Lawrence Martin on what advice he would have for the Grits in their ongoing (and hopelessly slow) attempt to overtake the Harperites.

In case you missed it, this is what he said:

In his advice, Mr. Graves could hardly have been more blunt. “I told them that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don’t like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin.”

He apologized (though somewhat lamely) by saying :

[Ottawa – April 23, 2010] – In the course of an interview with the Globe and Mail columnist, Lawrence Martin, this week, I made some suggestions for a strategic course that presented itself to the federal Liberal Party.
My intention was to foment debate. However, I used incendiary language that had not been carefully enough considered. I recognize now that my stark language was understandably offensive to some Canadians.
In that light, I wish to retract my remarks and unreservedly apologize for making them.

True. In his position it is extremely important to appear unbiased – bias can cast aspersions about the neutrality and validity of the data that his firm collects. But general advice from a pollster is hardly new or rare. One often sees folks like Nick Nanos, Allan Gregg or Michael Adams on line or on TV or radio opining on what the Grits/CPC/NDP should do to better their fortunes. Lawrence Martin notes this as well.

No, it wasn’t the fact that advice was given, rather:

1. The words used in Graves’ opinion were stark and honest.
2. By being the CBC pollster, Mr. Graves has let himself vulnerable to screams of liberal media-bias.

On the first point, well, duh! Of course the best way to build support for the centre-leftward side of the spectrum is to further widen the nasty schism that exists between the right and the left in this country. And I agree with that. If the sole goal is to gain political ground then exposing the difference – be they cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy will do the trick. These are real differences between rural and urban and east and west and taking a stand on one side of the line is a way to cement what you stand for. The Harperites sure havn’t had a problem doing so and who cares if you alienate a few yahoos in tar sand land, right?

While I agree this is an approach that may be used to pump up the numbers, I am worried that the bitterness and anger that would result in such an active pursuit of a culture “war” would forever harm the unity of this country.

But that does seem to be the direction in which we are headed.

The other issue is that of perceived media bias. Here, I think the Cons are blowing out their air holes! Of COURSE there is bias! The Star is biased toward the Grits, the Post toward the Cons, CanWest is a Harperite trumpet.. etc. And as Simpson said:

The subject of media bias is a complex one in Canada because of the political culture. Normally a journalist is considered neutral or objective if he or she is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, reflecting neither the left- nor right-wing point of view.

But in Canada, the big mushy middle is the home of the Liberal Party, which has sought to locate itself in the mainstream and has profited over time from doing so. Therein lies the conundrum. If you’re a centrist, you can well be accused of having a Liberal bias.

In other words, it’s inescapable. You’re biased if you’re on the left, right or middle. In other words, everyone is biased; you, me, CBC, CTV; you, me and Mr. Graves and Stompin’ Tom Connors and the polar bears of Frobisher Bay.

So gimme a break Harperites and go back to your power breakfasts…

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Now for a community moment…

A colleague of mine who is an avid cyclist, asked me to pass along the following request. While I am not a cyclist, it pains me to think that Ottawa dentists might be profiting because of poorly maintained bike paths!

Hi folks, Can folks send a quick note to the NCC requesting they begin work rehabilitating the bicycle path between Andrew Hayden Park and Britannia Beach? This section of path is so bad it will knock your fillings loose! Maybe then the time frame for fixing the path will be less than “several years” as I was told. Email address: info@ncc-ccn.ca. Pass this on to others who you think would like to help out! Thanks!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario