Nine Game-Changers of 2010 So Far

In Canada's news cycle, real scandals and evidence-based truths have been replaced with gossip and empty platitudes.

In keeping with the lazy nature of Canadian summers, where for a brief time we forget that the turtleneck is more familiar to us than the turtle, I humbly submit my choice for the scandal that could very well be a game-changer in the seesaw battle for power that plays itself out amongst our small but rapacious elites. Like the knockout punch in electoral debates, there are events that sway the masses from or towards a new horizon. Think back to Brian Mulroney's finger-wagging fury as he dressed down the Liberal dauphin, John Turner, and muttered, “You had an option sir, you had an option.” By the way, I would give anything to have been in the committee room with Mulroney when he exercised his option of accepting shoeboxes full of cash. But I digress. We're talking about scandal in 2010.

Was it the Guergis-Jaffer affair? Afghan torture and cover-up allegations? Which bright, shiny object wins the prize? The answer, if I may quote from the long-form census while it's still with us, is none of the above. In fact, I find the question insulting in that it perpetuates the tabloid urges of our news-gathering colleagues and by extension our view of democracy. There is a serious ideological battle going on in this country, with one side arguing for fundamentalist edicts on punishment (an eye for an eye), shrinking entitlements (spare the rod, spoil the child), and gender (a woman shall submit to her husband).

We have entered the era of the bully state where the environment is collateral damage. Unions are fighting a rear-guard action, and we are willing to watch women in the southern hemisphere die (30,000 last year) from illegal and unsafe abortions because they don't fit into our prime minister's world view. These ideological battles are being won incrementally and the forces of the “right” have learned their communications and messaging lessons well. Their strategy? Pound home a simple moral message. Failing that, change the channel and throw another shiny bauble to the media and dominate the discourse with empty platitudes (think: Let's get tough on crime) that are mouthed by ministerial puppets and repeated by haggard journalists in the name of balance as they try to keep up with the millstone of the 24-hour news cycle around their necks.

Our country is being transformed without any need for grand declarations of vision or purpose. Just a Timbit of policy here and a piece of Friday-afternoon legislation there. Progressives must school themselves in the art of war. They must take back the story of Canada and write the next chapter as we move forward into the 21st century.

It’s time to create the stories that inspire Canadians to remember that we are not in it alone; that it takes courage to stand for peace in the face of those who would rather wage war; and that the prime minister serves the House, not his cash-cow base.

Let's change the channel from security theatre and patronizing leadership to the real scandals of epidemics such as childhood asthma and out-of-control diabetes. Let's replace gossip with evidence-based truths such as the fact that we live in country where a quarter of a million seniors live in poverty. We can reclaim the truth – that we are a generous people who believe that by sharing some of the financial rewards we reap with our neighbours, we become a greater nation.

The media is starving for content; let's give it to them.