Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

'Steadiness and constancy'

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, April 29, 2011 10:00am - 37 Comments

The National Post endorses a Conservative majority.

The main question in this election is about who can steer Canada forward during uncertain economic times. Given Mr. Harper’s record of intelligent, sober leadership, and the many question marks associated with his opponents, his Conservatives are our clear choice in Monday’s election.

The Toronto Star disagrees.

Tags: , , , , ,
Bookmark and Share
  • OriginalEmily1

    The NatPost endorsed Stockwell Day too, which is when I cancelled my subscripton.

    • Proud Canadian

      and another 'left wing media' supporting Harper. Where are the trudeau lovers and denis_f comments condemning the 'left wing media' in this country. I'm telling you folks, the canadian press is owned by the conservatives (except the CBC) just watch the scramling this weekend as they try to save Harper. Cancell ALL your subscriptions and go with social media. It's the only way to stop the right wing propaganda in this country. Put them all out of business.

      • OriginalEmily1

        Cons tend to see anything that isn't 110% pro-Harper as 'left-wing'. LOL

        • Proud Canadian

          I just saw an ad on CTV that is new to me. It was a stop Harper ad but not from a political party. I was pleasantly surprised and immediately thought "Wow, maybe the left is actually mobilizing and countering the rights continual propaganda machine". The ad was from these guys http://www.avaaz.org/en/index.php. They boast some 8 million members worldwide. Check them out.

  • John D

    Have there ever been certain times?

    • tobyornotoby

      Not yet, but when certain times arrive whooboy, we can vote for whomever we want!

      • Phil_King

        Woo Hoo! LOL

      • John D

        Yay!

  • tobyornotoby

    It's cute how these publications all pretend that they carefully weigh the party positions and look back over the campaign to decide who to endorse. What a conicidence that they then pick the same party we all knew they were supporting from the start. Pseudo-objectivity at its finest.

    • Style

      Has the Star made its endorsement yet? I've only seen their Harper anti-endorsement.

      • Dan

        The NaPo endorses Harper, the Star does not, is there more of a "dog bites man" story in Canadian politics than this one?

        • John D

          I, for one, am shocked. I am nervously waiting the SUN TV endorsements

          • Anon

            As is their viewing audience of 4,000 plus.

      • sine_ingenio

        At the bottom of the Star piece it says: 'Saturday: the alternative in Monday's election.' Looks like they want to reach the broader Saturday market and declare after today's fru fru.

  • Anon

    record of intelligent, sober leadership

    Now, that's satire.

    • tobyornotoby

      You don't want to see Stephen Harper when he isn't sober.

      • Phil_King

        Or even just when he's sure there isn't a camera in the room.

        The temper that guy has is reknowned in the PMO.

      • Katherine

        Actually I do. I want to know what he's like when he's behaving like a human being rather than a robot. A robot that's been programmed to insult people.

        (No offence to robots intended. Threepio had way more personality.)

        • A_logician

          Even R2D2 had more personality than Harper.

  • Phil_King

    This line of garbage always annoys me.

    The only time the federal government really has any long term impact on the economy is when they go totally loopy, like say borrowing billions upon billions of dollars or suddenly cranking or cutting taxes to ridiculous levels.

    Beyond that, there are just too many other factors that have a far larger impact.

    Since none of the three main parties are really doing much beyond playing at the margins, it's silly to suggest that any of these parties is safer or more dangerous than the other.

    • Mike T.

      No no no! if corporate taxes return to levels of 18 months ago it will be a disaster! Every single business in the country will leave AND WHERE WILL WE BE THEN??!!!!

      • SanDiegoDave

        Somewhere in Colorado right? And Dagny will be ironing John's shirts for 5 cents a day…..

  • LdKitchenersOwn

    Is the Star endorsing anyone?

    I think I kinda like the idea of a newspaper just passing judgement on whether or not they feel that an incumbent government deserves re-election, as opposed to saying "We think you should vote for X", but I wondered if this is what the Star is doing, or if they'll make an actual endorsement in another article.

    • sine_ingenio

      The Star says at the bottom of their piece that there will be a follow up tomorrow. Best to reach as wide a readership as possible on Saturday after the hub bub of today.

    • tobyornotoby

      I think they are hinting that's what they wil do on Saturday.

  • Selena

    The National Post is neither

    • noob_goldberg

      The National Post exists solely to boost the readership of the rest of CanWest's papers. I find it quite amusing that the paper most commonly associated with free markets has been insolvent from the beginning, and has not been closed only because it would be more expensive than leaving it running.

  • madeyoulook

    The Star's editors lament:

    The second minority Harper government was like the first one — only more so.

    The second was more like the first than the first was? Hello? Do the editors have any editors?

  • Gordon Hansen

    Has the National Post ever endorsed anyone but a conservative candidate?

  • Proud Canadian

    just saw an ad on CTV that is new to me. It was a stop Harper ad but not from a political party. I was pleasantly surprised and immediately thought "Wow, maybe the left is actually mobilizing and countering the rights continual propaganda machine". The ad was from these guys http://www.avaaz.org/en/index.php. They boast some 8 million members worldwide. Check them out.

    • Jim Wiggins

      I did – thanks for the link. I also took a look at the TV ad that they've been running during the election – I'm actually quite impressed by the number of people and organizations both inside and outside of Canada who have pointedly noted the depredations of democracy that Harper and company are responsible for:
      http://www.avaaz.org/en/canada_elections?vc

  • Angelle

    I would like to note that the mainstream media may have highjacked another election. It may time to start to question the role of the mainstream media in our election. The ability to report on the news as opposed to create " what if" scenarios and their increase obsession with 'polls" is the story. So be it., for now. I remain hopeful that the continued of our young voters will change the dynamics of what it means to have an election and how it covered. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to go out and vote. The professionalism show by the pundit, media that lives in their self described Ottawa Bubble all seem to be saying that they all did not seem this coming. Get out town, go for walk, talk to some folks, ask questions, get answers. Mostly reflect on how you are doing your work or risk being redundant as more and more of us seek to get our information elsewhere.

    • Jim Wiggins

      “It may be time to start to question the role of the mainstream media in our election.”

      Good point and interesting question. It certainly seems that “mainstream media” are aware and make use of the capabilities of the Internet, but I wonder whether both they and the various political parties realize its scope and ramifications. Some have argued that many of the modern day revolutions – Egypt for example – were made possible because of the pervasiveness of the Internet and cell-phones; information can move very much faster than any government can hope to control or limit.

      And that may be the reason why the Harperites are trying to do just that as described in a recent Macleans article:
      http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/04/13/harpers-promis…

      One seriously hopes that Mr. Harper and his Conservatives find out and experience what repressive regimes are finding out and experiencing all over the world, that the Internet is not so easily prorogued or suppressed as a Parliament.

  • Katherine

    So that's the country's two main national newspapers both coming out for a Conservative majority in the final days of the election. Could change things significantly. Darn them.

  • Anon

    The vast majority of people don't care about newspaper endorsements, even people who read said newspapers.

  • OriginalEmily1

    Gee, when did Harper ban the cancelling of subscriptions?

  • Proud Canadian

    I googled newspapers across the country to read what the local news was saying about the election. Every single newspaper had the EXACT same articles! Of course I already knew that, they are owned by conservatives but even I sometimes forget, at least until I read one. What right wing propaganda bullsh*t and quite frankly a shame!

Previous

Next

From Macleans