Politics by Polling – Elxn44

Justin Trudeau on a pandemic mission for majority

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s magic mirror must have given the wrong answer. Who really is the fairest in the land?

Or perhaps Trudeau could not forget 230,000 more Canadians voted for Scheer in 2019. Maybe he worried management of the pandemic would overshadow the rest of his term.

Or maybe Justin wanted a majority … bad enough to call an election in a pandemic … after only 18 months in office … in which he got everything he ever asked for from parliament … in the midst of a botched withdrawal from Afghanistan … with no real policy issue to debate …

Plebeians will never know.

No matter who wins, healthcare can expect the biggest influx of cash in fifty years. Each party promises to double competitors’ spending.  And they guarantee better management. After all, this is the Canadian way: do not change anything, just spend more. The status quo should remain intact for another few years.

Politics by Polling

A friend told me to listen to Maxime Bernier on Jordon Peterson’s podcast.

I know very little about either of them. They each seem somewhat tragic figures who stick to their principles and ignore personal cost. They produce more content than I can consume. And (I hate to admit) they often make me feel uncomfortable. If only I had half their courage.

But I listened …

Bernier and Peterson really impressed me. Bernier said politicians were doing politics by polling. They followed survey results, not principles. Bernier believes politicians should take a position and work to educate voters.

I have not joined the People’s Party of Canada. But I must admit, Bernier’s honesty surprised me. Kudos to Peterson for asking tough questions:

Will the vanity election of 2021 bring any meaningful change?

Shifting the Overton Window

On a different note, someone asked me recently, “Why do you bother with all this writing and speaking? Seriously, do you actually believe you can change anything?”

Great question.

Joseph P. Overton described a window of acceptable social policy, in the 1990s. We accept what sounds familiar.

If everyone is talking about restricting freedom with passports and mandatory lockdowns, then the window of acceptable opinion shifts. Ideas outside the window sound outrageous or scary.

If you value reason, science, and freedom to ask questions, then you had better speak up about those things. If you do not, the Overton window will shift, and people will see you as a falling outside the pale — a wild anarchist or radical.

My friend said, “Oh. You mean shift the dial.”

Media Summary

Here’s a snap shot of some of the writing, radio, and TV interviews I’ve been part of over the last few weeks. My bit to shift the Overton window.

Aug 18 It’s Time to Learn to Live with Covid, National Post – co-author

Every pandemic becomes endemic. Vaccination approaches 100% in vulnerable patients. We need to learn to live with the virus.

Aug 20 Ottawa at Work with Leslie Roberts: on vaccine mandates (radio)

Roberts attacked me for co-authoring the piece in the National Post. He referenced the LA Times expressing frustration at anti-vaxxers. Let’s mandate vaccines. He used me as a punching bag for his frustration. Have a listen. I think we ended in a good place.

Aug 24 Why Conscience Rights in Healthcare Matter, The Andrew Lawton Show

Erin O’Toole flip flopped and said he supported forcing doctors to refer for MAiD/euthanasia. Patients have had outstanding access to abortions for decades, without any forced referrals.

I spoke with Andrew Lawton about the issue and how freedom of conscience underlies all professional judgement. Freedom of conscience is not the same as freedom of religion.

Aug 25 Has the Mainstream Media Eroded Trust In Doctors? The Stephen LeDrew 3-Minute Interview

Stephen LeDrew raised a good point. Doctors appear to have led many of the painful public health directives. Do patients now hate docs? Check out the comments below the video — Yikes!

Aug 28, Could Private Healthcare Ease Strain of 4th COVID wave? Roy Green Show (radio)

Trudeau attacked O’Toole as trying to sneak in private care. Roy Green and I tried to unpack the Liberal spin.

Aug 30 What One Doctor Says About “The Expert” Advice Politicians Are Listening To During COVID-19. The Stephen LeDrew 3-Minute Interview

Knowledge is rare. Expertise is narrow. Every general fights the last war. Rule by experts never works.

Sept 1 Canada’s Weird Relationship with Private Healthcare.

Here’s a deeper dive into Liberals’ accusations of a nefarious plot to privatize care.

Sept 3 The Myth About Canadian Healthcare That Just Won’t Die, Whatley and Wudrick, National Post

Private care already exists. It is just heavily regulated.  Making this a wedge issue in an election is nonsense.

 

Photo credit Toronto Star.

13 thoughts on “Politics by Polling – Elxn44”

  2. Hi Shawn. Always look forward to your articles. The following is my opinion alone and I reserve the right to be wrong!

    The most current problem with politics is the mainstream and social media. Perhaps not all, but the major outlets are fundamentally left leaning.

    Legacy media used to be the guardians of justice. They asked hard questions and reported accurately. No longer.

