Tim Mak

David Frum has an interview over at the Canadian Council for Democracy. I think the sentence that best reflects his thinking nowadays is that ”the point of politics is to produce good governments.”

From what I can see, it’s a diversion from this notion that leads to his concern in the American conservative movement.

The interview is mostly regarding what low Canadian voter turnout says about society. Full interview after the jump.

SP: And yet despite this, in the country’s last federal election, voter turnout was the lowest in the country’s history. Do you think that election fatigue is solely to blame for Canadians’ recent disengagement from one the primary civic activities of their democracy?

DF: A hair under 60% turned out – that’s pretty good, especially in a country with such a large population of newly arrived immigrants. It will take the newcomers a little time to feel oriented and familiar, to form the kinds of connections that inspire voting.

Besides: I’d be careful about using voter turnout as a measure of political health. US voter turnout rose dramatically between 2000 and 2008, because voters became increasingly dissatisfied with the way their government was run and because an increasingly partisan media enflamed cultural divisions.

Maybe we should interpret a low turnout in the same spirit as the old joke about the child who never spoke until at age 8, he told his mother: “The soup’s cold.” Stunned, she exclaimed, “You can talk! And yet you’ve never spoken until now?” He answered: “Until now, everything’s been fine.”

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This is a couple months old, but I thought I’d pass it onto the blog since I haven’t yet done so. Here’s my exclusive interview with Jason Kenney, originally on FrumForum:

Jason Kenney, Canada’s Minister of Multiculturalism, is on the line. He’s discussing how his ethnic outreach program has been more effective in conservative western Canada than in Liberal-heavy central Canada. There’s a pause as he reaches for an example.

“You’re from B.C., right?” he says. “Right,” I reply, slightly taken aback. He goes on to explain the characteristics of a riding in British Columbia in order to contrast it with a riding in suburban Ontario.

Kenney and I had only met on one previous social occasion, and I doubted mentioning my hometown then. But he did his homework before our interview.

To previously hostile ethnic groups, Kenney has reached out in ways that showed he understood their details. Through symbolic gestures, he could assuage antagonism – or at least get their attention.

Jason Kenney, Canada’s Minister of Multiculturalism, is on the line. He’s discussing how his ethnic outreach program has been more effective in conservative western Canada than in Liberal-heavy central Canada. There’s a pause as he reaches for an example.

“You’re from B.C., right?” he says. “Right,” I reply, slightly taken aback. He goes on to explain the characteristics of a riding in British Columbia in order to contrast it with a riding in suburban Ontario.

Kenney and I had only met on one previous social occasion, and I doubted mentioning my hometown then. But he did his homework before our interview.

To previously hostile ethnic groups, Kenney has reached out in ways that showed he understood their details. Through symbolic gestures, he could assuage antagonism – or at least get their attention.

And it has worked. In 2006, a visible minority voter was three times more likely to vote Liberal than to vote Conservative. By the 2008 federal election, ethnic minorities were about as likely to vote Conservative as they were to vote Liberal

And it has worked. In 2006, a visible minority voter was three times more likely to vote Liberal than to vote Conservative. By the 2008 federal election, ethnic minorities were about as likely to vote Conservative as they were to vote Liberal.

Read the rest at:
http://www.frumforum.com/how-canadas-conservatives-won-the-immigrant-vote

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In today’s National Post Full Comment, I ask whether it’s okay to lie to a subject in order to convey a fuller truth to audiences.

My answer would be: if a reporter is willing to lie to a subject, then how can I trust that the reporter wouldn’t lie to me?

Read the piece here:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/08/03/tim-mak-liars-and-conservative-bloggers/

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At FrumForum:

In Canada, the Governor General sweepstakes continue, and momentum is gaining for one long-shot pick: William Shatner.

The decision as to who becomes to the next Governor General, the country’s de facto head of state and representative of the Crown, is made by the Prime Minister, but popular opinion is steaming behind a term for Shatner. More than 45,000 people have joined a Facebook campaign to support the concept. I say no.

