Angelo Persichilli Really is the Quintessential Lazy Columnist

Angelo Persichilli was recently described as the quintessential lazy columnist.

This was after his ridiculous 'exposure' of a Liberal plot, was 'revealed' without checking facts or even providing sound judgement.

I thought I had remembered a time when Persichilli was one of the good guys.

And by that I mean a fair and impartial journalist. According to his resume he's actually won awards.

Yes, he's used a lot of print trashing the Reform/Alliance movement as being the wrong fit for Canada, but that was a no brainer.

I don't know if he's just plagiarizing Kelly McParland at the National Post now, but he's certainly borrowed his writing style, and I use the term 'style', VERY loosely. I no longer read McParland and try not to read Persichilli.

When my mother was angry with someone, she'd say they were enough to make a saint swear. Well, I'm no saint, but the drivel these guys produce can create so much blue air in this room, that I think I'm under attack by the Tory death squad.

However, yesterday, an Angelo special came down the pipes at CAPP, so I thought I'd give it a read. Big mistake, because now I have to be the fact checker on one of his laziest and most ridiculous columns to date.

Federal opposition is missing in action

The difference between democracy and dictatorship is not so much in the way the governments behave, but in the capacity of their opposition to offer an alternative and of the media to expose any wrongdoing by either.

Hmmm ... where do I start? First off, in a dictatorship there is no elected opposition, and the media are not allowed to expose any wrong doing. And given the fact that Harper sent our elected opposition away for two and half months and refuses to speak with our media, defines our new dictatorship.

If we take the federal opposition seriously when it says say the government is not doing a good job, the logical course of action would be to offer Canadians an alternative and go to the polls. Unfortunately, for the past four years, while they have accused the government of not fulfilling its duties, the opposition parties have failed to fulfill theirs.

I'm not even going to get into neoconservatism that engages in filth to turn people away from the polls, but I might remind Angelo that the opposition did try to take Harper down with a coalition. The media imploded, the Conservatives went nuts, and it had no chance of getting off the ground; dying the same way that Harper's 2004 attempt did. The only difference with the more recent was that they learned not to include the full support of the Bloc, as Harper had done.

And let's not forget what happened this fall when Michael Ignatieff suggested that he was no longer going to prop up the Harper regime. He tanked in the polls and the media gave him the kiss of death.

In a democratic country like Canada, there is an official opposition that can freely do its job. If it is not able to defeat a minority government, the problem is not the government, it's the opposition. Governments deserve criticism when it's due, but they also deserve support, especially in difficult times like now when they are engaged in a massive fight against a global economic crisis .... I believe that the federal Conservative government could do better but, considering the difficult times we are now in, I believe it's doing a pretty good job.

OK, I really don't know where Persichilli has been, or if he even tries anymore; but this government is doing a lousy job. Even our auditor general has confirmed this.

So here are a few facts, not that I expect he'll read them, given that he's obviously no longer reading anything except his own tripe:

Economy

1. Rather than targeting stimulus money to areas hardest hit by the recession, the Reformers targeted it to their own ridings; especially those that could be vulnerable next election. They also set up a creative system of accounting, that makes it almost impossible to track the money.

2. Jim Flaherty has played fast and loose with this country's finances by allowing high-risk mortgages to infiltrate our once sound financial sector. The Financial Post recently called Canada the Fanny Mae of the mortgage industry, as the Canadian taxpayer has become the largest lender of sub-prime mortgages in the world.

The head of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge is now sounding the alarm on these risky ventures.

3. The Harper government has encouraged liberalization at home and abroad, going so far as suggest that developing nations become 100% foreign owned; much like Haiti, which has become one of the poorest nations in the world. This has been described as "a high-octane form of financial speculation similar to gambling".

According to Ellen Gould: The thing is, the Harper government is responsible for pushing the envelope on deregulation both domestically and internationally despite cautionary events in the U.S. clearly indicating what could go wrong.

So no, Mr. Persichilli, this government is not doing a good job, and if you were doing yours, you'd know that. Our international reputation is tanking, our sovereignty has been sold down river in a bogus Buy American trade agreement, and foreign newspapers are accusing our soldiers of abusing prisoners in Afghanistan, because Harper chose to transfer the blame to them.

And if you were doing your job Mr. Persichilli, you would know that the opposition has indeed been working to restore democracy, by listening to experts ... and they refer to them as experts, not 'university types' or 'elitists'. Maybe that's why a recent poll has the Liberals 4 points ahead of the Reform movement you once detested.

But this once respected columnist did get one thing right: I guess, according to some, this makes me a Conservative.

Yep! He hit the nail right on the head.