Let's Turn that Decision Around - Again

You can't be serious Stephen

Here we go again. The Old Boys’ have been denied Green Leader Elizabeth May the opportunity to participate in the televised leaders’ debates.

Instead of speaking up to defend democracy, other party leaders seem relieved. Without May to point it out, it takes some of the heat off their own woefully inadequate environmental policies.

I know our first past the post electoral system does its best to cut out the smaller parties but you have to ask “What kind of democracy excludes a party with the support of one million of its citizens?”

What kind of democracy allows a handful of TV executives to decide that the Bloc Quebecois that only runs candidates in one province has more right to be in a national leaders’ debate than the Green Party with candidates in pretty much every riding across the country?

Don’t get me wrong. I want to hear what Gilles Duceppe has to say just as much as I want to hear from Elizabeth May.

In the last election, Canadians spoke out and our voices won Elizabeth her rightful place in the debates. We can’t believe that we have to rally on her behalf yet again. But we do.

Here’s what you can do:
Vote in CBC’s poll on whether Elizabeth should be invited to the leaders’ debates
Donate to support Elizabeth’s battle for inclusion
Sign the petition
Send a text message to the Chair of the Media Consortium, Mr. Troy Reeb of Global TV on his cell phone at 647-261-3752
Email the news directors of consortium members CBC, CTV, Global, TVA
Email party leaders Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe
Forward this message to your friends and family

Collectively we can help Elizabeth May show Canadians why Greens belong in the House of Commons.

Let’s get on with it.

Do You Feel Conned Yet?

No doubt most of you who follow Canadian Communications news have seen that the CRTC sided with the broadcasters, at least sort of. Over the years most of us have learned not to expect anything definitive from the regulator.

The broadcasters, all except the for CBC that perhaps most needs the money, can now charge the cable/satellite companies for carrying their signal. The regulator did not say how much they could charge. That would be expecting too much. So now the broadcasters and the cable companies will fight that out, in what no doubt will be a very public negotiations. What ever the result of that process is, the cost will be passed on to you and I.

In commenting on their decision the chair of the CRTC showed just how out of touch he, and presumably the Commission is by suggesting, that the cable companies should be wary about passing on fees, because consumers have a choice. They can get the signal for free simply by putting up an antenna. Don't expect a forest of antennas to spring up in your neighborhood any time soon. The average TV watcher is not about to trade his/her 100 channel universe for three or four, low quality, off air signals.

Now most Canadians who have been subjected to months and months of print and television advertising by both sides in this dispute might think, after watching the ads bought and paid for by that coalition of broadcasters, that we will now see a rejuvenated local programing schedule. How could we forget "Local TV Matters." Well, don't hold your breath. They just wanted you to think that they cared. The broadcasters gave up any real commitment to local programming years ago.

Do you feel conned. Well you should.

Canadian Booksellers Fight Against Amazon

First let me say that, in principle I am not in favour of opening up our market place more than it already is to American business wanting to cash in on Canadian prosperity. I suppose in that regard I am a bit of a protectionist. I’m not ashamed of that, I just think there are many things about our Canadian society and culture that I think are worth holding on to and there already is too much American influence on the Canada I hold dear.

So, I guess I am, in principle, against Amazon moving into Canada. They already have a pretty big market share in Canada as a result of Google’s habit of putting them ahead of Canadian on-line booksellers when you search for on-line books. I don’t really think we need their greater presence here.

What is starting to get under my skin however is Heather Reisman’s campaign to keep Amazon out by evoking the image of that American bookseller forcing the independent bookstores out of business. I am sorry Heather; you have pretty much already done that, all by yourself. Aggressive marketing by Chapters/Indigo has made it pretty tough for all but the largest Canadian booksellers to survive. Even some of them are in trouble.

Reisman’s effort reminds me a bit of the campaign by Canada’s private broadcasters, claiming that they are trying to save local programming when the truth is, they have little to no commitment to it at all and haven’t had for over 20 years.

Ok kids, can anyone spell disingenuous.

