wanted: a canadian Fox

Kate McMillan (writer of the popular Canadian blog small dead animals) has said a mouthful in this thoughtful morning-after-the-election post, found on the CBC website – of all places.

[...] As a conservative on the libertarian side of the ledger, the degree to which speech in Canada has been corralled and controlled by the courts, ever-invasive government institutions and unaccountable "human rights" tribunals is deeply disturbing. The trend has been reinforced for decades by a Liberal party reward system for pro-Liberal journalism, overtly (through diplomatic postings and Senate seat appointments) and financially. In America, the largest advertiser is Procter & Gamble. In Canada, it is the federal government.

As the most recent example of the pervasive liberal-left world view of the mainstream Canadian media, I need only point to the tenor of the final week of the campaign, in which abortion was raised as an issue by the Martin campaign.

Despite the fact that this most contentious of public policy issues offers legitimate arguments both for and against, with huge advocacy constituencies on both sides - no reporter, no pundit, no network head, thought it appropriate to make Mr. Martin defend the Liberal party position of preserving the status quo. That Canada has no abortion law at all, that for-profit clinics operate in many provinces, the costs to the Canada health system - none of these points were considered worthy of debate. No one asked Paul Martin if he thought there was a legitimate case to be made for a more balanced, centrist public policy on abortion.

Instead, the media took the Liberal position as the desired default, and demanded Harper explain himself...*

[...] So in addition to the list of priorities that Harper will be taking on ... the single most important change he can make to restore balance to Canadian democracy is to begin breaking down the stranglehold of government and the Liberal apparatchik on the communications industry....

Right on, Kate! You’ve been reading my mind.

(For more examples of the Canadian media's left-wing bias, check this out.)

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*Indeed, many examples come to mind:

-The frequent Martin sound bites played in the last week of the campaign, calling into question the sincerity of Harper’s assertions that he doesn’t plan to open the abortion debate;

Pictures of Global newsman Kevin Newman’s accosting of Harper in the midst falling flakes somewhere in eastern Canada, demanding to know what his position on abortion is and playing the answer – "I don’t have to tell you because it’s not an issue" – still, as if it’s some kind of vindication of the vaguely veiled ‘Harper is scary’ message that has oozed out of Newman since the campaign began.

- The news ‘story’ on the last weekend of the campaign of another of Global’s paparazzi – Reg Hampton – stalking Conservative candidate Darrel Reid. When Reid didn't respond to Hampton's requests for an interview or show up at his office where Hampton was sitting waiting to pounce, Global then ran a piece on the 6 o’clock news full of the bitterness of a reporter spurned, where Hampton read into Reid' actions the message: "See, because he won’t talk to me he’s scared of me and has something to hide."