Shinning A Light On The CBC's Flawed Decision Making

There are only two days remaining to vote in the webpoll for which CBC employee you think tested the worst with focus groups. As of right now Terry Milewski has a large lead over his colleagues, followed by Stombo, Mary Walsh, and Soloman. Now that the CBC has been ordered by the courts to hand over internal documents such as focus group data, we may finally get a chance to shine a light on some of the Broadcaster's inner machinations for evidence of flawed decision making at the programming level.

Many of us would also like to see what programs lose the most money so we can start trimming the fat. Meanwhile, there is at least one group fighting to save the CBC's tax payer subsidies. The "Friends of Canadian Broadcasting" are launching an ad campaign targeting the Tory government on the CBC issue. The objective is to protect the flow of tax money to prop up a public broadcaster notorious for putting untalented people on the air. Somebody needs to fight for the right of Mary Walsh to get paid to be on television, because otherwise no network would hire "artists" like her. Generally you have to be funny to get a gig as a comedian, unless that employer is the CBC.

Court Forces CBC To Hand Over Focus Group Results For TV Personalities

The CBC lost a court appeal forcing them to answer Access to Information requests that they had previously ignored on the grounds of protecting artistic secrets. Among the documents ordered be turned over are focus group results regarding CBC personalities, something that the CBC did not want to be made public. Many of us would love to see the results of this ATI request published in the media. Infact I hope that they have focus groups results for every single television personality, and that they become public information. If the CBC would like to keep this information private, they should stop taking money from the government.

This begs the question, which CBC personality has the most negative or damaging focus group results? On the news side it has to be Milewski or Soloman. The CBC repeatedly airs commercials for the Soloman Show with Evan pleading with viewers that he's "tough, but not unfair", over and over again. I wonder if that's what his focus group said? The most negative results probably come from their regular television programming, where they have some absolutely atrocious TV shows.

Which CBC TV personality has the most negative focus group results will be a future poll question, after a sufficient nomination period. Who do you think tested poorly, but kept their jobs anyway? The lead actor in Little Mosque is reportedly an alpha male within CBC ranks, so if he tested poorly it is plausible the results would be disregarded.

But even more than focus group results, the information I want to see the most is how much each show cost to make, and how much revenue each produced. Who made money, and who lost money? And how much?

Who Should Be The Premier Of Alberta?

With a left leaning Alison Redford now leading the Alberta PC Party, the next general election in Alberta should be very interesting. Today's poll question; who should be the Premier of Alberta? Is everyone just waiting for the acclimation of Danielle Smith? Should Gary Mar, Doug Horner, or Ted Morton have won the PC leadership and be leading the Progressives into the next election? The early consensus on the Redford administration is that the party is now more progressive than conservative, and that Wildrose might be the only Conservative party left to vote for. With Redford as Premier, Ed Stelmach has to be looking pretty good right about now...

What about Naheed Nenshi or Monte Solberg? Wayne Gretzky? I'm just throwing out names.

Who Should Be The Republican Nominee in 2012?

Today's poll question; who do you think should win the Republican nomination to run against Obama in 2012? Of the current candidates running in the race, Herman Cain is leading in the polls with 18%, followed by Romney and Gingrich with 15% a piece, the absent minded Rick Perry has 8%, Ron Paul has 5%, Michele Bachman has 4%, Santorum and Huntsman round out the field with 2% and 1% respectively. Undecided and none of the above are also options in the poll.

I'm not sure that I like any of the candidates currently in the field, and if this is the final list of choices I'll probably end up endorsing Newt. He's really the only one on that stage I trust, but age could become an issue. Romney might be the best business man among the group, but I'm not sure America is ready for a Mormon President. I don't understand the Herman Cain phenomenon. He came out of nowhere and suddenly was the favourite before anyone really knew all that much about him. He's certainly the most entertaining of the bunch. The brain fart pretty much eliminates Perry as a contender. Ron Paul is older than John McCain, and McCain was too old 3 years ago.

Should Occupy Camps Be Dismantled?

Today's poll question; do you support your local mayor ordering the dismantling of an Occupy protest near you? Is it time for Rob Ford to call the police on Occupy Toronto? These protests have been allowed to continue for far too long, and now with a growing epidemic of drug overdoses, it has become dangerous. Perhaps the question is not whether or not they should be dismantled, but what degree of force the police should use to shut them down. Tasers or no tasers? Some police officers have been assaulted or bitten when they have intervened, as these clowns don't want to go peacefully. They want to be dragged away kicking and screaming like little children, and if that's the case, then so be it.

