Perspectives

[chickenfeet]

Canada is an interesting place to watch the news from. We are of course obsessed with the minutiae of everything that happens in our neighbour to the south; from the primaries to Janet Jackson's tit, but our papers do a pretty good job of covering the rest of the world too. Our major papers reported Hutton, for example, in detail.

What I am finding interesting right now is that our government is caught up in the biggest financial scandal for decades and it seems to have hardly registered in the British press. You might imagine that when the governing party in an allied country with some odd historical ties loses 15 percentage points of its support over a weekend that it would be newsworthy. Apparently not.

Is this because EU membership has accustomed people to the idea that millions of dollars/francs whatever will be siphoned off from public funds to party coffers?

Comments

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

FWIW, it's hardly registered in the US, either. We're still too busy trying to decide whether to be more scandalized by Janet Jackson, gay marriages, or the new Mel Gibson movie.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

It may just be that the scandal hasn't heated up sufficiently yet. No one has died in mysterious circumstances, fled the country, been sacked, etc.

You might imagine that when the governing party in an allied country with some odd historical ties loses 15 percentage points of its support over a weekend that it would be newsworthy

In general, Canada is simply not interesting enough from a UK or European perspective unless something really, truly shocking or weird happens. It's been that way for a long, long time.

And the EU has nothing on the Liberals in terms of throwing good money after bad.

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

That's quite impressive. I read US news sites as well as British, plus papers at lunchtime if I'm in the SCR; and I hadn't heard a thing.

[classytart.livejournal.com]

I can't even comment - I have no idea what you are referring to.

Saying that, I have to admit that I'm not terribly interested. I avoid the news for the most part.

Re:

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

No kitten-eater involved this time. Nothing to see. Move along.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3491905.stm

Re:

[classytart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when there were aline kitten eaters I was interested.

Misuse of funds? That's hardly news! :)

Re:

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

aline kitten eaters

The former PM's wife's name is Aline, so I had to read that twice ... he was a great one for funnelling funds to his pals.

The worst thing you can say about the current guy is that he's boring.

Re:

[classytart.livejournal.com]

Wow. I did a typo and it was almost relevant! :)

The worst thing you can say about the current guy is that he's boring.
Compared to many traits, being boring is pretty good for a politician.

Re:

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

A political scandal (rare in this country) might be interesting (not in a good way for him) but it could very well be one of those ones where no one's quite sure what it's about, just that some people may have to resign.

Re:

[classytart.livejournal.com]

Oh, those ones. We have them so often that they barely register with me.

[llaregyb.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about it, but what surprises me is that it's news. So yes, I think that does mean that I'm used to it, expect that kind of corruption. I think you can be proud it's a scandal and not a yawn.