B.C. Liberals apparently learned nothing from the angry public reaction to their pre-election deceit and, some would say, outright lies. They fed the voters another big deception in Tuesday’s budget.
Wasn’t it bad enough that they repeatedly said before the May election they would not bring in the HST … and then announced they would after all, as soon as the votes were counted? And didn’t they explain the HST would be “revenue neutral” … shifting the tax from business to end-users (that’s us) … but would really not result in a tax windfall?
Well were they lying again?
In Tuesday’s Budget, Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced the government will introduce legislation requiring all HST revenue to be used on health care spending.
What a farce! Is there extra revenue coming from the HST after all? Or is it all just sleight of hands? Doesn’t all tax revenue just go into the huge provincial pot … to be pulled out if and as needed for ANY government spending.
I believe it is just another attempt to deceive the public and to soften the hatred of the HST by pretending it’s all going to pay ONLY for health care.
After all, if they said the money would be just going into the provincial pot and could be used for anything (AS IS THE REALITY) we might actually THINK some of it was going to, say, ministerial spending on trips, on pet projects aiding favored groups or party supporters, or spending on … horrors of horrors … the Public Affairs Bureau, to propagandize the pe0ple even further.
They think voters are too dumb to really understand what they are doing. I wonder if they laugh out loud behind closed doors when they come up with these farcical deceptions ?
But who knows, judging by past electoral experiences, they just could be right!
Harv Oberfeld
The CTV/TSN/Rogers coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Games was terrific. I believe they would have captured the Silver, if medals were given out for host media coverage.
It was refreshing to see so many new faces of reporters and commentators, filled with energy … replacing the usual older, rarely excited CBC types that Canadians have come to expect covering international sporting events.
As someone who spent 26 years working in television, I am well aware of all the planning, organizing, personnel, technical effort and expense that goes into televising a political convention or election night coverage. Huge!
That, of course, is all miniscule, compared to what must go into organizing coverage of all kinds of disimilar multiple events, many happening simultaneously, at several different locations, while also playing Host Broadcaster, catering to the interests and needs of foreign broadcasters as well.
It literally involves a cast of thousands and generally, I felt CTV/TSN/Rogers pulled it off exceptionally well. In some very trying geographic and weather conditions.
At first, though, I must admit … I wasn’t so sure the consortium would pull it off!
Just before the Opening Ceremonies, there was Lloyd Roberston on CTV, wearing cadaver-like makeup, interviewing a plasticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper … both of them exchanging what I would describe as channel-changing dialogue.
Oh no, I thought! They’re going to do the Olympics the way they cover Parliament Hill !! Boring talking heads, powder puff questions and painfully predictable answers! Oh my Gawd!!!
But no … that didn’t happen. I actually enjoyed most of the on-air banter and background delivered by the CTV/TSN/Rogers broadcast panels. Because let’s face it: most of know (or should I say knew) very little about some of sports, let alone the participants, or what to watch for … until they won, and instantly became our best friends.
And the coverage of the actual events themselves matched the excitement of the events … both at the venues and beyond … even heightened it.
So why not Gold?
The coverage didn’t quite reach that ranking.
I watched both the CTV and, thanks to tape delay, NBC coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies … and I enjoyed NBC’s more. Their hosts and their descriptions of what was happening were just more interesting and more informative than CTV’s.
Sure, NBC concentrated on the U.S. athletes; as CTV concentrated on Canadian performances. But, in a remarkable turnaround from previous U.S. coverage of sporting events that I have witnessed, I actually felt NBC did a better job of covering non “home” team achievements … like showing the singing of God Save the Queen, when Britain won its first ever Gold medal, or the total emotional breakdown of Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer.
CTV/Rogers/TSN may have had these things… but from my unscientific channel-surfing experience … I didn’t see the British anthem “moment” at all and they seemed to have the Kramer meltdown later and as not as complete as I saw on NBC.
NBC, by the way, was also heartwarmingly kind to and complimentary of the Games, Vancouver and Canada. The tourism promotional value of the images of our city projected daily to tens of millions Americans is almost incalculable. (The visuals of Vancouver on Stephen Colbert’s show on Comedy Central will also bring dividends.)
Back at CTV/TSN/Rogers: there were few glitches, but there were some: camera/switching errors I noticed, including incredibly (from what i saw) missing Alexandre Bilideau actually stepping up onto the Gold podium …showing only a tight shot of him already up there.
There were also, in my view, far too many in-show program “promos”, on top of what seemed like interminable numbers of ads, leading me to wonder if they exceeded the permitted number or total time allowed per hour. Probably not …but it sure felt like it, when combined with all the promos.
And frankly too many of their reporters seemed more like cheerleaders than real journalists, whose analysis could be trusted..
I personally also would have like to have seen a periodic scroll at the bottom of the television screen, telling us what was coming up later AND AT WHAT TIME (Pacific time of course). The on-air announcements of what was being broadcast on other consortium channels was a good idea … but not frequent enough: a scroll below would have been better.
Then there was the worst question i have ever seen asked of a Gold Medal Winnerat any Olympic Games I’ve watched …winter or summer. TSN’s Michael Landsberg, asked John Montgomery …. wait for it … to sing a few bars of O Canada… after he won and had already been shown singing the anthem during the victory presentation. A reporter has an opportunity to interview a newly minted Gold Medal winner … and that’s his journalistic opener? Sing the anthem? He’s a star athlete, Michael, not a performing parrot!
But all in all, CTV/TSN/Rogers deserve kudos. Job well done … really well done.
Harv Oberfeld