Liberals To Hold American Style Primary To Select Leader?

The Liberals are considering an American style primary process to select their next leader, where they would hold individual votes in a number of different cities to see who comes out on top. Today's poll question; is this a good idea? The alternative is a flawed convention process that last produced the futile and inept Stephane Dion to run for Prime Minister. Perhaps the results of the last Liberal leadership convention justifies the impetus to alter the selection process. The big question will be whether or not you'll have to be a paid card carrying Liberal to vote. In many American primaries, declared Democrats can vote for Republicans and visa versa.

Would I show up to vote for the next Liberal leader if they held an open primary in Vancouver? Probably, but I'd much rather vote in the NDP leadership race. Thus far the NDP race has a greater number of candidates who have a 0% chance of being elected Prime Minister in the next election. Having survived Bob Rae's Ontario, I could never mark his name on a ballot, even if I expected him to lose.

Should CSIS Conduct Operations Abroad?

Today's poll question; should CSIS conduct operations in foreign countries? This question has now been introduced to the media conversation and I'd like to know if you think our Secret Service/CIA should be conducting operation abroad (not counting trips by Canadian officials and diplomats). Normally I would defer to the Americans to fight the intelligence battle, but I'm curious about the idea of CSIS performing a similar function in order to protect Canadian interests. If foreign spy services conduct operations of espionage against Canada, would our interests be better protected if we had field agents operating in those countries? Our spies don't need to kill people or blow things up, but the art of collecting intelligence can be a very valuable commodity.

Daylight Savings

It is that time of year again when most of us set our clocks back to get an extra hour, so everyone remember to adjust your clocks. Today's poll question; does the joy of getting an extra hour in the fall justify the pain of losing an hour in the spring? The "fall back" is among my favourite days of the year, especially while working on weekends, but the "spring forward" is probably my least favourite day of the year.

Last year at around this time I asked the question:

DO YOU THINK THAT WE SHOULD HAVE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME?

No (55%)
Yes (40%)
Undecided (5%)

So the majority of you would rather we scrap this practice altogether and just be more like Saskatchewan. Granted, I asked this question after the "fall back" when many were already delighting in their extra hour. If I ask this question after the "spring forward", it would probably go at least 70% no.

Should Rob Ford Sue The CBC?

This might seem like a ridiculous question, but one I'd like to ask; if the taxpayers didn't have to foot the bill, should Rob Ford sue the CBC? I'm not a lawyer, but between trespassing and blatant character assassination, there has to be enough to get a court date. If he were to sue the CBC, the taxpayers would be on the hook for the legal bill, so this is more of a hypothetical question. Home invasions are a little extreme even for the CBC, but I would really like to read the minutes from the meeting where they decided upon this new strategy. What was the dialogue between Walsh and her producer? Maybe I'll send an Access to Information request. They pushed the envelope farther than they ever have, and I suspect it was a deliberate attempt to force the Mayor into the most uncomfortable situation, impromptu left wing sketch comedy at his home in front of his children. Then he overreacted and called the police, prompting the CBC to ridicule him and then publish a negative story about the 9/11 calls that turned out to be totally false. That's damned near slander. You can get sued for that.

Message to anyone considering a political career, the CBC is breaking new ground where you need to be on high alert 24 hours per day. You won't be safe in your homes. Why the f**k anyone would want a career in politics with this ridiculous standard is beyond me. I guess this kind of attack is perpetrated more often against right wing politicians, who are vilified at every opportunity. Every Conservative is "the worst person in the world", right?

I have to give two thumbs up to Ezra Levant for this comedy sketch. It was brilliant and made me laugh out loud.

Halloween Poll Questions

Happy Halloween! In honour of the day I have two poll questions. The first question; have you or will you wear a Halloween costume in public this year? The second question is dedicated to my nephew; should Halloween be a statutory holiday? He recently argued that Halloween should be an official holiday, and while I'm pretty sure how this poll will turn out, for his sake I had to ask. Perhaps it could be a day off school, but not a full blown stat holiday. Really my nephew was pissed off that he had to go to school on Halloween more so than he was advocating a new stat.

