{"id":15681,"date":"2023-08-27T11:37:33","date_gmt":"2023-08-27T15:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=15681"},"modified":"2023-09-09T23:41:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T03:41:10","slug":"pm-and-liberals-misinform-with-divisive-rhetoric-and-ingenuine-arguments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=15681","title":{"rendered":"PM and Liberals misinform with divisive rhetoric and ingenuine arguments"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Niagara Independent, August 25, 2023 \u2013<\/em> With each new opinion poll revealing PM Justin Trudeau and his government falling further behind their opponents, the Liberals are countering with combative rhetoric that plays to their political base. This week the prime minister and a former cabinet minister were out front of the Liberals\u2019 offensive using ingenuine arguments that were deliberately confusing the facts and misinforming Canadians. In reaching new lows in Canadian politics, the posturing and arguments of Justin Trudeau and Catherine McKenna through the week were dishonest, vitriolic, and designed to divide Canadians.<\/p>\n

At a press conference covering the cabinet retreat meetings in PEI, PM Trudeau explicitly implicated Facebook of \u201cputting corporate profits ahead of people\u2019s safety.\u201d Trudeau was commenting on the wildfires in the Northwest Territories and B.C. when he launched his assault on the social media corporation. \u201cIt is so inconceivable that a company like Facebook is choosing to put corporate profits ahead of ensuring that local news organizations can get up-to-date information to Canadians, and reach them where Canadians spend a lot of their time; online, on social media, on Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau accused Facebook of \u201cmaking billions of dollars off of Canadians\u201d with their practice of providing hypertext links to Canadian news and publishers websites. He chastised the company for \u201cblocking news from its sites\u201d stating, \u201cIn the larger picture it is bad for democracy\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Such was the manipulative spin and melodramatic performance of a person who is fully aware of the facts behind Facebook\u2019s recent removal of Canadian news links on its platform. Facebook\u2019s parent-company Meta began to block news links from Facebook and Instagram in Canada as a result of a new law passed by the Trudeau government. This new law dictates Internet giants to pay a fee (a.k.a. a news tax) for displaying links to Canadian news articles. For more than a year throughout the highly contentious legislative process, Meta warned the government that its Online News Act (Bill C-18) would result in the platform dropping the links rather than having a new tax imposed on what was a free service for Canadian news sources. (Google has also issued this warning.)<\/p>\n

Today, the government is feeling the heat from Canadians who have become suddenly aware of the circumstances brought about by the Liberals\u2019 uncompromising actions in passing the legislation, and by news organizations and publishers who have already seen a dramatic drop in their online traffic and revenue stream that had once been generated by the free links which appeared in Facebook.<\/p>\n