A Few Olympic Thoughts

I have been trying very hard not to blog about the Olympics. There is so much about the way the Olympics are run that I find offensive. McDonald's as the official restaurant sponsor or wherever it claims to be, is preposterous just for a start.

But first I have to say, in all honesty, there were a few of the things I really did like about the games.

1. Clara Hughes may be my favorite athlete of all time. Her commitment to programs such as Right to Play, her humility, and her determination are great examples for all of us.
2. Nothing equals the exuberance of the Canadian woman's hockey team when they win gold. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to get swept up and into their celebration.
3. I am a big bobsleigh fan and have been since I have been a teenager. It is fast and loud and exciting even if in person you really only see about 10 seconds of any given ride as they plummet down the track. I always thought it should be called bobsled though. The term sleigh for those sleds just seems wrong. It always makes me think of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. But I am getting a bit off track here. Woman's two man, gold and silver. What more can you say except that, it was amazing.

However, I sometimes wonder where these people that run things came from and how they got so far off course. To start with, their choice of sponsors was awful.

• Coke and McDonald's? What kind of message does that send to kids?.
• Weston? Wonder Bread?
  
• The best you can say about Cold-FX is that it probably won't hurt you.
• I have seen enough talking cars to last me a lifetime .

The IOC decided to remove Right to Play from any official status because of RTP's sponsors automobile maker Mitsubishi and Scotiabank. I can only guess that General Motors and RBC didn't like that. Canadian Olympic old fart Dick Pound explained it all saying "When you raise a lot of money from people who support your exercise, you can't have them ambushed by somebody else" His definition of the word ambush must be a bit different than mine.

Trying to censor performers by making them sign an agreement that they would not criticize the game was really stupid. It make Canada look like some China or the old Soviet Union.

Restricting facility access to anyone who wasn't a Canadian athlete was the worst example of poor sportsmanship I have seen for some time. If there is going to be an even playing field athletes have to be able to practice on the facilities they will race on. Some will argue for years that the decision most likely was the reason that 21 year old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, miscalculated and flew off the track smashing into a metal girder and died.

And finally this Own the Podium thing was dumbest, most misguided program ever. I noticed today that they have Ken Reid trying to do a bit of damage control in the Globe and Mail. It will take more than that. I think most Canadians were embarrassed by it.

Don't get me wrong. Medals are great but they aren't everything. I never want to hear Canadian commentators talking about losing the gold, having to settle for silver and letting Canada down. It is the kind of response we expect from the American networks but it just makes CTV look bad. The Olympics is supposed to be about celebrating athletes personal best. Lets' celebrate that.

I for one, look back fondly at the days when kids from less favoured nations sewed Canadian flags on their back packs, when Canadians were thought of as polite, when we weren't jingoistic and when our soldiers were peacekeepers.

Can you Spell Hypocrites

I noticed in this morning's Globe & Mail that the Television honchos and the Cable/Satellite guys are in competition to see who can spend the most money trying to influence the CRTC.

The issue is trying to decide if the distribution companies should have to actually pay for the content they distribute or, should they simply be able to help themselves for free, the way they have been doing for years. Why this is becoming an issue now after all these years is a mystery to all of us but, after about 40 years of helping themselves, the cable companies are a bit miffed.

On the upside, I am all for seeing the corporate media guys helping to subsidize the G & M to the tune of $150,000 or so every time both sides decide to take out adds.

The cable guys might be the more honest than the TV execs in their ads. If the CRTC rules that the distribution companies have to pay into the programming fund, they will simply pass all of that extra cost on to the consumer. The fact that in Canada we already pay more than most people do for cable won't be a big deal. For most Canadians, no price is too high to be able to have unfettered access to Fox-News, CNN and NBC.

What gets under my skin is the absolute hypocrisy of the television companies spinning this as a threat to Local programming. What a load of bull. The Television corporations, including the CBC gave up on local programming years ago. To now characterize the completely inadequate local news coverage they now give to communities as "local programming" is beyond the pale.

On behalf of all the journalists, producers, writers and technicians who used to work in the Canadian television industry, producing local programming, before these guys cut it to the bone. Let's call a spade a spade. They are hypocrites. It makes me feel ill.