Michael Ignatieff was forceful in yesterday’s media conference following his election as leader and repeated the performance on CBC’s The National in the evening, coming within a hair’s breadth of calling the prime minister a liar for his constantly shifting assertions of no recession/recession, no deficit/defict and declared that he is ready to vote no-confidence in the government as early as January.
So how it is that The (Toronto) Star can describe him as “given to a few flights of rhetoric, demonstrating that he remains an enigma who will take some time for voters to decode.” ? Its “liberal” pretensions notwithstanding, The Star still treats anyone who finished high school as a confusing elitist unworthy of the masses’ support. It’s regrettable that a newspaper with such broad circulation in Canada’s largest market doesn’t employ a few writers who are prepared to listen to what said before writing their stories.
I don’t let Chantal Hébert off the hook on this account; her personal biases too frequently are as rampant as any muckraker. Two years ago (or maybe earlier) she concluded she didn’t like Stéphane Dion and apparently resolved that she would never write or speak a word in his favour, whatever he might say or do. Biassed press like hers, and that of CTV’s Robert Fife, brought Dion down as much as any other cause. Canadian political discourse is poorer for their likes.