Read more at:
http://www.frumforum.com/captain-kirk-shouldnt-be-canadas-head-of-state

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A day late, but here’s my profile of Michael Medved, the Sunday feature on FrumForum:

Talk-show radio host Michael Medved was once addicted to hitchhiking.

In his teens, Medved, now with a weekly talk radio audience of more than 7 million, passed the time by thumbing his way across the country – once traveling from New Haven, Connecticut to San Diego, California in the week before finals in college.

“I think that everybody in adolescence wanted to do something that is adventurous and daring. A lot of my contemporaries did drugs, and my particular addiction was this feeling of going hitchhiking,” Medved told FrumForum.

Hitchhikers are often picked up to allay the boredom of a lonely drive – those who thumbed paid their fare in conversation. It’s no wonder, then, that Medved has found success in talk radio.

Talk-show radio host Michael Medved was once addicted to hitchhiking.

In his teens, Medved, now with a weekly talk radio audience of more than 7 million, passed the time by thumbing his way across the country – once traveling from New Haven, Connecticut to San Diego, California in the week before finals in college.

“I think that everybody in adolescence wanted to do something that is adventurous and daring. A lot of my contemporaries did drugs, and my particular addiction was this feeling of going hitchhiking,” Medved told FrumForum.

Hitchhikers are often picked up to allay the boredom of a lonely drive – those who thumbed paid their fare in conversation. It’s no wonder, then, that Medved has found success in talk radio.

Hitchhikers are often picked up to allay the boredom of a lonely drive – those who thumbed paid their fare in conversation. It’s no wonder, then, that Medved has found success in talk radio.

Read more at:
http://www.frumforum.com/the-bravest-man-on-radio

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I had the chance to go bowling with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney last evening. The result at FrumForum:

“NO BAGGY CLOTHES. NO CONSTRUCTION BOOTS. NO SPORTS JERSEYS. NO HEAD GEAR. NO RIPPED OR BAGGY CLOTHING,” screamed a sign outside Lucky Strike Lanes in Gallery Place-Chinatown. They shuffled by in dark, black overcoats, nodding quietly to the flirty volunteers at registration, themselves in matching black button-ups. They were big-time federal donors, and they were here to bowl with Mitt Romney.”

Read more here:
http://www.frumforum.com/bowling-with-mitt

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In FrumForum, I respond to Paul Wells on the Rights and Democracy issue:

“Paul Wells is undoubtedly one of Canada’s best journalists… I’ve always enjoyed the dose of personality that he infuses into his writing. In fact, I constantly referred to his fantastic book, Right Side Up, when I took ‘The Conservative Movement in Canada’ at McGill. All of which makes it harder to believe Wells’ reaction to my two pieces on Rights and Democracy last week.”

Also featured is a rebuttal to his criticism of my first piece, which suggests Rights and Democracy might have helped fund Durban II.

Read more here:
http://www.frumforum.com/answering-paul-wells

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The scandal-ridden Rights and Democracy organization has another controversy to explain: How some $150,000 of Canadian taxpayer money is being spent each year on a Geneva office that isn’t even open – and why they are now paying an extravagant $3,000 per month for an apartment in France for its one staffer in Switzerland.

A FrumForum source from Geneva reports: the office is closed. Plus, one has to wonder – why does Rights and Democracy even have an office in Geneva?

Read more at:
http://www.frumforum.com/govt-group-living-it-up-in-geneva

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Tim Mak At FrumForum:

Rights and Democracy – already under fire for financing groups with alleged links to terrorism – may have also contributed financially to the infamous Durban II conference, FrumForum has learned.

Read more at:
http://www.frumforum.com/did-canadian-taxpayers-foot-bill-for-anti-semitic-hate-fest

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I’m in the editorial pages of the National Post today, writing about Rob Willington, the man behind Scott Brown’s historic Senate win in Massachusetts. And guess what? He’s Canadian.

Read more:
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2493174

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