However, PM Trudeau has never let facts get in the way of a political smear. Peter Menzies, outspoken critic of the Online News Act \u2013 and former vice chair of the CRTC \u2013 felt it was reprehensible that the Liberals were using the struggles faced by Canadians evacuating the wildfires as the pivot point of their argument. Menzies observed, \u201cAll political parties are prone to put their own interests ahead of the public\u2019s\u201d but he admonished the Liberals for stooping so low in his Epoch Times<\/i> editorial: \u201c<\/i>It\u2019s Crass to Politicize the Wildfires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menzies wrote: \u201cNothing, not even the mass evacuation of tens of thousands of people threatened by wildfires, gets in the way of advancing the interests of politics. Policy and even public safety are too often little more than opportunities to be exploited to advance the electoral prospects of those who hold or seek to hold power.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate verbal assault, former cabinet minister Catherine McKenna took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to attack Conservatives as well as Canadians who do not share her fevered views on climate change. Like Trudeau, McKenna used the news headlines of the wildfires. She lashed out at the Conservatives\u2019 current campaign to \u201cAxe the Carbon Tax\u201d and made the bald accusation, \u201cYou are the arsonists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full text of McKenna\u2019s tweet last weekend reads, \u201cConservative politicians want to fight about a price on carbon pollution? You want to make it free to pollute while Canadians pay with their lives threatened, homes destroyed and their communities obliterated? So what are you going to do? You are the arsonists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then on Tuesday she doubled down on the political firestorm she had lit in media by tweeting out: \u201cWe need a mandatory climate science lesson for Conservative politicians & Premiers \u2013 as well as cost to the lives & livelihoods of Canadians from climate change, and the economics of the clean transition. Otherwise Canadians pay the price. It\u2019s absurd. But that\u2019s where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also retweeted a February assertion: \u201cEven if it is no longer outright denial, climate disinformation remains effective. It tears through social media, slowing or even blocking climate action and fuelling the rise of right-wing politicians like Poilievre, Donald Trump and Danielle Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenna\u2019s provocative attack on conservatives attempts to tie criticism of the carbon tax with denial of climate change \u2013 and even more absurdly, with causing (literally lighting) the wildfires. This hyperbolic affront was met with immediate ridicule on X and with conservative-minded news commentators. Spencer Fernando stated the former Trudeau minister\u2019s comments were \u201centirely dishonest and manipulative\u201d and that, \u201cMcKenna is exploiting a tragedy and \u2013 with absolutely zero evidence<\/i> \u2013 blaming her political opponents for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some media made the point that McKenna\u2019s tactics were representative of \u201cPost-Truth Liberals,\u201d the politicians who develop rhetorical arguments meant solely to reassure and embolden their political base. So, they purposely develop arguments that resonate with partisans who accept an argument based on emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts.<\/i><\/p>\n

On the same point, the National Citizens Coalition expresses doubt that the Liberals are making any political headway by employing this tactic. The NCC opined, \u201cThe more the Liberals turn to their misanthropic, far-left, \u2018post-truth\u2019 agenda, the more they\u2019ll lose everyday Canadians who have already grown tired of all the broken promises, the gaslighting, and the managed decline of our standard of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ottawa press corps questioned Pierre Poilievre about McKenna\u2019s \u201carsonists\u201d insult. In response he expressed concern for the denigrating tone of the arguments being made by the Liberals saying, \u201cWhat I really worry about is the increased radicalization of rhetoric by liberals, particularly Justin Trudeau, but the nastiness and meanness that they\u2019re directing at people who disagree with their policies, whether it\u2019s true, those nasty comments directed at Muslim parents, or whether it is him jabbing his finger in people\u2019s faces, and now a former Liberal minister, saying that anybody who doesn\u2019t want to pay higher taxes is an arsonist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Poilievre directly retorted to McKenna\u2019s tweet, \u201cReally, really, as if we paid higher taxes, we\u2019d have less for forest fires. Come on. Let\u2019s get back to some common sense in this country. And let\u2019s start to bring our people together instead of tearing the country apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the PM\u2019s and former minister\u2019s performances this week, it is evident the Liberals are adhering to the age-old adage \u201cthe best defence is a good offense\u201d \u2013 they must divert Canadians\u2019 attention from the country\u2019s high interest rates, inflationary cost of living, and increased taxes. So, with the governing Liberals\u2019 political fortunes waning, expect their divisive rhetoric and dishonest arguments to continue.<\/p>\n

Chris George<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of\u00a0CG&A COMMUNICATIONS<\/a>. Contact:\u00a0ChrisG.George@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

LINK:\u00a0 https:\/\/niagaraindependent.ca\/pm-and-liberals-misinform-with-divisive-rhetoric-and-ingenuine-arguments\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Niagara Independent, August 25, 2023 \u2013 With each new opinion poll revealing PM Justin Trudeau and his government falling further behind their opponents, the Liberals are countering with combative rhetoric that plays to their political base. This week the prime minister and a former cabinet minister were out front of the Liberals\u2019 offensive using…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[76],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15683,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15681\/revisions\/15683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}