Dropping this today so you have some interesting people to meet while chewing your nails to the quick over a possible election disaster. I’m working on another piece about what might be brewing and will post it as soon as I’m done.
As critically thinking Canadians we will be in big trouble with yet another Liberal win. Our country can’t withstand it. But there is a bigger question, especially for me and others who are in the news/information space, working long hours, often seven days a week and barely breaking even; how do we operate in what is becoming a post-factual political environment? Is this still a democracy?
Scandals that would have ended previous campaigns and sunk governments don’t seem to make a dint on the Liberal party. Mark Carney has been exposed as a tax-dodging, conflict-of-interest magnate who still holds options in Brookfield which has and will continue to benefit from his proximity to power.
Carney stands credibly accused of plagiarism. And a few days ago he got caught lying about his phone call last month with President Trump — a call I raised questions about when it happened based on the bailout of Trump’s son-in-law by Brookfield. I will post about that separately, later.
The gist of our story was that any communication between Trump and Carney is compromised given that deal which was investigated by a Senate Finance Committee, while Carney was at Brookfield. Voilà, a few weeks after we reported that, Carney gets caught lying about his first phone call with the very man whose family his company bailed out.
Connecting the dots from the bailout to the dishonesty around the phone call is journalism 101 — but just not happening in this country.
Carney’s own writing reveals he puts ideology over people. He carries the stink of striver-elitism through and through. It drips when he is challenged, especially by women. No one looks more awkward in a hard-hat standing amidst hastily arranged working-man human props. Even golden-toilet-fixtures Trump looks more natural when french-fry grease adjacent than Carney.
I have spent the past few weeks investigating Carney’s background, starting with a warning from former British Prime Minister Liz Truss and then, sustained through a few hundred hours of open source deep diving and phone calls. But these and other scandals aren’t penetrating the brains of the robo-Carney voter and although they make it onto social media — legacy doesn’t pick them up. Sam Cooper’s work often suffers the same fate.
Caryma Sa’d, Alex Zoltan and Chris Dacey have done their part in exposing the fragile, pail underbelly of a democracy in decline.
Even so, here we are, in a ruined country, foundering fast with a powerful, wealthy demographic lining up early to vote and ensure we get more of it. Caryma’s videographer captured our moment.
Stay critical.
#truthovertribe
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