Liberals surge to nearly 28%: Calls to Mental Health professionals drop by 30%?

Let's give the Liberals a reason to celebrate. The have once again almost hit 30%. 2009 was a bad year with most of it being held to below thirty per cent. 2011 has not started off any better with being unable to break above the thirty per cent in popular support. It must be demoralizing for the  remaining supporters to keep reading how their current leader is a drag on the national numbers. Ekos full report here. This video is tribute to the hard working and perpetual man in motion known as Ignatieff. Alfred E. Neuman would be very proud.

It has been quite a ride for the remaining Liberal faithful since Ignatieff has taken over the natural governing party in December 2008.

A gain of one per cent since the worst showing in 150 years is reason to celebrate.

I can only hope this latest surge in Ekos polling from 24.8% to 27.3% ( +2.5%) gives the Liberal more reason to pull the plug and defeat the Conservative minority budget in March. It will be wonderful to hear the Liberals trash our military, our international reputation, our recovery and demand taxpayers pay more money for social engineering.

Canada News Desk last  Dec 9 2010 - Feb 11, 2011 Ekos Poll here

The push back has only begun on the unfunded Public Union pensions and benefits by the state governments in the United States. Our our Federal Budget needs to be balanced and blaming corporations won't work. Everyone is going to be asked to take a hair cut, including the largest public unions in Canada.

Canadians won't return to blaming job creators as greedy capitalists, we did not bailout our Banks or Bay Street. Canada has fared better than most in the developed economies. Canadians won't accept the "free lunch" or Robin Hood take from the rich to feed from the poor rhetoric anymore.

The gravy train for taxes by government appears to be coming to an end and this terrifies the central planners in our society. They can't find enough support to help them with their wealth redistribution schemes. Their ideology has failed everywhere it has been tried.

News Media: Journalists Should Report Their Own Personal Bias on Blogs

"The greatest problem with news is not that journalists are influenced by their perceptions," Haskell writes. "The greatest problem is that news audiences do not realize journalists are influenced by their perceptions."

In 2000 was Stockwell Day was destroyed for his religious views?

Were the media to blame? Is our own bias responsible for how we feel about how the media is being blamed?

 

Most of the national television journalists who completed his questionnaire revealed that they have little personal interest in religion and that they view evangelicals with disdain.

 

 

..reviewer John P. Ferré finds there is not enough solid evidence to support the claims. The sample was too small. I recommend looking at his lists.

 

Resolution for the CBC and other Canadian media outlets that feel it might be necessary or important to update their journalistic Code of Ethics and provide viewers, critica an oppotunity to engage, restore credibility in their brand or product.

Do journalists report more favourably on people that they like than on those they don’t? Canada’s evangelicals think so. For years, they’ve accused the country’s news personnel of being prejudiced against them both personally and in their coverage. However, up to now, the evangelicals’ charge of media bias has never been empirically examined. This book puts that charge to the test. An in depth survey of national news personnel accompanied by an extensive, multi-year examination of news coverage reveals how Canada’s journalists feel about evangelicals, how they report on evangelicals, and how and when their feelings influence their reporting. In the end, this book concludes when the beliefs and actions of Canadian evangelicals directly clash with the heart-felt convictions of Canadian national journalists, the journalists are willing to abandon their professional objectivity and slant their stories against their ideological opponents.- David M. Haskell


OR
 

They can delay and whitewash the entire controversy. Let it just blow over and in a few months it will be forgotten. If the Management is serious about the brand, they should use this as an opportunity to rebuild and reconnect.

 

Require a disclosure of  Personal Opinions on Major Issues from the journalists so viewers can have that extra information. A series of 100+ questions.

