Reminder to the Canadians on the flist-

[schmevil]

You can watch the French language debate live right now, in French or English translation. Right now they're talking about climate change. Gilles Duceppe and Elizabeth May are lighting into Steven Harper in the round table discussion. It's gold.

Am I the only one who's getting frustrated with media portrayals of the Green Shift as being incomprehensible to the average Canadian?

A) The average Canadian is more than capable of understanding political policy.

B) The Green Shift is actually quite simple. Tax carbon emissions, lower income tax. Revenue neutral. Done. (Well, not that simple but come on, through people a text box with some bullet points and they'll be fine).

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

The average Canadian is more than capable of understanding political policy.

I will willingly trade my country for yours. We have, um, more sunny beaches?

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

You do have nice beaches. :) I tend to think that ordinary people everywhere are capable of understanding political policy. It's just a matter of convincing them of this, and reframing the discussion. In the case of Canadian media and the Liberal Party's Green Shift plan, (and even Obama's economic policies), the media is working to complicate the debate and convince people that expert mediators are necessary, not supplementary. Like, 'you couldn't possibly understand this, listen to our legal expert!'

Of course that's all dependent on people being interested in policy. :s

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

hahah! I am on AIM with a friend in Toronto and he is giving me the play by play.

Srsly, "Say something nice about the person to your left?" QUI?

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I actually really liked that question. It was great to see them try to be respectful. Some were better than others. I didn't envy May's job of finding something nice to say about Harper.