Word choice in Herald poll about Trudeau deserves condemnation
By Lethbridge Herald on April 9, 2022.
Editor:
One might criticize the Herald’s recent poll asking if Prime Minister Trudeau should be considered a dictator with words like “dismay” or “disappointment” but that would be too soft.
The poll deserves condemnation as it stands and was made worse when the word “dictator” was not placed in quotation marks to denote its original authorship by some on the political Right.
It was the Herald’s word choice; they own it. All we can conclude, therefore, is that the Herald meant to adopt the hyperbole and extremist language of the right and/or decided to employ a poorly disguised ”dog whistle” for that constituency in order to elicit an enthusiastic response.
Equally disturbing were the poll results: 70 per cent of those who answered the poll agreed that Mr. Trudeau was a dictator. In the age of Putin, where we can see clearly what a dictator is and does, the poll is ludicrous and the 70 per cent of respondents who agreed that he was a dictator must be either totally ignorant of politics and governance or simply enjoying the opportunity to vent their anger as anonymous attackers. The whole thing smacks of “Trump world” (“lock him up”).
To be less hyperbolic myself, however, the impetus behind this condemnation of Trudeau surely flows from the coalition agreed to between the federal Liberals and the NDP over policies they both wish to pursue (ones that are also popular with the electorate in most of Canada).
Today’s Right pretends to have never heard of coalitions in democratic states even though they occur everywhere and all of the time.
In fact, historically, almost all parliamentary governments have relied on coalitions to accomplish anything. The Conservatives may form them as well, if they can find other parties willing to join them.
During my years of teaching, students often told me, with pride, that they were not political, assuming I would admire their moral purity. I did not.
Ultimately, I came to answer that if you are not political; if you do not understand the nature of politics in both democratic and undemocratic states; if you do not know how various systems of government are constituted, including our own parliamentary system, then you are the one who has problems with morality, especially the morality of being a conscientious citizen.
Now, partly through our failure to educate students fully about governance and politics, we are reaping the harvest of that failure – apparently mainly weeds.
James Tagg
Lethbridge
14-13
Great comments James. While many of our fellow seniors are believing the lies these Reformers feed them the lawyers and economists in our world are stating the facts and as much as us true conservatives aren’t fans of Trudeau we are smart enough to believe the true facts which prove these Reformers dead wrong.
Trudeau has in fact saved this province during this pandemic and oil industry crash, whether we like it or not and we know these Reformers wouldn’t have. There only interest is helping their rich friends steal the peoples oil and tax wealth to help them try to buy votes.
I agree with your main point about the Reform party taking over the PC party, but they DID get away with doing that and it HAS been quite a while now, so while we also have the appalling example south of the border of just HOW extreme the right wing can become (not to mention around the world), do we not have to conclude that there must be some predisposing factor in the philosophy of conservatism itself? Consider the fact that we never talk about a “conservative democracy” only a liberal one. And everyone thinks it’s okay to dump on Trudeau (the algorithms have cemented that irrational hatred), but he’s just the leader of a far more open-minded group of people
Those of us from the world of finance figure that Albertans have lost at least $800 billion in oil, gas and tax revenues thanks to these phoney conservatives looking after their rich friends and all the articles written about it prove it. Lawyers , oilmen and economists that I have spoken with agree.
All you have to do is look to Alaska and Norway to see what we should have had. I have been to both places and talked to the people about what their wealth is doing for them and it’s sickening knowing what we should have had. None of us should be paying and provincial taxes and our property taxes should be next to nothing like it is in Alaska and Norway.
As oilmen point out our oil production is a lot more than theirs and our wealth should be a lot higher.
Regarding this absolutely spot-on statement: “Today’s Right pretends to have never heard of coalitions in democratic states”, I wonder what UCP members think the union of the Wildrose and PC parties was? If not a coalition then perhaps a forced marriage with a shaky past and an uncertain future?
The true conservatives in my world find it hard to believe how stupid these reformers are. You wouldn’t be seeing the conservatives in the Lougheed and Getty governments being this stupid. We are pleased that Trudeau and Singh have been willing to hold each other accountable to the people, what’s wrong with that? Of course it will make it a lot harder for these reformers to get their way, won’t it?
Again ,check bill c11, and try to underst@nd what the motivation could be.
The reason conservatives assume that all other political parties are inherently devious, destructive and primarily self-interested because that’s what THEY do with power, so project that. Look at the GOP if you want to see how far they’ll go. Trying to accuse Trudeau of being a dictator shows some real desperation.
They don’t give a rip about people generally, so have no business of even applying for the job of governance in any democracy, but particularly in the context of the dangerous times we now live in. Their answer to climate change and pandemics is to just deny their existence, blatantly and crazily, so anyone who still claims affiliation with them in any way, let alone votes for them, is the same. ABC. Anything but conservatives. I saw a facebook meme that said “conservatives will kill us all.” Not even funny anymore.
As the former MLAs from the Lougheed era I got to know pointed out these Reformers can’t campaign on what good they have done to help the people because everything they do only benefits their rich friends.
That’s all they care about. Most Albertans are just a pain for them to have to deal with. The educated Doctors, nurses, and teachers are too smart for them and look how they treat them, making their lives a living hell.
They look at the privatization of health care and education as just another way for them to look their rich friends and by giving them first priority to the systems will in turn buy votes from them. I think they are going to find Albertans have been fooled too many times and aren’t that stupid anymore.
After watching Jason Kenney’s speech we once again see mainly seniors allowing themselves to be treated like morons and believing every lie he feeds them. The pathetic crowd of only about 100 , the hotel claimed, were once again made up of mainly seniors.
Please consider the following two articles.
https://farmersforum.com/read-court-document-lawyer-says-judge-sees-the-freedom-convoy-protest-as-peaceful-and-lawful/#:~:text=HOME%20%20NEWS%20%20READ,In%3A%20News
https://farmersforum.com/truckers-were-right-freedom-convoy-protest-was-legal-judge-says-and-ottawa-is-now-being-sued/#:~:text=HOME%20%20NEWS%20%20TRUCKERS,In%3A%20News
Respectfully,
Les Elford