• Education
• Role of Government
• Birth Control, Abortion, who should pay?
• Family, Marriage
• Equality what does it mean?
• Religion: Role Conspiracy Theory
• Pensions: Public, Private, Who is responsible to pay?
• Justice: Criminal Punishment, Rehabilitation, Capital Punishment etc.
• Taxation basic services or wealth redistribution etc.
• Division of Powers: Large Federal Government vs Provincial, Municipal Authority
• Individual Responsibility vs Collectivism
• Political Ideology: Socialism, Marxism, Oligarchy, Theocracy, Democracy etc.
• Economic Education Litmus Test: How things work.
• Global, Interprovincial, Free Markets vs Protectionism, Union Supply Side (Quebec Dairy)

Everyone has a bias or a lens in which they feel something is good or bad and it does affect how you react. I do like the recommendations in having journalists report their own biases including their preferences on a large number of topics as a side note on a blog as for more disclosure.
 

Inside the CBC
 

The Iceman has posted Measuring CBC Bias and Alberta Ardvark has posted on the CBC here. Chasing Apple Pie has a great piece on CBC here showing the problem has existed before the Ekos Research President Frank Graves outing by Kory Teneycke here.

 

Proud to be Canadian has detailed page on the CBC.  I also visit the The Tea Makers for inside scoops.

Liberal Party of Canada: Xenophobia Cultural Warriors Since 1988

Cultural Warrior, what party portrayed Brian Mulroney as less patriotic, and fanned the flames of fear accepting a Free Trade Association with our American neighbour would reduce us to a colony?

Hint: Same party, same strategy invoked against Reform, Canadian Alliance and now CPC.

The Liberal leader, John Turner, based his national election campaign on fear and hatred of the Americans -- and came fairly close to winning. But when the election was over and Brian Mulroney's Tories had signed the agreement, the Liberals began a long, furtive creep toward the Conservative position. By the time they were returned to power in 1993, with John Turner forgotten and Jean Chrétien the Prime Minister, the Liberals had adopted, without debate, the very policy they had denounced as treason. Having torn the country apart emotionally, turning husbands against wives and parents against children, they simply abandoned the subject. They probably think of it today as a minor incident, another political gimmick that didn't quite work, but surely it left a residue of anti-U.S. distrust. -Robert Fullford

Patrick Muttart used to be the director of strategic communications in the Prime Minister’s office and was the strategist behind Prime Minister Harper’s successful 2006 election, the result of which saw the Conservatives replacing the Liberals in government. Muttart crafted the strategy behind finding accessible voters and “activating” them for the Conservatives with specific policy planks.

Muttart was on the Roy Green show yesterday where he continued the Conservative narrative against the CBC’s affiliation with pollster Frank Graves. Graves came under fire when a column from the Globe’s Lawrence Martin quoted Graves recalling his strategic advice that he gave the Liberals. His advice, to start a “culture war”, wedging against Albertans and Conservatives, depicting them as xenophobic racist homophobes who would vote for Sarah Palin. - Stephen Taylor

   
I have said every party plays wedge politics for a very long time. Many of us disagree with the current advice and the decision of our public broadcaster to fund a pollster that has made these comments again.
 
 h/t Liberals Started This “Culture War” A Long Time Ago
Previous related  posts on Cultural Wars recommended reading.
Cultural Class War Continues: Policy Debate?
Ignatieff's Hidden Agenda
Digging his own Grave(s)
The Liberals Locked Into the Graves Strategy
Let them eat broccoli!

Bourque Newswatch: Ekos Research Fallout Continues

The decision to suspend advertising polling results from Ekos Research is a bold move by Bourque Newswatch. The Montreal Gazette has also come out swinging  against the hypocrisy of the CBC.

A public debate is needed. Private and Public broadcasters are different, Canadians deserve to have all political idealogies presented in a fair and unbiased manner. Are media outlets beyond investigation on ensuring bias?  Should our tax funded broadcaster recieve funds for promoting one idealogical political viewpoint unfairly?

If The Hour is a tax funded current affairs program with an idealogical left of centre bias? Is this the mandate of the public broadcaster responsible to have an hour for the Right of Centre?

