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Television Time
Innisfil Enterprise
January 31, 2007
By Peter Van Loan, MP, York-Simcoe
One of my roles as Government House Leader
is to serve frequently as a spokesman for
the Government in the Media.
The past week was a good example, with
television appearances on CTV Question
Period, Newsworld Sunday, the Mike Duffy
Live show, and CPAC. Most of these
appearances are as panels of House Leaders
from the different parties. Some, like Duffy
and CPAC are weekly shows, every Tuesday.
These shows are probably really watched
mostly by fanatical political junkies - very
few of whom are undecided swing voters. Yet
the shows play an important role in shaping
the political dialogue that becomes the
newscast and newspaper coverage of politics
in Canada.
It is challenging to thoughtfully
communicate about the important issues in
quick snippets, while your colleagues from
the other Parties are trying to interrupt
you. But that is what you seek to do.
It is important to be prepared, to know your
facts, and be aware of what is occurring
throughout Parliament and the. dozens of
Parliamentary Committee meetings taking
place each week. From all of that
information, you must distill one or two
items that capture the story you want to
convey.
This week, I focused on the series of
environmental announcements, and the work of
the Environment Committee on our Proposed
Clean Air Act as a contrast with the
Liberals' previous 13 years of inaction,
which allowed greenhouse gases to rise to
35% above their International commitments.
I also focused on the continued refusal of
the appointed Liberal Senate to deal with
our proposed law to limit new Senators to 8
year terms. While Stephane Dion claims to
support Senate term limits, he is apparently
too weak a leader to have his party follow.
Both these issues worked for the media -
demonstrating a contrast between the
Conservative Government taking action on our
priorities of a healthier environment, and
democratic reform - and a Liberal Party that
resists action, In the TV world, they want
contrast and debate, in an effort to make
potentially dull policy topics interesting.
What gets discussed on television is, of
course, only a small fraction of the work
done in the House of Commons, But it
matters, because it is that small part that
the public actually sees.
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