Anthony Watson

Father of Twins. So tired.

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

And I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt either …

👉 https://t.co/xXeu5AN6hY

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

BREAKING NEWS: Someone in Westminster does their job.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

This is a super duper bad idea.
https://t.co/A6ZTvnrRbI

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@politics_w_sami @kfk222 All polls are wrong. They are fuzzy snapshots and should never be given credence in isolation.
Series of polls are useful to professionals as they display trends.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@JeffreyLuscombe I love buying appropriately priced milk. I wish I didn't have to cross the border to do it.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

I didn't believe Carney would bite.
https://t.co/sAbeP0HwoY

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@politics_w_sami I haven't been paying much attention to this race as I don't have a horse in it.
Is outrage Engler's brand?

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@Jason_IT_NBer @Prominent_Bryan Outhouse was not the problem.
Even I couldn't vote PC last election. I split the blame on Higgs getting distracted by tangents and Caucus being too cowardly to knife a dottard.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@Jason_IT_NBer @RiseOfAlberta Half?

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@politics_w_sami Poilievre got the best Conservative result since Mulrooney. He is not going anywhere.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@Jason_IT_NBer @brianlilley @CheriDiNovo How? DiNovo is a Liberal.
Lilley's tweet is about DiNovo falling for a prank.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@Jason_IT_NBer @AidanMackeyON @yukonparty I hold a different opinion.
The role of Government is not to feed children but to maintain an environment in which parents can feed their children.
Holt spits in the face of every parent.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@politics_w_sami We should not ignore the inflationary effects of government spending just because it is not the only influence on inflation.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@politics_w_sami I predict enough opposition MPs will miss the vote due to illness to allow the budget to pass.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@politics_w_sami Government is terrible at doing things. It should build as little as possible. Poilievre is not ignoring the role of public involvement in building infrastructure, housing and innovation; he is stating proper government behaviour.

[Jason Kenney 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 @jkenney]

This👇”story” is an object lesson for why trust in legacy media has plummeted, and alt right media audiences have grown.

Here CTV “digital news producer” @AngeMAmato (she/her) writes a story about “experts” calling the use of Sec. 33 “a threat to democracy.”

Who are the experts?

A left wing academic, and a left wing activist. The latter, Howard Sapers, is a former Liberal MLA (which the article does not mention) for a party that is so marginal, it has not elected an MLA in over a decade.

For good measure CTV goes on to quote two left wing union bosses, who of course are predictably outraged.

A more accurate headline would be “Four people on the left angry about use of Notwithstanding Clause.” Which is the opposite of news. It’s the ultimate “Dog Bites Man” non-story.

Did the CTV producer make any effort to post a balanced story by asking for comment from academics / lawyers / think tanks who support use of Sec. 33? Did she call the @CDNConstFound or the @MLInstitute’s Judicial Power Project? Did she attempt to reach any of these four scholars, who just published their views in a @nationalpost op-ed last week? https://t.co/R1Amug7rFj

Did she have an editor who asked why her story lacked any attempt at balance?

And did anyone at CTV pause for a moment to ponder how tendentious it is to accuse a democratically elected legislature of acting “undemocratically” by invoking a power whose entire purpose is to ensure democratic accountability?

She provides some historical context about prior use of Sec. 33. Why does that context not include the fact that most democratically elected provincial governments (including Alberta under Premier Lougheed, and Saskatchewan under NDP Premier Blakeney) agreed to adopt the Charter *only if* it included the Notwithstanding Clause to allow democratically elected Legislatures to ensure a democratic check and balance against the abuse of undemocratic, unaccountable judicial power?

Why does she not mention that for the first 33 years of the Charter era, the Canadian Courts ruled that there was no constitutionally protected right to strike?

Why doesn’t she quote an expert pointing out that Allan Blakeney defended the Saskatchewan Legislature’s 1982 use of Sec. 33 to end a strike as “a legitimate use of the Notwithstanding Clause?” Or refer to Peter Lougheed’s 1987 commitment to use Sec. 33 if the courts invented a right to strike?

Many thoughtful criticisms can be levelled against Section 33. Being undemocratic is not one of them.

So why do we see so much agitprop like this masquerading as news from so many legacy media outlets?

IMO, there are two possible answers:

1) They are blind to their own biases; and / or

2) People like @AngeMAmato believe that they have a moral imperative to be “progressive journalists” which trumps the boringly old fashioned professional imperative to be objective and balanced.

Whatever the reason, “journalists” like this have no one to blame but themselves for growing distrust of legacy media, and the consequent emergence of non traditional media platforms.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@Jason_IT_NBer @JeffreyRWRath @ABDanielleSmith So people with opinions other than yours should be denied a livelihood?

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

The reason Liberals seek office is to steal money and power. It is not mystifying they decline to empower anyone to prevent it.
https://t.co/N4JSCCfTNS

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@Jason_IT_NBer @BasedMikeLee No. The USSR was a constitutional republic. It was not a democracy.

[Anthony Watson @rbkitony]

@politics_w_sami PR produces unstable government.