How many hours of on Global Warming with left of centre political vs skeptics? Anyone see Tim Ball interviewed by the CBC? How much time CBC spend any time in examining Climategate or leaked emails for potential conflicts?

How much time on Helena Guergis, how much did it cost for the flight and production of the interview of the private detective?

How much money was spent in pleading for the "single" mother trapped, airport arrival? Is she married, does she have a sister six inches taller? She has a lawsuit for $ 2.5 million, what is the status?

Immigration Watch has a different set of facts that never been aired to correct the record of a 'racist' government alleged for weeks on the CBC compliments of the MP's in opposition.

Censorship at the CBC?

It's not even the fault of the liberal gatekeepers who so fear and despise contrary opinion. It's the fault of a culture that we have allowed, by our indifference and our tax dollars, to smother what could have been a balanced public broadcaster. - Michael Coren

Conservative MP Bev Shipley raised concerns in parliament about Ekos Research Frank Graves. Conservative Party President has requested an investigation into potential conflicts and institutional bias. Dean Del Mastro, the Tory MP from Peterborough and parliamentary secretary to the Heritage Minister, put forward a motion to the Commons Heritage committee for a probe into the CBC and its relationship with EKOS pollster Frank Graves.

Ekos Research president Frank Graves, the pollster used regularly by the CBC, is also a close advisor to the Liberal Party of Canada. This appears to violate a CBC policy but we're a little more concerned, frankly, with the advice Graves is giving the Liberals. Montreal Gazette

How does Jane Taber frame the Government MP's requesting an investigation into conflicts or institutional bias from a Liberal Pollster?

None of this matters. The Tories are training their guns on the CBC and Mr. Graves appears to be their first victim.

Indeed, a political observer says Mr. Graves is being used as “cannon fodder on their attempt to extinguish the hated CBC. … So much for free speech.”

It appears to be a pattern with some in the media to invoke guns and bullying with the CPC. Does she hold the opposition MP's to the same standard on the Helena Guergis file?

Did Jane Taber refer to Justin Trudeau as a "cultural warrior" for his bullying of Shelly Glover?

Mr. Trudeau, a rookie Liberal Montreal MP, was full of vim and vigour yesterday during an appearance on CTV’s - Jane Taber defends Liberal MP's behaviour  as "exuberance".

Question Period

Don't count on any of the typical Canadian nicieties and politeness. If there's drama and conflict in Canada's political theatre, you can expect to see it played out every Sunday on Question Period. Question Period to bring you politicians, personalities and newsmakers from Canada and around the world -- a tradition of excellence and drama it established in its first ground-breaking.

Globe and Mail

Memo to Conservative penny-wranglers – quit picking on the CBC. It’s been bullied into submission already. Pastor Mansbridge is no threat to your agenda. Neither is Suhana Meharchand, obviously. And remember – just as part of CBC’s budget goes to pay Frank Graves for polling, part of it pays that uber-Conservative Kory Teneycke. John Doyle 

John Doyle @ The Teamakers

Is that a warning Kory Teneycke will lose his income if the CPC want to investigate bias?
Update:

Apparently Jane Taber is concerned an investigation into examining media bias of the CBC. She needs to frame a request for an investigation by Conservative MP's at the Heritage Committee.

Jane adopts several of the Liberal Party talking points quite early in her hit piece and reminds her readers of the main Tory, his relationships responsible for stirring this up.

Ironically, the main Tory behind the anti-CBC campaign is Doug Finley, who himself is in the taxpayer-trough given he receives a Senate salary and all the perks that go with it and his wife, Diane Finley, is a senior cabinet minister.

Mr. Graves set off the Tories with his recent assertions that the Liberals should launch a “culture war” in order to emphasize the differences between the two main parties.

"Tories" are perhaps a little too sensitive for being called a "haven for bigots" by a pollster  funded by the national broadcaster CBC on a weekly basis?

