Blue Like You

Too bad the ‘Talk Radio’ clip didn’t make it onto the MDL site tonight. Mike was hosting a discussion with Charles Adler, Dave Rutherford and Tommy Schnurmacher from Montreal.

The so-called ‘arts cuts’ were one of the discussion points.I’ve transcribed the audio as best as I could here:

Tommy: "…Watching this from Quebec, he (Harper) was on his way to a majority. We saw right away that those cuts were going to be a major problem .. did he not think they would be perceived that way?  Did he not think in advance that Gilles Duceppe, what he would make out of cultural cuts – even if it was five dollars, never mind a few million? It really would have changed things."

Duff: "Well Tommy, their argument was that the global budget for culture went way up, and what the opponents of the government did was point out yeah, but you cut this program and this program and gave more money to music teachers and this sort of thing…"

Tommy – "Right, but Mike, that’s all true, but what do the facts have to do with it? It all has to do in Quebec with perception. And the perception was that he took money away. And he had Margaret Atwood say she would vote for the Bloc Quebecois! How bleak can it get?"

Rutherford: "Well, I’m glad Margaret Atwood isn’t running the country, although it seems every time the media runs to these people to ask their advice…"

Sadly, perception is reality.  Some people can obviously be manipulated to buy into that perception very easily.

And Gilles Duceppe is a master manipulator.

You feeling it too?

I think I was going on adrenaline the last week before the election – posting like crazy and keeping track of all incoming media. I probably fried a few brain connections in the process.

And now… we get to watch the Liberal Party of Canada do some navel-gazing and try to pick up the pieces.  BOR-ING!

And if I’m feeling this way, I can’t imagine how the defeated candidates must be feeling.