On dull minds

Shorter Kerry Thompson:
I can think of no better use for column space than to criticize nameless opposition MPs for a position which Stockwell Day made up on their behalf. Stay tuned for my forthcoming investigative series on why the opposition parties hate motherhood, hockey and apple pie.

Calling a hack a hack

The Ottawa Citizen starts off an editorial on First Nations issues by praising Con MP Rod Bruinooge for his supposed candour and honesty. But in the interest of furthering an open and honest discussion, let's take a look at just how far the Citizen has to stretch the facts to try to make the Cons look good.

Here's what the Citizen had to say about Bruinooge:

Conservative Manitoba MP Rod Bruinooge says that he's the kind of guy who calls a spade a spade. Judging by his comments about the Kelowna Accord, his penchant for candour is refreshing.

Mr. Bruinooge, in a scrum with reporters after his speech to the annual meeting of the Assembly of First Nations, called the Kelowna Accord an "expensive press release."

So just how candid was Bruinooge's message? Why, it's so honest and personal that it's taken word for word from his boss:

Fontaine was responding to a comment by parliamentary secretary Rod Bruinooge who, when asked by reporters why the government shelved the accord, said the arrangement was a mere public relations exercise by the Liberals before the last federal election. "The previous government made an election promise at the last hour," Bruinooge said. "This was later dubbed the Kelowna accord. ... There was no agreement. It was a press release."

The comments echo those made by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice who recently referred to the accord as a "very expensive press release."

Needless to say, Deceivin' Stephen will be glad to know that at least one significant media outlet is so gullible as to accept Con talking points as "candour". But for those looking to evaluate the Citizen's credibility in assessing Bruinooge in particular and the issue of First Nations funding in general, the only available conclusion is that the Citizen isn't about to let the facts get in the way of its Con-friendly spin.

Nothing new

A couple of notes on the fund-raising story which is inexplicably getting so much attention today:
- First, these numbers aren't news; in fact, the CP reported on them two months ago. But at the start of a slow news season, Jane Taber is apparently now rummaging through clippings from the previous few months to be recycled into headlines.
- Second, in my posting on the first story, I criticized the CP for discussing the parties in an arbitrary order rather than actually listing them in order of fund-raising success - which would have resulted in more press for the NDP and Greens, and less for the Libs and Bloc. But Taber manages to take several additional steps in writing major pieces out of the story: despite the NDP's success in raising over twice as much as the Libs, Taber doesn't even mention them (or for that matter the Greens or Bloc) until the postscripts.