The country's liberal media is presently salivating over comments about the future of healthcare made my Mike Harris and Preston Manning yesterday in Ottawa:
Preston Manning and Mike Harris tossed an electoral hand grenade into the lap of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper on Wednesday, issuing a joint report calling for the federal government to get out of medicare and let the provinces experiment with private health services.
An electoral hand grenade? Excuse me? This story is a great example of how the media hates Conservatives and is hellbent on screwing them over at every available opportunity.
I went to Ottawa yesterday to attend this event. I also went to the press briefing after the formal remarks were over. You could just tell the reporters went into this wanting to write exactly this story. It was as if they already had it written and just needed to plug in the quotes. (The event was not even about healthcare reform, it was about the launch of a new initiative to improve the level of debate in Canada.)
Harris and Manning were not speaking as Tories, they were speaking as fellows of the Fraser Institute. They both said they have nothing to do with the Conservative Party anymore and don't even know what's going on. Again, this had NOTHING TO DO with the Conservative Party, its policies, or Stephen Harper.
I know the counterpoint: They are high-profile Conservatives, so this story was bound to be written because of who Manning and Harris are and the timing. But the fact is reporters and editors make decisions on which stories are going to get big play and which aren't. Since this story reflects negatively on the Tories, it gets big play. Don't accuse me of conspiracy-mongering because it isn't.
This same thing happens every time anyone tries to start real debate on reform of Canada's outdated, broken healthcare system. And it has to stop. The Liberal Party and the media are equally guilty.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:04 AM
