Is This Why The Con Media Hates Justin Trudeau So Much?

As you know, I've often wondered why the Con media is so biased against Justin Trudeau, and hates him so much.

I've blamed that bias on shameless scribblers trying to please their corporate bosses, who are furious with Trudeau for raising their taxes.

I've wondered whether our dilapidated media are being secretly propped up by uber right-wing groups like the Fraser Institute or the Koch brothers.

But now I have a new theory to add to the mix, and in many ways it's the most horrifying.



For it has to do with the culture of the place where most of them work.

A place as Tim Harper explains, that is toxic with loneliness and booze. 

This is a place populated by the powerful and the ambitious, but also the wide-eyed and those drawn to power.

It is tiny. 

As the old adage goes, two blocks from Queen’s Park no one knows who the health minister is. Two blocks from Parliament Hill, you could see the health minister at the next table at your restaurant. 

It is a transient population. Most of those in the precinct are thousands of kilometres from spouse and family. Its currency is information, but that too often takes the form of gossip, very often of the baseless, malicious variety born of jealousy or a bid for partisan gain.

The winter nights are long. An empty condo does not beckon. It takes a special commitment to go home with a committee report and tune in CPAC reruns. A Toronto friend told me Ottawa was nights at different venues with the same people. She was right. 

And there is booze everywhere.

A place as Carol Off writes, that is corrupted by power. 



I flew to Ottawa one cold February morning in 1987 filled with anticipation, eager to start my first real job as a reporter. No one warned me that I was actually travelling there in a time machine, back to an age when girls were girls and men were men. It soon became obvious. 

What I learned in the few years I worked in the nation's capital was that power and privilege allow for the most boorish behaviour imaginable.

A place that the old boys club turned into a shark tank, where women were routinely groped and assaulted.

The senator came to the door to say goodbye. He shook hands with the men, then turned to me. Suddenly, he had me pushed up against the wall while he groped and tried to force his tongue into my mouth. My colleagues stood by, aware of what was happening but not knowing what to do. I fought the senator off, grabbed my coat and fled the house, dishevelled and confused.

A sordid little place where a Prime Minister's press secretary Michel Gratton, would offer respected broadcasters like Judy Morrison access to his boss, in return for sexual favours.



And the old boy's club thought that was hilarious.

NDP MP Margaret Mitchell rose in the House of Commons a few days later to demand an explanation from the Conservatives. But instead of contrition, the House erupted into uproarious laughter, a rare moment of shared mirth among political foes. The mockery spread into the press gallery above, seemingly everyone enjoying the yuck fest.

A place where the same press secretary could assault women and have the other old boys excuse his behaviour.

Columnist Don McGillivray wrote: "Michel Gratton has doubtless suffered, perhaps horribly," but the affair is now settled with the apology. The Globe and Mail's George Bain wrote: "It may be that I talk with the wrong people, but in three days I met no news person who said he or she thought the press secretary had done anything more reprehensible than to be a somewhat macho self."

And to make matters worse, a place where young women, and presumably some young men, are STILL not safe.

As the young Ontario MPP Sam Oosterhoff explains.



"You were told to stay away from certain MPs. You were told to be careful about where you went with certain MPs, even myself as a young male staffer," said Niagara West-Glanbrook Progressive Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff, who worked for the federal Conservatives during the 2015 election. 

"So, I can only imagine what that was like, and having those conversations with my female colleagues at the time, who expressed discomfort. And it was never a particular issue, it was always a general understanding that there was a toxic atmosphere in place sometimes that, in all parties."

So here's my theory, or my question:



How do you think that old boy's club would react to the arrival of a prime minister like Justin Trudeau, who is proud to call himself a feminist?

And would rock that ugly sexist boat by promoting respect for women and LGBT Canadians.

And I think the answer is very, very, BADLY...



And is in my opinion one of the main reasons the Con media is so biased and hates Justin Trudeau so much.

It's a depressing situation, made worse by stories suggesting that Trudeau is part of the problem, and that the members of the old boy's club are the real victims. 

Ottawa is an especially tense and politicized place these days. Fuelled by the whispers and rumours of sexual harassment and worse, the climate is “overwhelmingly toxic”, in the words of one MP who spoke to iPolitics editor James Baxter.


Boo hoo hoo.

But the good news is that the day of the dotard, and the old boys club is almost over.

As the young Ontario MPP Ooosterhoff says, the times they are a changing.

"I think there's a shift occurring in younger generations, such as mine, that understand the importance of equality, that understand the importance of dignity, and worth, and that see the need for men to hold themselves and to be held up to higher standards when it comes to their behaviour and when it comes to their treatment of women, and I'm very, very impressed by the number of women who have come forward with these allegations, which are serious, but are necessary to come forward with.

Most young men don't believe in that garbage, and most women won't take it any longer.

And needless to say I'm with them.

At a time when women all over the world are rising and saying enough is enough.

Justin Trudeau represents the future.

And it belongs to us....