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We
Got the Job Done (And how the National Media
Forgot to Tell You!)
Innisfil Enterprise
June 27, 2007
By Peter Van Loan, MP, York-Simcoe
In the first half of this year, Canada's New
Government got more legislation through both
the House of Commons and the Senate than in
all of 2006. It included key bills to cut
taxes, help families, get tough on crime,
and strengthen accountability through
democratic reform.
This is an accomplishment in which I take
pride. Getting our program through
Parliament is the main aspect of my job as
Government House Leader.
Yet, in the weeks leading up to the end of
the spring sitting many journalists and
pundits in the national media painted a
different picture. It was a raucous
Parliament, they would write. Chantal
Hebert, for example, said my approach was
partisan, and meant we couldn't get things
done in a minority.
Of course, not one of these journalists
bothered to correct the record when the
spring sitting ended. Even when the Prime
Minister took them through our progress
during an end-of-sitting news conference,
those journalists found ways to report
things other than our impressive success in
passing our legislation.
This is actually a common trait (the refusal
to admit their errors) among media pundits
and journalists.
Earlier this spring they were all saying we
were about to call an election. The Prime
Minister and I would repeatedly state that
we did not want an election and wanted to
continue governing. Our comments were
greeted with skepticism and disbelief by the
media, who continued to write that a
campaign was a sure thing!
When, as we always said, we continued to
govern without an election, nobody in the
media came out and wrote that they had been
wrong. Instead the media rewrote history,
and said we backed off calling an election,
fearing we wouldn’t win a big enough
majority.
The same thing happened again in mid-May
when the journalists again started saying we
were about to prorogue the House of Commons
(end the Session of Parliament) to get out
early. Every week they said the same thing.
Every week, as House Leader, I would respond
that we were determined to keep working
until late June.
As I had repeatedly promised, we did sit
right to the last week - even sitting in the
evenings in the last two weeks - to get our
program passed.
Again, no journalists wrote stories
admitting they had been wrong.
I have frequently told journalists that it
is really easy to know what we plan to do.
Just listen to what I say. If I say we are
going to do something, we will! If I say we
won't do something we won't!
So, if you read it in the national media,
and it doesn't sound right, now you know
why. But don't expect the journalists to
admit their mistakes. It's only other
people's mistakes they want to tell you
about!
And that's probably something that will
never change for the better.
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