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… Read more...

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… Read more...

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… Read more...

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… Read more...