Voter’s Guide

I spent quite a few years in the Big City media clique – newspaper columnist and editor, television and radio broadcaster, executive producer of a string of network shows. I know the media, and when a perception is created, it’s hard to change.

I call it “the clipping file syndrome.” Before everything in the world known to man was digitized and Googlized, newspapers kept actual paper libraries, staffed by actual human librarians, whose job was to read every newspaper they could find, clip all articles, date them and file them under subject. Then writers researching their topics could ask for the clipping file on a certain topic (like “Garth Turner”), and they would take what had been written before as a foundation of fact on which to layer new words.

My point is, what’s in the clipping file becomes reality, be it right or wrong. So if Stephen Harper’s clipping file suggests he is an icy policy wonk uncomfortable being around actual people, then you can pretty much expect that the media will carry on with that perception.

So I have decided to address this – and other myths – head on. You will notice a new button at the top of this page called “Voter’s Guide.” Punch it and you’ll get to a download of a 24-page Guide I have written to communicate with the folks who live in my riding. It’s an attempt to answer a lot of the inevitable questions – about the leader, about where Conservatives stand on most of the issues, about Belinda Stronach, about what voters can expect when the next election campaign really gets rolling.

It’s far from perfect, and will be updated pretty regularly as we go along. But I have found in my life that the more information people are given, the more they are open to dialogue. And today, of course, we need all the talking we can get – people are understandably jaded about politicians and turned off on the process. Voter turnout has been plunging, and everybody in public life should be appalled at that.

It’s time we tried to engage people in this process, instead of tricking them with spins and half-truths. The folks I meet on the doorstep are not stupid or naïve or inexperienced. They deserve facts and honesty, and will then make an informed decision.

In any case, I would welcome any comments on this Voter’s Guide. Thanks.