RoadKill Radio

Terry O’Neill, introducing RoadKill Radio’s second guest, political columnist John Twigg–who conceded that he is a member of the NDP–commented on how the “downstream” media have usurped election campaigns:
“I remember being part of meetings when the editorial managers said: ‘OK, we can’t let the politicians get away with running the campaign they want; we have to run the questions [we think] the people want…’
“And I thought: ‘This is their campaign; let’s just cover the campaign!’ But we didn’t.”
When Twigg and O’Neill cited media reports of Stephen Harper’s tight control of his caucus, Kari Simpson interjected: “That just shows [he’s] someone who’s savvy how the ‘downstream’ media works… the message Harper’s sending is, ‘I’m not playing that silly game any more’.”
John Twigg said, “I defend him for being a control freak, because he’s got a lot of yahoos and loose cannons in the back benches.”
“The Canadian Alliance defeat was put on the shoulders of Randy White for musing aloud about Supreme Court judges…” noted Terry O’Neill.
“…for saying what the majority of us think,” interjected Kari Simpson.
“Yeah, the mainstream media jump on that stuff,” inserted John Twigg.
“And especially on Harper, because he’s Conservative and the ‘downstream’ media are Liberal,” said Terry O’Neill.
When Twigg introduced the election topic of Canada’s purchase of new fighter jets, Terry O’Neill produced a raft of background information that has yet to appear in the “downstream” media:
“The whole process was started with the Chrétien/Martin [Liberal] government in 1997,” he pointed out. “We’ve already invested millions in the development of this plane… this is the sort of thing you’re not reading in the ‘downstream’ media: the background, the history… we wrote about this back in the days of Report magazine.”
“Canada been participating in Joint Strike Force aircraft development since 1997, when the Department of National Defence signed on to the ‘concept demonstration’ phase with $10 million–you’re not reading this in the ‘downstream’ media. Canada is one of nine countries–Canada, US, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Turkey, Australia–and Michael Ignatieff knows that! Just as Jean Chrétien knew what he was doing when he said that we would cancel the helicopters… putting the lives of our armed forces people at risk, and making us a laughing stock.
“This is my challenge to the ‘downstream’ media: ‘Tell the whole story!… there’s been no mention that there was competitive bidding, between two of the superstars of aircraft development… we entered this 14 years ago; the Liberals started this. It was not an issue them, and it’s not an issue now.
“The Canadian government has invested $168 million to date; and 85 Canadian manufacturers, research labs and universities have received more than $350 million from the development process.”
When John Twigg suggested that a parliamentary committee study, Terry O’Neill commented: “The committees have become politicized; in a minority government, the committees are controlled by the Opposition.
“At times like this, public looks to the media; media have an obligation to tell the whole story, not just the Opposition ‘spin’.”
“There’s a good idea for another show,” said Kari Simpson: “We could call it ‘RoadKill Academy’; Terry could teach the ‘downstream’ media how to do research!”
On the contentious subject of the “Leaders’ Debate”, Terry O’Neill noted: “Elizabeth May called it ‘absolutely undemocratic’ that she’s not in the debate–more undemocratic that putting opponents in prison, torturing them…?”
Interjected John Twigg: “She said she was going to be more positive… then turned around and called Harper ‘hypocritical’. She was being hypocritical about being hypocritical!”
On provincial politics, Twigg noted: “Christy Clark… gave $100,000 to the SPCA to do investigations–the same budget that Campbell cut to zero… They’re spending a million a year on animal welfare, while people are dying on the Downtown East Side.
“The NDP has a leadership contest on, and it’s like nothing’s happening… they’re all up north, and Christy Clark is having a field day.
Terry O’Neill asked, “What happened to the [NDP’s] thing that there had to be a female in one of their leadership positions? This is their own rule; if we can’t trust them to follow their own rules–that say of the five major party positions, one has to be female–how can we trust them to run the province?”
John Twigg: “I have a simple solution: they say one of the top three of the party–leader, president & treasurer–must be female; if they added ‘or from a minority’, Mo would qualify.”
Kari Simpson: “Mo could change his sexual identity. There are no rules [about that]!”
[She was referring to several recent RoadKill Radio reports that, in testimony to a Senate Committee, an “expert” from McGill University claimed that pedophilia is “just another sexual orientation, and therefore already protected in law.” In a related story, similar “experts” assert in a booklet being distributed by the BC Teachers’ Federation that gender identity and expression can be whatever any individual chooses. A Private Members’ Bill, C-389, written by homosexual NDP MP Bill Siksay (who is not seeking re-election), passed the House of Commons last month, but died on the Order Paper when his leader, Jack Layton, refused to support the Tory budget.]
John Twigg’s comment on the NDP’s leadership rules: “The rules they have been operating under have been dysfunctional for decades.”