Category: Politics

Sarah Polley protests Bill C-10
OTTAWA – Oscar nominee Sarah Polley appears before a Senate committee Thursday to fight a rule change she says “attacks the very heart of Canadian programming.”
Bill C-10 would allow Heritage Minister Josee Verner or a government committee to refuse tax credits to film or television productions considered offensive and “contrary to public policy.”
“It is against freedom of speech and everything we stand for,” said Polley, an actor and director representing the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA).
“Canadians won’t be able to see the Canadian programs they love,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Polley will be joined by a company of influential players in Canada’s film industry including Brian Anthony, CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada.
Edgy shows such as Little Mosque on the Prairie and the Trailer Park Boys are most at risk, Anthony said.
“It’s a homogenization of the nature of productions – you will see more productions about kittens, puppies, bunnies and cute little kids.”
Anthony added the move will damage an already ailing industry. The soaring loonie has kept many American productions down south, and the recent writers’ strike had a profound effect in B.C., where many American programs are filmed.
The existing tax credit enables producers to apply for a bank loan for the production of a film or television piece, if they meet Canadian content rules. They receive the credit only after the production is completed.
The power to make a ruling on acceptable content after a program has been filmed has many in the artistic community upset.
In addition, the amendment is only applicable to Canadian productions and does not affect American programs applying for funding.
Maureen Parker, representing the Writers Guild of Canada, says the government bill unjustly punishes Canadian actors, directors and script writers, while leaving their American counterparts off the hook.
A one-hour drama developed in Canada costs roughly $1.4 million, or about a quarter of the cost of an American drama of the same length, she said from Toronto.
“It is totally unfair. In order to meet these needs, Canadian producers have to bank the tax credit, they have to borrow against the tax credit and use that money to interim finance the production.”

Premier-designate Wall confirms date of next election
In his first formal news conference as premier-designate, Brad Wall has confirmed the Saskatchewan Party will proceed with fixed election dates.
The date of the next general provincial election will be November 7, 2011, Wall said at the legislative building in Regina on Thursday.
The Saskatchewan Party won Wednesday’s election by taking 38 of 58 constituencies, defeating the NDP, which had been in power since 1991. Before the election was called, the NDP had 30 seats and the Saskatchewan Party had 28.
Results on Wednesday night indicated that Wall’s party had won 37 seats, Lorne Calvert’s NDP had taken 21 and the Liberals had got none.
However, Elections Saskatchewan said Thursday that there was a mistake in the tally in Meadow Lake, Originally, it was believed that New Democrat Maynard Sonntag won with a narrow margin over the Saskatchewan Party’s Jeremy Harrison. However, Elections Saskatchewan said it turns out that Harrison won by 17 votes, dropping the NDP’s seat count to 20.
There are still more than 100 absentee ballots to be counted and that could again change the outcome.
A short session of the legislature is expected to be held in December.
Wall said he would spend the next few weeks preparing for the transition to power, selecting a cabinet and spending time with his family.
Among those sending congratulations to Wall was Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Harper issued a statement saying he looked forward to working with Wall. He said Wall’s party has been given a mandate to address the issues of importance to Saskatchewan people.

Atwood says Tories out to ‘squash the arts’
Canadian author Margaret Atwood has torn a strip off the current Conservative government over its arts policies.
The Tories are out to “squash the arts into the dust,” she said in Montreal just ahead of the opening of the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival.
She was deeply critical of the Harper government’s cuts to the arts, especially the literary arts.
“They basically just hate us,” she said in an interview with CBC Radio. “You know itís people who have never seen any arts in their own lives ó they would rather not have gardens, they would rather have parking lots. They just think itís a frill probably.”
It was particularly short-sighted to cut funding for cultural tours that allow Canadian artists to develop fans overseas, she said.
“When selling artistic things abroad, that money comes into Canada and is taxed in Canada, so itís a net gain for Canada,” she said.
“Would they like to guess how much Yann Martelís novel The Life of Pi generated abroad? Would they like to know Ö how much my foreign editions bring in? Would they like to know how much [Canadian producer] Robert LePage generates abroad?”
The arts are being neglected despite bringing economic activity and prosperity to the country, Atwood said.
Events such as the opening of the Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre in Toronto bring in millions of dollars from international guests, she said, yet the centre is one of six Toronto cultural projects still awaiting a funding announcement from Ottawa.
‘Would they like to guess how much Yann Martel’s novel The Life of Pi generated abroad? Would they like to know Ö how much my foreign editions bring in?’óMargaret Atwood
“Well, it is really a great mystery for a section of the economy that supports so much. It is so that the government supports all kinds of infrastructure for hockey and sports, they support all sorts of stuff for business, so why are they being this way about the arts, a sector which contributes a great deal.”
Atwood will be awarded the $10,000 Grand Prix at the Blue Met Festival, which starts Wednesday.
The Montreal festival itself lost $150,000 in funding this year, Atwood said.
Atwood is one of three giants of Canadian literature who are in the running this year for the Man Booker International, one of the richest prizes in literature.
She will be interviewed on stage in Montreal Friday at 8 p.m. by CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi.

