Somewhat redacted 😞 A new experience.
My first Letter to the Editor published under the New Regime
Those
who have known me a long time, know that I take my avocation as an ankle-biter seriously, too seriously, says Ron as I hunker too long over
the keyboard. Once upon a time the Chronicle Herald used to publish the Baloney Meter - an in-house fact checker column. It was useful and fun. Now that our paper has been taken over by PostMedia, the Letters to the Editor section has been seriously cut back. Instead we
get "Commentaries" on the Opinion page as well as commentaries passing as news elsewhere. I used to have 3 or 4 letters published a year - not all of them ankle-biters - and they were never edited. It offered me a chance to feel I was doing my bit at monitoring the emperor's clothing and offering praise where due. I had good feedback. They had published nothing I sent since the takeover.
We just had a municipal election. I often believe more things can be wrought at the municipal level than elsewhere. I am relieved our excellent district councillor, Sam Austin, has been returned to office. I'm reserving observations on our new mayor. He defected from the sinking ship that is the Trudeau regime, not, I suspect, before making sure of a win with help from from "professional strategic advisors" - less politely known by some as spin doctors. If there is a word on the planet that I detest, it is "strategic." Ah well, this is the way the world works.
In the thin Wed Oct 23 edition of the Herald, there was just one one letter from a reader challenging the accuracy of the family physician wait list statistics, a figure far more flexible than Major League
baseball statistics - and the following commentary written by that very same strategic advisor.
Commentary (click the image to read the whole article)
Federal and provincial government bashing is standard operating procedure, but where was this one coming from? It was certainly a mash-up of issues and targets. I am dedicated to wondering - old librarian DNA I suppose. I googled the author at NorthStar Public Affairs and learned it is a public relations firm whose mission is:
To navigate the intricate and ever-evolving landscape of Canadian
politics and government, you need knowledge, experience, a nuanced understanding of public sentiment, and a well-lit path to the policy- and decision-makers who can enact change, take action and provide the
solutions and outcomes
you need to win.
The more I read about the author, the more wondering I did about the man behind our new mayor. At least the authorship was transparent enough. I discovered more than I wanted to know. Bragging about his successes for Stephen Harper and Doug Ford certainly did not earn any nuance of sentiment from this member of the public.
This commentary appeared just after Alberta's Big Oil propaganda hijacked our front page and Page 2, as well as YouTube and the MLB playoffs. We'd never seen anything like it. They tried to make it look like "News." I wrote about the flagrant placement of that "ad." My letter was was not published. That's okay. They did publish several other letters expressing similar disgust. From chit chat here and there, there were more than a few of us. Some people cancelled their subscriptions.
I wrote again yesterday in response to the Commentary. They actually published most of it except for the introductory part about the state of the Letters section of the paper which wasn't intended for publication, but omitted the paragraph about the "strategic advisor" some of which I found on his website bio.
Dear Editor
I have noticed a considerable shrinkage in space devoted to letters from your regular subscribers. I am one - for now. This is not good. The Letters page was my favourite part of the paper - the one I turned to right after doing the puzzles. The Saturday edition featured an entire Opinions Section. I also noticed that the 250 words suggested size seems to be overlooked quite frequently, so I have not worried this time.
Author Fred Delorey was former Director of Field Operations for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who now promotes superhighway 413 through vital green space; and Director of Political Operations for former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, slasher and burner of scientific research. We may see his skills employed closer to home in future. Context.
They also edited my description of myself as a "grumpy old Malthusian letter writer." Perhaps they considered it too dismal, or they didn't fact check Malthus. Oh, the trials of being a grumpy old Malthusian. I yam what I yam. 😱
A little background
- The province of Alberta just spent $7 million dollars on that propaganda blitz for Big Oil against a proposed Emissions Cap which would help us meet our climate targets. We're behind. What better use of that money might there have been to help Alberta citizens in ways other, especially when the Premier has stopped all research and development of alternative energy. They had been doing good work. It offered a way to move beyond job dependence on a very toxic form of oil extraction. The Premier is also also up for review with her party soon.
- The Isthmus of Chignecto is the narrow strip of marshland that keeps Nova Scotia from becoming an island. The Feds offered to pay 50% leaving 25% each to be covered by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick respectively. Our premier is snapping at them because he wanted them to pay 100% as they are doing for restoring the Historic Quebec Bridge across the St. Lawrence River. Work on the isthmus is underway. It needs to be done now before another super storm takes it out and breaks the transportation link to the rest of the country and brings economic chaos. I don't feel hard done by to think some of my tax dollars are directed toward this. I confess, some nuance of my public sentiment may come from having been born there. I also cherish the privatized Via Rail line that has to cross the isthmus to the rest of Canada. Rail service to our part of the country is constantly in danger from the vicissitudes of weather and politics.
- In addition to slashing scientific research funding, and holding a flashy "victory" parade for the Libyan misadventure, Harper also slashed the National Archives and National Library, then claimed a substantial tax credit for donating records from his nearly ten years in power to Library and Archives Canada. They should be put there as a matter of course. I cannot pretend to admire the successes of this man.
- The Nova Scotia Premier shelved the Coastal Protection Act after it had been approved by a consensus of all parties. The timing was "curious," but that's another story .