Where does Jane Taber want the Tories to raise their "anti-CBC campaign" if not the Heritage Committee in looking for conflicts or institutional bias?

Jane, the CBC did not inform Canadians of the relationship or potential bias of Frank Graves and the Liberal Party. Next time might it might be faster to just copy and paste the complete letter from the Liberal Party War room without your editorial.

 h/t Chasing Apple Pie Give Frank Grave the Boot.

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12 Angry Men Movie Poster Redo: Frank Graves vs Ezra Levant

Visit here for Ezra Levant blog posts here.  Too much time on my hands...original. Yes I know lame humour! Note for intolerent left: This is not an incitment to violence, but using lawfare, HRC to address "hurt feelings". How many angry old white men in Alberta would be interested in having Frank Graves demostrate his empirical evidence on his dime? Feel free to give ideas of good movies with "angry old white men". Thanks,

Movies with Old White Men (sometimes Angry)

1. Second hand lions.

2. 12 Angry Old Men

3. The Alamo

4. The Magnificient Seven

5. The Great Escape

6. Bridge on The River Kwai

7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

Ekos Poll April 2010 Liberal Party of Canada Maintains Dion Support Level

Ekos Polling conducted another Poll between April 14th - 20th, sample size 2,084, M.O.E =2.15.

Are we going to hear excuses from each political party why little movement is taking place on a weekly basis? The bar graph have includes six Polls from June 2009 to present,  demostrating the futility of measuring the movement of partisan vote or leaning (excuses) . Here is the Post last week. Ekos Poll: Direction of Government Right or Wrong

Here is my list of  excuses: Nothing is sticking, the suggestions our military  are "War Criminals" using rendition, NDS, smearing the Canadian Government, Civil Service is participating some secretive undemocratic government by redacting documents to hide details of "torture".

The opposition does not understand fighting for the Omar Khadrs', alleged murderers guilty of "gun residue" trying to kill our soldiers, relief workers, government official is not a vote winner.

The circus act in targeting an ex-junior minister, her spouse in the latest witchunt, was never going to work outside the Ottawa bubble. The actors in this poorly acted soap opera are hiding behind parliamentary privilege.

The Press Gallery, Political Pundits who have been participating in this yellow journalism for months have failed. They are quoting the same allegations, smears that are behind parliamentary privilege.

Canadians will NOT switch their party loyalties on Parliamentary privileged-MSM spin, we have always tuned out Politics for the most part.

Apologists for the other side will give you excuses why the government is in trouble and running scared.

Strategic Counsel Finished 7th in Polling General Election 2008

Angus Poll was the most accurate in the General Election October 14, 2008.

Note: * My graph may contain an error regarding BQ 20% vs 7%. Update if necessary.

Update: Norman Spector, Bloggers have questioned relationship of Pollster hired by CBC.

Still, even a poll skeptic such as myself was surprised to read in The Globe and Mail this morning that Ekos’s Frank Graves is simultaneously polling for the taxpayer-supported CBC and providing partisan political advice to the Liberals: “Frank Graves of Ekos Research … has told the Grits that the wedge politics of the Conservatives provide them with an opportunity to stake out a stark alternative. Stop worrying about the West, he’s told them. No need to fear polarizing the debate. It’s what worked for Mr. Chrétien against Preston Manning and Stockwell Day. -Norman Spector

Screen Shot Financial Report Leadership: Incomplete.

Contributions - Details

Alberta Ardvark has a great post

I told them they should invoke a culture war.
.
 Not sure whey Kory Teneycke get his figures I did a quick search on Elections Canada. Only found this:
Family Name Initial Given Name Name of contestant Date received Class of contributor/ Part # of the return Monetary ($) Non-monetary ($)
Graves Frank Rae, Robert Keith Oct. 3, 2006 Individuals / Part 2b 500.00
Graves Frank Ignatieff, Michael Jul. 13, 2006 Individuals / Part 2b 238.21