CBC Ottawa, to which I listen most mornings, had Kathleen Petty and Hill Times / Maclean's hackette Kady O'Malley chatting away this morning, about the 'poor job' done by the Harper government and how much M. Dion has to gain from an early election... although Kathleen grudgingly admitted the election 'might not be as early as we thought' - read 'hoped'. This is but one example, but the media is wall-to-wall early election speculation - that is, the parts that aren't cabinet shuffle speculation.
As the fever overtakes all the journalists on the Hill we can expect to see more of the same. It seems that they all have forgotten three important things:
- The Prime Minister and/or the Opposition will decide the timing of the next election, not the media.
- The electorate will decide the outcome of that election, not the media.
- The Liberals might be the natural governing party of Canada but the Conservative Party is the actual governing party of Canada. The CBC and 'Senator' Jane Taber are neither.
Only rarely do we get a real glimpse into the minds of the political hacks; in the current climate of wild speculation and wishful Liberal thinking by the press, this piece from Larry Zolf should be re-read by as many folks as possible. This is the attitude that's really at work again right now; the Press Gallery wants their revenge on Harper and we can expect them to work as hard and as deviously as possible to create the election timing and outcome that they want to see.
