Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, March 22, 2013

Harper Government Highlights Self

The Conservative government this week was required to quantify its obsessive use of the phrase “Harper Government” to brand just about everything it does.

Liberal MP John McCallum asked the government, via an order table question, for a complete list of every press release to use the phrase from every department or Crown agency last fall.

The result, tabled this week, was a massive 297-page document with responses from each department.  The data is rather messy – dates are formatted inconsistently, the French and English are goulashed together and all the documents had to be subject to a messy OCR process – but I was able to get a rough total using some search-and-replace tactics.

My analysis show that between September 21 and December 11 (when the question was tabled), the federal government sent out 449 press releases in English using the phrase Harper Government.

So, about eight times every weekday, a government organ issues an official communication branded with the name of our prime minister. You can double the figure if you include the French version.

These were no mere passing references:  Of these 449 press releases, I counted 412 slugged with a title that began “Harper Government….” followed by a suitably impressive verb, such as “helps,” “invests,” “boosts,” “supports,” “appoints,” “highlights,” “encourages,” and “commemorates,” among dozens of others.

My favourites:

“Harper Government Helps Gluten-Free Bakery Deliver New Product Line,”

“Harper Government Highlights Role of East Coast Privateers in the War of 1812,”

“Harper Government Showcases Agriculture at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair,”

“Harper Government Agreement Will Bring Versatile New Oat Variety Closer to Market,”

and “Harper Government Supports the 2012 Women’s Wrestling Championships.”

It’s worth noting that some departments have clearly told the Prime Minister’s Office to pound sand.  The Department of National Defence, for one, said it could find no press releases containing the phrase.

Vive la résistance!

Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author:  Glen McGregor

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