    Most issues are complex. Even an hour (less because of commercials) is woefully inadequate to properly dissect and analyse complex topics such as the Canadian Healthcare system e.g. Steve Paikin’s show. The less said about 30 second sound bites the better. But that is what the extremely gullible public are force fed and are happily and willingly consume. They are either lazy or mentally and physically too tired to do their due diligence to dig deep and ask the right questions. They have been deliberately kept busy by the system (taxation, long hours at work) that they do not have the time or energy to do any other activities at the end of the day other than watch sports or other TV shows (what is the percentage of the population that have read a book recently?).

    Canadians also suffer from Political Stockholm Syndrome. They have also been trained to “make do” and accept the “crumbs” thrown their way and told to be grateful.

    Politicians are smart people. They know that the public also suffer from 3G Syndrome (gullible, greedy, good natured) and therefore can be bought by election time promises (read handouts and “inducements”) and pleas to their moral conscience. The political parties that promise the most “inducements” usually win. The parties that are principled usually don’t.

    Compounding this is that the voting public frequently continues to vote for the same party that not only broke promises but also were involved in far too many scandals. When asked why they did not vote for a different party, the usual answer is “the other party could be worse.” (reminds one of another sadly far too common DSM V diagnosis). This pattern is repeated every election (Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, and three times is enemy action). The voting public does not seem to be capable of learning. The frequent chestnut spoken by the losing party leader – “The voters are always right” (or equivalent versions) – is clearly not the veritable truth.

    The truth is “We get the politicians we (the majority) voted for.”.

    Once again Einstein’s wisdom illuminates the room: “The difference between genius and stupidity is that there are limits to genius.”. George Orwell was prescient.

    Methinks society is doomed.

    1. Wow … what a powerful comment, Robert. And depressing! What’s worse is that I fear you are right.

      Do you see any way to turn this around? Is there any hope? What can we do?

      Thanks again for taking time to put this together.

      Cheers

      1. Keep doing what you’ve been doing, Shawn. The hackneyed expression The Silent Majority is really upset; many of the Vocal Minority are changing their views too. We have been living in interesting times for a while now: Brexit, OMA (thanks, Shawn etc), Trump, Populism (from left and right) has been sweeping the planet for a while. Time will continue to march on and History will look back and analyze it.

        1. Thanks Gerry!!

          Love your encouragement and the fact that you’ve been involved all along.

          Cheers

  3. Aus has 1100 deaths due to the virus and this is how their government has ‘forced’ citizens to react to bizarre and draconian measures to ‘combat’ the virus. News of latest Aus polls suggest 62% approval rating to covid handling – ponderous. A very weird dichotomy – my spidey sense says something does not jive.

    https://twitter.com/_evelynrae/status/1439102631738167301?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1439251651030917121%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnotthebee.com%2Farticle%2Fjordan-peterson-how-is-this-not-worse-than-the-virus

    Notwithstanding, if you believe CDC numbers (July 2021) ages 20-49 have a 99.98% survival rate and ages 50-69 have a 99.5% survival rate. Yet the mere mention of questioning how public health is formulating all these lock’ish-down restrictive policies (with dubious evidence of efficacy of these policies) will get you excommunicated by the CPSO. All the ‘medical experts’ have opined that Sweden did it wrong – curious as the numbers don’t reflect that – certainly a Swedes civil liberties were slightly encroached. Sweden’s public health authorities told their citizenry to be aware, stay safe and for the most part protected their most vulnerable (albeit a bit late). However, the same medical experts public health authorities counter parts in this country say nope – face diapers for all, vaccines for all – least vulnerable (kids) to most vulnerable alike. People are not dumb, they ask why, they get pseud-intellectual giberish back, they ask can you explain this paper or that paper that refutes what you are telling me – they get pseud-intellectual giberish back.

    The way out? Vote for a party that allows me to make my own informed decision – a party that errs on the side of liberty not totalitarianism.

    1. @rickk
      You are absolutely spot on. I trained in Australia. Spent 13 years of my life there. WAS a lovely country. Have friends there still. The current Australia is not the same Australia when I was there.

      BTW, when did you last see all three political parties all walk in lockstep in recent years other than pandemic policies and mandates? Surprisingly it has occurred – when they voted for pay raises for politicians.

      1. Rikk and Robert

        This is where it gets real. What will political parties support? Which one will support the insanity we’ve been watching in Australia?

        Thanks so much for raising the issue … I hope people get a chance to check out the Aussie videos

  4. “ Its hard to look up at a politician who has his/ her ear to the ground”.

    One thing for certain, Canada will elect the politicians that they deserve and then grumble about them.

    1. Andris! Where did you get that quote from?

      Brilliant. That is exactly on point.

      I told you before: No one — seriously, no one — brings the same history, quotes, anecdotes to these discussion that you do. THAT is your unique expertise — your genius — and I am so grateful for you sharing it.

      I hope you are well

      Cheers

      1. No surprise….the great Sir Winston Churchill:
        “The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground”.

        1. Thanks…I couldn’t remember…but Winston quotes are gems.
          well, Canada voted for the government that they deserve and they got it.

          Sad to see the politicization of medicine in North America….largely led by our younger woke colleagues.

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