Discussion
Re: Proposed conservative Canadian television network will no doubt be boring
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Nice to see this writer’s willingness to wait and see what something looks like before running his mouth about it, not to mention his respect for people whose ideology differs from his own. Golf claps, sir, golf claps.
Fiscal policy issues might bore the average Canadian, but considering the vast amounts of money all levels of government are willing to spend on the most frivolous stuff (G20 summits, anyone?), somebody needs to be there to call them out, and that somebody is typically a conservative. This style of conservatism is not enough to make Sun TV (which was never explicitly proposed as a conservative network) “Fox News North.” Canada doesn’t even have a Glenn Beck or a Sarah Palin to base its prime-time block around, thank the Lord.
I would personally delight in seeing more political debate on Canadian TV, and not just between sitting MPs, who should be shunted to the Sunday talk shows as they are in the U.S.
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Andrew, you’re *WAY* to optimistic on the prognosis of this station. They’ll use every trick in the book to gain ratings and dumb down Canadian political discourse - and it will work. “Fiscal policy”? No - “WAYS TO PREVENT COMMUNISM!!!” will more likely be the talking point.
And Jess, certain ideologies don’t deserve respect. Generally speaking, ideologies (like ultraconservatism) that are disrespectful (towards the poor, the unemployed, the underemployed, the marginalized, etc) shouldn’t expect respect.
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Well, DRM, who is to have the final say over which ideologies are respectful and which are not? You can disrespect whomever you want, but that will do nothing to establish a healthy consensus on issues of real significance, nor will it improve political discourse. Furthermore, generally speaking, accusations of Communism in Canada are knowingly made in hyperbole. And even ultraconservatives have views on how to improve the lots of the poor and marginalized. They may and probably do differ from yours, but that does not necessarily make them inherently disrespectful.
– Jess C. in Winnipeg, MB | July 11th 2010 at 10:42pm | Link
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I’ts a very cynical type of political relativism to argue that we should listen to the guy screaming about communistic taxes and socialists running the CBC as if his views are reasonable, helpful, or reality based. As somebody whose not an intellectual relativism, I say just tell the guy he’s wrong, delusional, and ignore him from there.
Who decides which ideologies are respectful? Anyone with a functioning brain should be able to evaluate the respectability of various ideologies and act accordingly.
The fact of the matter is that some accusing a media that’s given us two Conservative Senators (CTV) and whose major dailies endorsed the Conservative Party will know doubt be a disrespectful, non-reality based ideologue sure to pollute the media with Red Baiting and perhaps even some racial resentment (just look at Blogging Tories for a model of this).
As for the poor - very few grassroots ultraconservatives have plans for them. Most often they just assume the impoverished are lazy bums who won’t work hard enough, althought (to their credit) a few of the more sophisticated members of the ultra-right have suggested that private charity or the elimination of taxes be used to assist the poor.
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The point is not to treat obviously delusional ideas as respectable. The point is to continue debating with the person who holds them until they can argue on your terms. This is not an impossible task. Ignoring him will do nothing but make you look like a one-line pony and him look like even more of an idiot.
To date, the people who have signed on to Sun TV have been run-of-the-mill fiscal conservatives whose “Red Baiting” extends no farther than encouraging the government to stop trying to pay for everything. As for racial resentment, I expect someone like Mark Steyn to make the occasional appearance, but he has a regular column in Maclean’s, and no one can accuse them of being right-wing. This is bound to happen at least once whenever anyone with an opinion comes on TV.
If you want an example of a hardcore conservative developing a coherent anti-poverty strategy, I encourage you to look up Jack Kemp’s record as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
– Jess C. in Winnipeg, MB | July 18th 2010 at 10:20pm | Link