I've been seeing a lot of adults wearing Halloween costumes this past week, and I am curious to know how many of you are members of this club. If you are invited to a costume party and dress up for one night, that's acceptable; but when Darth Vader is bagging my groceries, I tend to roll my eyes in disapproval (FYI: no disrespect to people who work bagging groceries. That was my first job in high school). Then again, some employers likely encourage their staff to wear costumes today in order to max out the flavour of the day. I worked today. I dressed up as an ice maker. Nobody noticed, but then again, it wasn't a costume.

Corporation, Unions, And Political Contributions

Today's poll question; should corporations and unions be allowed to make political donations and run advertising during election campaigns? You may have noticed in recent years that many major unions in Canada have been spending a lot of money on advertisements espousing NDP and other left wing positions. This allows the Dippers to flood the airwaves with friendly words promoting their policies and attacking the government without counting towards legal spending limits. In Ontario the "working families coalition" (aka CUPE) put more money and effort into re-electing Dalton McGuinty than Dalton did! They wanted to keep the gravy train rolling, and it was worth their while to spend  millions of dollars making it happen.

Unions are becoming very politically active, or perhaps they've always been and I'm just noticing it more as I grow older. Peggy Nash is the biggest union cheerleader in the NDP leadership race, and she was on TV yesterday saying that if you are not in a union, you're probably struggling to get by financially. I'm not sure that we need more electoral law when we already have several laws that are outdated and should be scrapped. They were discussing this "political contribution" issue on the radio yesterday as I was driving to work, so I figured it was at least worth a poll question. Corporations were included in the poll question because reasonably, you can't deny one and permit the other. It is all or none.

Does Parliament Need 30 New Seats?

Today's poll question; should 30 new seats be added to Canadian Parliament? In an attempt to fix some inequities in the current regional distribution of Parliament the government has passed legislation to add 30 new seats spread across Ontario, BC, Alberta, and 3 to Quebec. While I agree that provincial distributions should be tied to population, I do not support adding 30 new politicians to Parliament. Unfortunately you can't redistribute seat counts without adding new ones, so that's how we've arrived where we are.

The last thing this country needs is more politicians, but the Tories are committed to repairing the inequity as much as possible. It is a noble cause, even if adding seats is less desirable than shuffling the existing seats. I'd prefer they take seats away from Atlantic Canada, but I suppose we'd need to update our constitution, and that's rarely fun. I support what the government is doing, just not how they are doing it; and yet their method is the only plausible option. I'm torn on this one.

Ambush Comedy At Politician Homes?

Today's poll question; is it appropriate for a comedy troupe to film uninvited unexpected improv sketches at the homes of politicians? A maniacal CBC character and camera crew ambushed Rob Ford at his home on his driveway with his young daughter present, and the CBC has been hammering him all day for responding to the ambush by calling the police. Was calling the police necessary? Maybe not, but he should never have been put in that position. The loonie left has been sending death threats to the Mayor, and the CBC suddenly decides to jump this guy first thing in the morning outside his house when he's driving his young child to school? Seriously??? How long did they sit waiting outside his house for him to come out?

What the CBC did here was just stupid and wrong. If we permit this as acceptable we are setting a dangerous precedence. Who's going to want to get into politics if you are going to be harrassed in your driveway? The clowns on CBC Newsworld today were having a lot of fun with this story today, with one dude joking that he had to pour through many e-mails to find any supportive of Ford. The discussion of whether or not this home ambush was an appropriate decision was noticeably absent. Then tonight on the National, Mansbridge did a whole bit on why Rob Ford's 1st year was so terrible and the worst "mistake" they could name was him missing the Pride parade (meanwhile Christy Clark skipped the one in Vancouver and the media hardly made a whimper). Sure Ford has yet to cut the budget as promised (thanks in part to ardent left wing opposition), but nothing he's done can be classified as doing a bad job. Yet to hear some journalists talk about it, through one year he's the worst Mayor in the history of Canada. Some journalists and bloggers, like Marcus Gee at the Globe and Mail have pretty much dedicated their lives to attacking Ford.

Kelly McParland wrote a great piece on this story in the National Post which I strongly recommend reading.

Occupy Vancouver's "Run On The Banks"

On Saturday the Occupy Vancouver protest spilled into downtown banks so that protesters could close their accounts in what they called their "run on the banks". Miraculously, our banks and our entire financial system did not collapse as a result of this loss of wealth. I'd be interested to know just how much money the banks lost during this run on the banks. Are you even allowed to close your account if you have a negative balance?