AL FRANKEN FOR SENATOR
Al Franken, the “Saturday Night Live” alum and Bill O’Reilly nemesis, is inching closer to a run for the U.S. Senate in 2008.
Franken, who has a daily radio show on the liberal Air America network, was based in New York until a last month, when he quietly picked up and moved his residence and his show to Minneapolis.
The comedian says he’s still undecided about challenging Republican Sen. Norm Coleman √≥ but it appears that his reluctance is only a matter of convenience.
Once he announces his bid for office, he will have to give up his three-hour, daily radio show. Radio and TV stations are reluctant to carry programs hosted by political candidates since it opens them to charges of favoritism.
“I think I’m going to let it evolve,” he told an Internet interviewer, alternet.org, a few days ago.
“I don’t have to decide for a while, and I’m sort of doing the things that I’d have to do if I did run.
“So if I do make the decision to do it, I’ll have done the things I needed to have done,” he says.
“I’m learning √≥ traveling within Minnesota, talking to people. I’ve been raising money for candidates in Minnesota and around the country.”
Franken has already raised $168,000 in just over two months, according to a campaign-finance report. So far, he has given the money to six other liberal candidates ó a classic strategy for politicians trying to build up a position for themselves within the party.

Canadian Networks To Cover U.S. Election
TORONTO — A Canadian perspective will be available to television news junkies as the election takes place south of the border Tuesday.
On the day Americans elect their new president, the CBC’s Alison Smith anchors the morning news from Washington, with Harry Forestell reporting from Missouri for the middle-America view.
A two-hour election special will air on CBC Newsworld with Don Newman anchoring, beginning at 7 p.m. ET after which Newsworld will carry a 9 p.m. ET edition of The National with Peter Mansbridge. On the main network, The National will begin at 10 p.m. ET as usual and will continue through to 3 a.m. ET with regular updates, pre-empting late-night programming.
Otherwise, extensive coverage will air throughout the evening on Newsworld with Newman at the Canadian Embassy in D.C. Henry Champ will analyse the results while David Halton will be with the George W. Bush campaign and Neil MacDonald with the John Kerry team.
Over at CTV, Lloyd Robertson will stay in Toronto to anchor the network’s live nighttime newscasts from 11 p.m. ET to 2 a.m. Alan Fryer will be at the Bush headquarters in Washington and Kathy Tomlinson at Kerry HQ in Boston while Tom Clark will report from West Palm Beach in Florida, which proved to be the key battleground in 2000. Craig Oliver will offer analysis from Ottawa. Live election results will be carried throughout the evening on Newsnet with Dan Matheson and Mike Duffy.
CTV’s main prime-time look at the election will be, curiously, in the form of comedy — a special edition of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show entitled Election Night 2004: Prelude to a Recount.
Global TV’s Kevin Newman will broadcast from Washington providing live updates twice an hour with Troy Reeb at the Bush headquarters and Mike Armstrong with Kerry. Sean Mallen will be in Ohio.
But Global is also opting to put tongue in cheek during prime time with a marathon of past Simpsons episodes that included U.S. presidential material.

