The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party will announce its new leader tomorrow. Will anyone care? Is it going to make a difference? With three years to go before an election in Ontario, will the voters notice the change? When you hear that timing is everything in politics, you get the idea
Continue readingTag: patrick brown
Babel-on-the-Bay: A potpourri for Sunday.
Babel-on-the-Bay has resisted the urge to do an occasional potpourri of comments. We usually try to stick to one (related at least) topic at a time. If we did a potpourri, it would probably look like this: Ignorance is bliss: In a letter to the editor of the Toronto Star
Continue readingTrashy's World: PCPO leadership race
I’m obviously NOT a supporter of Ontario’s PC Party, but rooting for Patrick Brown over Christine Elliott. The wise voters in our province have time and time again rejected the social conservatism that has been the hallmark of leaders like Hudak and Brown. Elliott would be a far greater barrier
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: With Patrick Brown you get bupkis.
It seems we are supposed to do some sort of mea culpa in regards to Barrie’s MP Patrick Brown. Yes Babel-on-the-Bay originates in Barrie but we thought we had that covered by calling the place Babel. It just would not remain hidden. In writing the other day about the relative
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Discovering Barrie’s Patrick Brown.
It has taken on all the elements of a farce. The Ontario news media are discovering Patrick Brown MP for Barrie. They are running lengthy, laudatory articles about him with flattering pictures. (And getting a flattering picture of Brown is no easy task.) The media think he has a lock
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: The Brown Retort
Since Patrick Brown looks set to become PCPO leader, its good to start looking for sources of intel on him now. The Brown Retort has material on the PC MP that I hadn’t heard. From the latest post (a couple of months old now): In a photo submitted to The Brown Retort…a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘Diplomat’ Brown and his friend Narendra Modi.
What is wrong with Canada’s foreign relations is more than explained by the friendship of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Patrick Brown MP. Yes, that is Patrick Brown, the most useless member of the Conservative back bench and the candidate for the leadership of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party. With
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Patrick Brown is the ‘same old, same old.’
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party is about to succumb to its worst nightmare. The party people thought they could never do worse than Timmy Hudak as their leader. They had obviously never met Barrie’s own Patrick Brown MP. Timmy Hudak made his signature promise in last year’s provincial election at the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Patrick Brown, we hardly knew you.
Ontario media have discovered Patrick Brown MP. Yes, that is our Patrick from Barrie. He has been our Member of Parliament for the last three parliaments. He was barely noticed. He said nothing. He did nothing. He was another mindless Conservative vote. He was your typical Conservative MP. But finally
Continue readingImpolitical: Paul Godfrey’s endorsement of Patrick Brown for PC leader of Ontario
Earlier today, Paul Godfrey, the President and CEO of Postmedia Network Inc., attended at the Ontario legislature where he stood next to Patrick Brown, candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, to announce his endorsement of Brown. This is a moment that warrants some critical observations
Continue readingImpolitical: Paul Godfrey’s endorsement of Patrick Brown for PC leader of Ontario
Earlier today, Paul Godfrey, the President and CEO of Postmedia Network Inc., attended at the Ontario legislature where he stood next to Patrick Brown, candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, to announce his endorsement of Brown. This is a moment that warrants some critical observations on the appropriateness of a major media CEO making such a public statement of support of a political candidate.
Here was the scene on the north lawn of Queen’s Park where, facing the legislature, the endorsement was rolled out:
.@brownbarrie announces Postmedia boss Paul Godfrey and PC titan Derek Burney are supporting him. #onpoli pic.twitter.com/5JYJIRMouz
— Robert Benzie (@robertbenzie) April 2, 2015
Godfrey is President and CEO of one of Canada’s largest media operations. Indeed, this announcement occurs on the heels of the federal Competition Bureau having given the green light to Postmedia Network’s acquisition of 175 Sun Media newspapers. There is a public democratic interest that the Competition Bureau took into consideration when granting public approval over this expansion and the recency of that decision and his company’s expanded media footprint in Canada might give some executives cause for extra caution and care when considering such a political endorsement.
Further, Godfrey’s endorsement of Brown cannot help but be viewed without considering Godfrey’s recent history with the Wynne government. Recall that in the spring of 2013, he was removed from his position as Chair of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. That history informs his announcement today and bolsters a perception of an adversarial political context.
A President and CEO of a company is the chief spokesperson for that entity. A President and CEO doesn’t simply “run the business part of the newspapers,” as Mr. Godfrey stated today, but speaks on behalf of the organization. Herein lies the perceived conflict of interest in a media CEO endorsing a political candidate, and the importance of journalistic objectivity. A CEO speaks on behalf of, represents and embodies that corporation’s public and private dealings with its many stakeholders. It is quite difficult to unpack the chief executive’s persona from that of the corporate entity due to their position and the scope of their authority. This is why, as Postmedia Network’s Business Code of Conduct, provides – “Postmedia Personnel may participate in the political process as private citizens.” – there is a signalling implicit in Mr. Godfrey’s endorsement to his company’s journalists, customers and shareholders. In short, Mr. Godfrey is not speaking as a private citizen. CEOs rarely do.
Continue readingImpolitical: Paul Godfrey’s endorsement of Patrick Brown for PC leader of Ontario
Earlier today, Paul Godfrey, the President and CEO of Postmedia Network Inc., attended at the Ontario legislature where he stood next to Patrick Brown, candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, to announce his endorsement of Brown. This is a moment that warrants some critical observations
Continue reading