Have fun living your lives without bank accounts guys and gals. I'm sure they'll all be back re-opening their accounts in the very near future so their parents have an easy way to send them money. It is unlikely that any of these clowns who went in and closed their accounts get direct deposit pay from an employer, if they even have jobs at all. The few people left camping out downtown seem to have a lot of free time on their hands. Occupy Vancouver does have a paypal account and are accepting donations. They are not a registered non-profit so they do not count as a charity.

Today's poll question; should banks be allowed to earn profit?

Stop Calling Yourselves "The 99%"

We need to get something straight; the far left does not represent 99% of the population and the Occupy protesters need to stop making that claim. These clowns are being interviewed repeatedly on local talk radio here in Vancouver and they keep saying "we are the 99%". Sure it's clever, but it's dishonest. Let's find out what percentage of Canadians support the Occupy protests so the miscreants can instead say "we are the 30% or less". In fact, today's poll question will be "do you support the Occupy Canada protests?"

When the Tea Party emerged as a protest to high government spending, the left's response was ridicule and homophobic jokes. I'm not going to start suggesting that these Occupy Canada protesters are busy sucking each other's nut sacks, but I am more than happy to ridicule their cause.

New Canadian Ship Building Contracts

Today's poll question; should the government spend $33 billion to upgrade the Canadian navy and coast guard? This morning it was announced that Halifax was awarded the bulk of this massive contract, with British Columbia getting the consolation prize and Quebec being awarded nothing (though they will surely see some of the money through parts manufacturing). This was not awarded by the Harper government, but rather an independent group that had support from opposition parties. It was not a partisan decision, though I'm sure you'll hear accusations that Nova Scotia won the contracts to get Peter MacKay re-elected. Canada requires a larger navy than most countries because we have a substantially larger coast line than any other country in the world.

Frankly I don't care which province won the contracts, just so long as they were the best bids. John Ivison is already upset that we did not accept foreign bids, which could have produced better vessels at a lower price. It is a fair argument, and perhaps will be my next poll question. If we sent the contract to Germany we could get boats that are 20% better for 20% cheaper, but would not receive the benefit of domestic economic activity (and the tax revenue it brings). Let's just hope that we don't end up with a bunch of Bricklins and Fast Ferries...

This has to be BC's largest ship building contract since the Pacificat Fast Ferry fiasco, so hopefully our local ship builders are able to do a better job this time. Christy Clark was really jazzed up at the press conference with over the top enthusiasm that was bordering on comical. You will rarely see that level of excitement for finishing in 2nd place, but this is the first good news of her tenure as Premier, so I'm not shocked by her outpouring of emotion.

The pundits were saying that this will cost the Tories more support in Quebec, even though they were not involved in the decision. Quebec deserved their fair share, even if their bid was lousy...

Occupy Protests Prepare Demands

Now that the Occupy Canada protests have begun, we can expect these clowns to start making demands in the near future. Today's poll question; what demand do you most expect to emerge from the Occupy protests? There are plenty of options to choose from. It could be changing the retirement age to 40, or even 25. They could demand bigger government, or they could demand no government at all. Perhaps they want to revive the soviet union? How does a 3 day work week sound to you? Should we shut down our stock exchanges and nationalize the banks? Maybe the government should pay off all your debt? What about guaranteeing every citizen at least $30,000 per year even if they choose not to work?

Have you noticed that the Occupy Wall street people are not protesting Obama's government? Obama has an election coming up soon and how long do you think it will take before the Occupy demands become Obama's election promises? Canada is in a safer position with the Conservatives holding a majority government, with the next election a few years away.

Should Don Cherry Be Sued?

Today's poll question; should Don Cherry be sued for calling some former hockey fighters "pukes and turncoats"? Normally I'm among the first to defend Cherry when he creates a pinko bike riding media controversy, but Don went too far with the latest rant. Players who have played the game have every right to express their opinions about possible negative side effects, and doing so does not make them pukes. They earned the right to have their opinions. Now the 3 players who were at the source of Cherry's tantrum are threatening a lawsuit for defamation, and there is a decent chance that they could win. While I believe Cherry overreacted to what the players said about fighting in hockey, I'm not sure we want to live in a society where calling someone a puke is worthy of a lawsuit. That's too litigious.

Don went too far, but not so far as to warrant a lawsuit. Do you agree or disagree?