Seven Clues About Which Way The Election Might Go
We won’t know who wins the presidential race until the wee hours of November 3 ó and we might not know even then. But throughout the night, we’ll be getting clues about who’s doing well, and how politics will change in the years ahead. Here are seven telling items to keep an eye on.
1. Florida
Bush’s must-win state. The President has looked stronger here than in the Midwestern battlegrounds. His brother Jeb, the governor, is popular, particularly with Hispanics, a growing Sunshine State constituency. With Jeb’s help, the President got high marks for his response to Florida’s hurricanes. And he has made inroads with Jewish voters, a traditionally Democratic group in the southern part of the state. If Bush loses Florida despite all this, he’ll probably lose other key swing states ó and lose the election.
2. Ohio
Kerry’s must-win state. Republicans have been worried about the Buckeye State all year. Al Gore gave up on it in 2000 and still came close. Ohio has been hit hard by the weak economy and, in a reverse of Florida, its Republican governor is very unpopular, which could rub off on the president. Labor unions and other Democratic groups have poured money and organizers into the state, and Kerry recently went hunting there in an attempt to appeal to Republican-leaning rural voters. Democrats have bet the farm on Ohio ó if they lose it, they could lose nearby states like Wisconsin and Iowa, where voters are aren’t hurting as much economically. If that happens, Bush wins.
3. Southwestern Hispanics
Democrats think that as Hispanics become a larger percentage of the electorate in the Southwest, they have a chance of picking up states in this traditionally Republican region. Gore barely won New Mexico in 2000, the state with the largest proportion of Hispanics, and Kerry should win there. But the big news would be if Kerry picked up Nevada or Colorado, states Bush won in 2000, but where Kerry has run better than expected. The Democratic Senate candidate in Colorado, Ken Salazar, is Hispanic, and the Kerry campaign hopes he’ll draw Hispanics to the polls. Watch to see if there’s a big jump in turnout among Southwestern Hispanics. If there is, Kerry could steal a victory in Bush country.
4. Elderly Women
Kerry can’t win unless he decisively defeats Bush among women voters. One group that has caused him trouble is older women, who tend to be culturally conservative and haven’t warmed to Kerry, who sounds awkward talking about his religious faith. Kerry has tried to win them over by charging that Bush would threaten Social Security, a big issue among seniors. If Kerry can’t bring them to his side, he’ll have trouble in Florida and Pennsylvania, both states with larger than average elderly populations.
5. Gay Marriage
Republicans have put amendments banning gay marriage on the ballot in many swing states, hoping to draw Christian conservative voters to the polls. If these amendments win big, it will give Bush a boost. It will also boost the anti-gay marriage movement in Washington, and embolden Republicans to keep pushing for an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Constitution. But in states like Ohio, where the amendment is so broad it would ban even civil unions, some Republicans ó including the state’s governor ó are opposed. If some of the anti-gay marriage amendments are defeated, future Republican candidates may shy away from the issue.
6. Tom Daschle
Republicans are gunning for the Senate Democratic leader, who represents South Dakota, a state where Bush should win big. If Daschle goes down, he will be the first Senate leader to lose his seat in decades, and it will be a huge psychological blow to the Democrats. His opponent, former Congressman John Thune, lost to South Dakota’s other Democratic Senator in 2002 by only 527 votes. If Thune wins, the Republicans will almost certainly hold the Senate, and Democrats in Washington will be in disarray.
7. You
Polls show Kerry leading among young voters. They also show that young voters care more about this election than any in recent memory. People 18-29 typically vote less than any other age group. And many pollsters factor that assumption into their models of likely voters ó which is one reason most polls show Bush with a slight lead. If young people prove the pollsters wrong, and turn out at rates close to their parents, it would not only be a good night for our democracy, but could also help John Kerry.

CNN’s Tucker Carlson, Jon Stewart Feuding
NEW YORK – How’s this for a feud that straddles the line between politics and entertainment: CNN’s bow-tied conservative Tucker Carlson vs. “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart.
Carlson on Monday fanned embers still hot from their “Crossfire” confrontation, saying Stewart looked ridiculous during his CNN appearance and was a sellout for publicly backing Democrat John Kerry for president.
Stewart, appearing on the debate show Friday, angered Carlson by saying “Crossfire” is “partisan hackery” that does little to advance the cause of democracy.
And that was the mild stuff.
“You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably,” Stewart said.
Responded Carlson: “You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.”
“You need to go to one,” Stewart shot back.
Carlson complained that for a comedian, Stewart wasn’t being very funny.
“Come on,” he said. “Be funny.”
“No,” Stewart said. “I’m not going to be your monkey.”
Carlson chided Stewart for lobbing softball questions when Kerry appeared on “The Daily Show” last month.
Later, Carlson told Stewart he was “more fun” on his Comedy Central show, and Stewart called him a jerk ó although he used a more vulgar term.
“I thought that he looked ridiculous,” Carlson said in an interview Monday, “and I think the tape makes that clear.”
Carlson said Stewart continued lecturing the “Crossfire” crew after the show went off the air. “I wasn’t offended as much as I was unimpressed,” he said.
Stewart wasn’t talking about the confrontation on Monday, a spokesman said. Comedy Central executive Tony Fox said there may be some regret over the vulgarity, but that Stewart has been a longtime critic of cable news networks and their political argument shows.
The comedian hasn’t gone out of his way to endorse Kerry. In a public forum last week in New York, he was asked who he would vote for, and he said he’d back the Democrat.
Carlson noted that many of the great comedians kept their political opinions to themselves, not for fear of offending anyone, but because it could hurt their art.
“You’re selling out,” he said. “If you are a satirist or an acute social observer, and he is, and all of a sudden you suspend disbelief on someone or suck up rather than prod or poke someone, people will look at you and say, `Even if I agree with you, I don’t like it,'” he said.
Fox said “The Daily Show” poked fun at people in power, regardless of their party. Most people who watch Stewart are aware that he leans to the left politically.
“I don’t think it really impacts the show at all,” he said. “The show does what it does regardless of Jon’s political persuasion.”

