It’s a hard time to be a taxpayer-funded broadcaster in Canada. You’re either losing funding or being put on the auction block, and you just don’t seem to have many friends in government.

Well, buck up. For the past year, a group called Our Public Airwaves has been fighting the good fight for a strong publicly-owned broadcasting system. They join Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, which has been fighting for years on behalf of Canadian programming and the CBC.

Check them out, and be sure to take advantage of each site’s media clippings — a handy way of doing a quick and dirty self-briefing on the major issues in the field.

From the standpoint of a spectator enjoying the disarray of the Canadian right, it isn’t easy to outstrip a week where Conrad Black sues his fellow directors for attempting (sic) to turn him into a “loathsome laughing stock.” In fact, I figured that would be about as goofy as things could get.

The only way I could reach that conclusion was by seriously underestimating the Conservative Party. And I’m pleased to say they’ve blown the Black trial out of the water this week.

Back on Jan. 20, Grant Devine announced he wanted back into politics, and would seek the Conservative nomination in Souris-Moose Mountain.

This raised some eyebrows. On Devine’s watch, no less than 14 of his MLAs committed fraud and breach of trust (and earned criminal convictions). In 1991, he was clobbered by voters in a defeat so bad that the party ultimately decided to place itself in suspended animation until a cure could be found for Public Fury Syndrome (a.k.a. “unmitigated gall-stones”).

It took a month for the Tory/Alliance brain trust to figure this one out, but on Feb. 19, they finally decided that Sticking Hand in Fire Hurts, and told Devine to get lost.

The riding association promptly responded by voting to allow Devine to run anyway, deciding that the best way to take advantage of a Liberal corruption scandal would be to remind voters of how the pros do it.

Then the riding association executive held a meeting and fired their president for “misrepresenting” their views. A spokesperson says Devine will not, in fact, be on the ballot.

Devine’s now saying he’ll fight on, and adds “Keep your powder dry,” a sentiment no doubt shared by the local NDP riding association. They must just be salivating at the prospect: one more crack at the man who drove Saskatchewan into the ground while the more light-fingered members of his caucus made out like (actually, just like) bandits.

Still, it’s not like the whole affair hasn’t been of some public service, and I don’t just mean the entertainment value. At least it’s a healthy reminder to the Quebec-bashing likes of Joe Comuzzi that la belle province has no monopoly on graft.

The last two weeks have seen Canadians in a hair-pulling frenzy over the antics of hockey commentator Don Cherry and the obnoxious remarks of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. (Remember this the next time you’re tempted to tweak an American friend about how Janet Jackson’s exposed breast nearly triggered global armageddon.)

While our attention was diverted by these all-important issues, some lucky woman driving up from Texas — George W.’s nominal home state — hit the Canadian border and tried to bring a live grenade into the country. (Thus, if recent news stories about the state of our armed forces are accurate, bringing the national total to two.)

Read on…

Came across this fascinating bit of wisdom today:

In order to run an Internet campaign that doesn’t simply use the Internet as the new form of mass mailing, to use it as a form of broadcasting, which is the very old traditional sort of campaigning style, you have to embrace not just the technology but actually be willing to let go of your message, which runs against every political instinct these days. [emphasis mine]

Read on…