Last Night’s Debate Winner: Mainstream Media & Corporate Canada

This will be a short rant, but I’d like to throw in my $0.02 about the debate last night.

The focus was the ‘economy’, with Stephen Harper’s pants clearly in a flame (not just a smolder) as he lied about creating 1.3 million full time jobs over the last 10 years.

And how many good paying full time jobs have been lost, Herr Harper?

Exactly.

He was also lying about good financial management, failing to remind Canadians that he and his Cons engage in routine ‘bait and switch’ planning, wasting valuable resources over 10 years simply so they can say they are running a surplus right now.

But let’s not get distracted by the actual debate.

Let’s zero in on the winners:  mainstream media and corporate Canada.

The Globe and Mail, with the host editor in chief David Walmsley, got to frame the structure of the debate and control the content.  They claim that the questions were unique and were not shared with any party leader.

That I would actually believe because Stephen Harper doesn’t need the questions because he always has the same ‘learn by rote’ bullshit answers of ‘stable, steady as she goes economy, safety and security, blah blah blah …’  Honestly, Mulcair was really no different with his ‘national day care this, pay civil servants more that …’

It was tired and dull.

Only Trudeau stood out by answering the question with questions, pushing Canadians to think about Canada under Stephen Harper.

Are we better or worse off than 10 years ago?  Definitely worse.

But I’m getting distracted.  The Globe was the clear winner because they were handed a complete monopoly on the delivery of the debate. I’d be curious to know if they got a spike in subscriptions.

Also, on a whole, corporate Canada was a clear winner because we didn’t talk about (at least in any great detail):

• Electoral reform that will keep the likes of Stephen Harper out of power in Canada FOREVER
• Scandal after scandal after freakin’ scandal that Stephen Harper wants Canadian to think are not important
• The slaughter of First Nations women across the country or disproportionately high suicide rates
• Funding for the Tar Sands compared to funding for things that matter more to ALL Canadians on a day-to-day basis
• Stephen Harper turning the mess in the Middle East into a campaign of racism and anti-Muslim interests
• Women and children
• Infrastructure, education and the environment (I know, I’ve mentioned that twice)
• Etc etc etc

Framing the debate about the economy and ignoring the kagillion other issues that affect Canadians on a day-to-day marginalizes the interests of Canadians and therefore marginalizes their interest in the election.

So … on October 20 when Stephen Harper has won yet another landslide election because progressive voters in Canada choose to attack each other instead of their common enemy, mainstream media and corporate Canada will be the greatest beneficiaries of a Harper government to 2019.