Be wary of Postmedia editorials endorsing Harper

Rafe: Be wary of Postmedia editorials endorsing Harper

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Rafe- Be wary of Postmedia editorials endorsing Harper
Headline from Vancouver Sun’s recent endorsement of the Conservative Party (Postmedia)

Rafe Mair here – may I have your attention for a moment?

When you’re advised how to vote, common sense tells you to ask whether or not this is advice comes from a bias based upon strong personal financial commitments.

The Vancouver Sun and Province,  both wholly owned by Postmedia, have declared that we should vote for Stephen Harper for economic reasons. Their cousin, the National Post followed suit in a last-minute Conservative endorsement today. It’s therefore critical that we understand where these papers are coming from.

Newspaper editorials are written by an editor on instructions from the Publisher. Postmedia has a huge commitment in this election, creating an enormous conflict of interest, thus cannot possibly be seen as remotely independent.

I have carefully documented this conflict in the Common Sense Canadian and those articles are freely available in these pages.

The fact is that the Vancouver Province is an official partner with an outfit called Resource Works, an organization dedicated to getting approval for an LNG plant in Squamish at the head of Howe Sound.

More than that, Postmedia’s flagship paper, the National Post, is on the public record as supporting the fossil fuel industry without reservation.

In sum, the owners of the Sun, the Province and the National Post are not, as they allege, independent journalists, giving you their considered, unbiased opinion, but publicly committed shills for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), Woodfibre LNG (run by a big-time tax evader) and the development of fossil fuels in such manner as industry wishes.

The Canadian voter, in my respectful opinion, would be wise to bear this in mind when considering the editorial opinion of any paper owned by Postmedia, specifically the Vancouver Sun, the Province, and the National Post – all of which circulate in British Columbia.

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About Rafe Mair

Rafe Mair, LL.B, LL.D (Hon) a B.C. MLA 1975 to 1981, was Minister of Environment from late 1978 through 1979. In 1981 he left politics for Talk Radio becoming recognized as one of B.C.'s pre-eminent journalists. An avid fly fisherman, he took a special interest in Atlantic salmon farms and private power projects as environmental calamities and became a powerful voice in opposition to them. Rafe is the co-founder of The Common Sense Canadian and writes a regular blog at rafeonline.com.

14 thoughts on “Rafe: Be wary of Postmedia editorials endorsing Harper

  1. I have not bought a newspaper in over 10 years.I do glance at the Postmedia rags when at a local supermarket to give me a chuckle.The wrap around on Saturday’s Vancouver Sun was disgraceful.And then there is the Toronto Globe & Mail …

  2. Now that the campaign is over the next campaign begins – for reform of the system that made Harper possible.

    This will mean a spirit of coming together, a need to listen to one another, and a wliingness to bend on occasion in order to head off a pending nstional disaster. Forgive me for saying again that we must stop making perfection the enemy of improvement.

    We will have the establishment, mcluding the current bastardization of the real Conservative Party, the fossil fuel industry and their partners, the Canadian media against us. This is a formidable force and we who want to see real democracy replace the present chimera must come together, not in unanimous agreement as to what change should be, for that begs the question, but in a spirit of cooperation and civility while never losing the determination to bring power to the MP to run the administration, not the other way around.

    In my submission, we will have to leave behind the concern about minority governments and our mistaken belief that only a dominating leader can “get things done”, for if that’s true, why bother with MPs at all and just elect a Supremo every so often?

    Finally, passions run high in the politics of change – let’s not allow them to play into the hands of the reactionary right, their bosom buddies in the hugel rivh and poeerful fosdil fuel industry that care nothing about the environment and atmospheric destruction and their partners and devoted toadies, the mainstream media. If we succeed all Canada will prosper both evonomically and spiritually; if we fail, Stephen Harper will seem like a piller of democracy, decency and tolerance compared to what will surely come.

    1. Exactly! After I read the Ottawa Citizen editorial endorsing the Conservatives – a propaganda piece that was straight out of the Conservative party playbook – I realized that getting rid of Harper was just the first step. The rot has extended to all parts of our society. We need to do some serious work together to reclaim our democracy.

      Yesterday my walk on a cold but beautiful autumn day in Ottawa took me to Beechwood Cemetery. I came upon the grave of Tommy Douglas and etched on his monument were the words, “Courage my friends, ’tis not too late to build a better world.” The Conservatives and their supporters use the word “socialist” as a swear word, but compare the morality and integrity of Tommy Douglas with that of Stephen Harper and mourn over how far we have fallen. Let’s hope that better world starts on election day.

  3. Of course all media outlets are biased one way or another. I can’t wait for Rafe to write about how the CBC is a shill for the Liberal Party. No kidding! The Conservatives are still the best option.

    I hereby invoke Mair’s Axiom #2: You don’t have to be a 10 in politics; you can be a 3 if everyone else is a 2.

    The Libs are a 2, the NDP are a 1. The Cons are a 3.

  4. Should read : ” Conservatives best choice to manage tar sands, oil, natural gas and ruin our environment.”

  5. I’ve googled several postmedia newspapers from across Canada this am.
    Judging from the comments after the Pro conservative “editorial” .
    Most of the readers aint “buying” what they’re “selling”

    The Montreal Gazette has some great comments after the postmedia “cut and paste” editorial…….

  6. Now that we see that we are not being served by any of our “newspapers” hopefully CKNW will endorse the Neo-Conservatives and like they do the Neo-Liberals and remove all doubt of their pathetic attempts at impartiality . The real question is when we as a society stop allowing these wolves in sheep’s clothing from polluting our airwaves and news sources with their propaganda and biases. I for one will never give one more penny to any postmedia publication .

  7. Interesting.
    I was in Safeway yesterday and as I was walking out I noticed a huge pile of Vancouver Sun papers ( I refuse to call them “newspapers” ).

    The front page was bright yellow? ( literally “yellow journalism”?) and had a few words in bold type printed center page:
    A LIBERAL GOVT WILL BE BAD FOR CANADA”S ECONOMY

    I thought ” Geez, thats quite a statement to make just before the election.’
    I wondered who was responsible and decided to take a closer look. When I spotted the tiny disclaimer : paid political advertisement”.
    Thats when I realized it was more conservative propaganda.

    Harpers fear tactics arent working anymore. Win or lose, he’s lost 2/3’s of the country’s respect. Not a great mandate to lead.
    Now lets see if he has the guts to quit or if his party of invertibrates has developed the spine to fire him………

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