SMELLS LIKE KERRY SPIRIT
Former Nirvana mates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic making their first joint public appearance together in over a decade at a rally for Kerry Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

Jon Stewart Bitchslaps CNN’s ‘Crossfire’ Show
In what could well be the strangest and most refreshing media moment of the election season, “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart turned up on a live broadcast of CNN’s “Crossfire” Friday and accused the mainstream media ó and his hosts in particular ó of being soft and failing to do their duty as journalists to keep politicians and the political process honest.
Reaching well outside his usual youthful “Daily Show” demo, Stewart took to “Crossfire” to promote his new book, “America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction”, but instead of pushing the tome, Stewart used his time to verbally slap the network and the media for being “dishonest” and “doing a disservice” to the American public. After co-host Tucker Carlson suggested that Stewart went easy on Senator John Kerry when the candidate was a guest on “The Daily Show,” Stewart unloaded on “Crossfire,” calling hosts Carlson and Paul Begala “partisan hacks” and chiding them for not raising the level of discourse on their show beyond sloganeering.
“What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery,” Stewart said. “You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.
“I watch your show every day, and it kills me. It’s so painful to watch,” Stewart added as it became apparent that the comedian was not joking. He went on to hammer the network, and the media in general, for its coverage of the presidential debates. Stewart said it was a disservice to viewers to immediately seek reaction from campaign insiders and presidential cheerleaders following the debates, noting that the debates’ famed “Spin Alley” should be called “Deception Lane.”
“The thing is, we need your help,” Stewart said. “Right now, you’re helping the politicians and the corporations and we’re left out there to mow our lawns.”
While the audience seemed to be behind Stewart, Begala and Carlson were both taken aback. The hosts tried to feed Stewart set-up lines hoping to draw him into a more light-hearted shtick, but Stewart stayed on point and hammered away at the show, the hosts, and the state of political journalism. Carlson grew increasingly frustrated, at first noting that the segment wasn’t “funny,” and later verbally sparring with the comedian.
“You’re not very much fun,” Carlson said. “Do you like lecture people like this, or do you come over to their house and sit and lecture them; they’re not doing the right thing, that they’re missing their opportunities, evading their responsibilities?”
“If I think they are,” Stewart retorted.
The conversation reached its most heated moment when Carlson said to Stewart, “I do think you’re more fun on your show,” to which Stewart replied, “You’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.”
“That went great,” Stewart could be heard sarcastically saying as the show went off the air (a transcript of the show is available on CNN.com).
In an era when the media is increasingly fragmented and viewers can surround themselves with programming that falls right in line with their own views, be they on the right or the left, Stewart’s blast seemed especially on point. It seems fitting that the tirade came on a day when much of the media attention focused on the presidential race was directed at the mention of Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter during the last presidential debate, as opposed to the issues addressed at that debate.

Michael Moore Draws Boos at Convention
NEW YORK – Already a box office sensation, filmmaker Michael Moore got another loud reception Monday at the Republican convention. This time, it was boos.
When Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told the delegates about “a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam’s Iraq was an oasis of peace,” they knew he was referring to the maker of “Fahrenheit 9-11.” The film, which savages Bush’s Iraq policy, has set a box office record for documentaries, grossing $115 million so far.
McCain’s comments prompted prolonged booing and chants of “Four more years.” Many of the delegates faced Moore, who was seated in the press seats at Madison Square Garden because he is writing a column this week for USA Today.
Moore seemed to relish the attention, thrusting his arms over his head, laughing and saying, “Two more months.”
Asked about McCain’s remarks, Moore said, “I can’t believe they’re dumb enough to bring up the film and help its box office.”