Editor's Notes — December 2014
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Editor's Notes
Sex on The Hill, Lies, the birth of True North Perspective
and Harper's hit-and-run Putin stunt for the prairie vote
Nude Liberals and being a poor sport
When I returned to Ottawa in 1986 I rented a room for a couple of months on Powell Avenue in The Glebe. My landlady worked on The Hill as a secretary (I think they call them Administrative Assistants today) with the New Democratic Party caucus. She paid for her home by renting rooms to New Democrat Members of Parliament. After several conversations I asked her what she was doing with the New Democrats? You sound like a Liberal. She frowned and said:
"When I first started working I got hired as a secretary with the Liberals. After a few weeks, a secretary for one of the Liberal MPs came to my desk on a Friday afternoon and invited me to a house party after work. I felt honoured and was delighted. I said I had to do some urgent shopping and would come after that. She gave me the address on a street in what was then called Eastview, and is now called Vanier.
"When I arrived, I saw that all the Members there were standing around in casual conversation with drinks in their hands, dressed in their business suits. I saw all the secretaries also standing around with drinks in their hands, also in casual conversation, but the absolutely shocking difference was that every woman there was stark naked.
"I was so appalled that I turned around and walked out. On Monday several of the secretaries asked why I had left in such a huff. When I told them that the scene was unacceptable they mocked me and said I was being a poor sport.
"As soon as possible I applied for work in the NDP caucus. Was hired. I've never voted Liberal since," she said.
Happy Birthday True North Perspective
I come from a long line of writers (including war correspondents and poets) and fighters (mostly cavalry). When World War Two broke out my father wanted to go overseas to kill Nazis, but he was 40 years old. He was also a baker. The army put him in charge of feeding 7,500 of 15,000 men being processed in six-week basic training (the Americans call it boot camp) at Camp Borden, just west of Barrie Ontario. I only made it as far as the 51st Optimist Air Cadets based at Beaver Barracks in Ottawa. But I've written poems, short stories, and novels.
Aside from fighting, the joy of the printed word runs deep in our family. When we were children, my sisters Lillian and Vivian and I played newspaper, using a flashlight for a telephone. Later, as adults, needless to say, we overlapped for about 18 months, Vivian worked at The Toronto Star, Lillian at The Toronto Telegram, while I worked at The Globe and Mail.
I don't know where it came from, United Church Sunday School, family learning, or probably simply rooted in our DNA, but there is an urgency to satisfy the need for learning and knowledge, seeking the truth, and a strong negative response to lies and liars. For example, I never lied to my children about anything. There were temptations but I never yielded on principle.
So it was that in December 2006 I launched, with the support of the technical genius of 19-year-old Carl Hall, True North Perspective. The genesis of the project was the body of lies being told by then U.S. president George W. Bush. The mainstream media (MSM) were simply taking the lies and imposing them entirely undigested on an unsuspecting public. I was rationally outraged. Even if only five relatives and friends read TNP I'd at least have the satisfaction of publishing stories that would be as close to the truth as I could come considering the information-starved means at my disposal.
Coming straight out of print, I had no idea of matters of Ye Web. Before I knew it TNP was being read on all continents except Antarctica (we're working on that). We've had as many as more than 100,000 reads in Canada alone for a single issue and at latest count we've got 537,619 reads world wide for the November issue. There are others with far more reads than what we have but considering our extremely sparse resources and our national readership base, we're doing a bit better than my first frantic ambitions.
Aside from our unpaid columnists and contributing editors, at the core of our operation is Geoffrey Dow who, as managing editor also carries the load of art editor and who does a brilliant job of making TNP and TNHP look pleasing and interesting. Geoffrey, among other responsibilities, is also the conscience of TNP, making sure that we maintain an ethical line that our readers come to know and trust. With Geoffrey Dow on ethics, is Carl Hall, who, early on, I came to nickname, Doctor Carl. Carl Hall, as webmaster, maintains what is called the backend of True North Perspective. A mysterious place where I never venture. Without Carl Hall's diligence True North Perspective would never reach you each day of publication. As editor and publisher of True North Perspective, I freely admit that it would be impossible for me to produce True North Perspective without the critical, creative, collaboration of Carl Hall and Geoffrey Dow.
None of us can afford to work on True North Perspective full time. We are eternally grateful to those who have made donations. Every penny received is a major boost to our morale so I urge you to dig deep and find some spare change to send our way. Please don't make the mistake of thinking that what you can afford is too little. And for those with sand at the bottom of your resources, please take time to spread the word. Come to think of it, the latter applies to all readers of True North Perspective.
Stephen Harper calls hit-and-run, a confrontation, MSM sops it up
I wonder how much time Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper practiced his hit-and-run on Russian President Vladimir Putin, I'll shake your hand. But you've got to get out of Ukraine, Harper said breathlessly at the G20 before he backed off.
Harper, like a succession of leaders at Washington, shames the concept of democracy. They called for a vote in Gaza but refused to recognize it when Hamas won. They cozy up with slave states like Saudi Arabia and others. When 97 per cent of Crimeans voted to rejoin Russia March 17 2014 Harper and Obama cried fraud and Russian invasion. Pure nonsense. With the exception of about 50 years under Soviet rule, the Crimea has been a Russian political and cultural entity for about as long as the United States has been a country. The vote was held under Article 1 of the United Nations Charter, stipulating the right of people to self determination.
Harper knows that. The media at the G20 played along. All doing their best to create an image of Putin being odd man out. The western media failed to note that Putin and Angela Merkel of Germany had a nine-hour meeting and even yet fails to note that Germany's policy has since been modifying away from the Washington hard line. Please see Germany's FM, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has said he is against Ukraine joining NATO. And Prominent Germans urge West to stop sabre rattling toward Russia. And http://rt.com/business/211815-eu-russia-sanctions-relieve/.
Harper's stunt with Putin was simply for Canadian prairie Ukrainian votes in the next federal election. Harper knows how to play the ethnic and base votes. He plays to his right wing core, the Jewish vote, and the Ukrainian vote, with a finely tuned sense of politics completely devoid of principle. When it comes to playing for electoral bias, Harper is a maestro who is dedicated to transforming our country from its liberal generosity in kind and spirit to a narrow religious bigotry. His principle is to destroy what we have come to know with pride, and produce a country based on fear.
Harper's model is the United States of Fear and all the ugliness that goes with it.
So let's keep hot the letter and spirit of the Canada we know and love, and Stop Harper in 2015.
Meanwhile, take it easy, but take it.
Looking forward.
