If, thanks to AMERICAblog, you believe the majority of us voted for Harper

[tuvor]

in the recent Canadian election, that's not the truth at all.

:rant:

Normally I really appreciate Aravosis' posts, and I check his blog several times daily. But yesterday he published an error of fact in his post entitled "Intolerant Canada". It has finally been revised to better reflect the truth, but unfortunately he hasn't actually pointed out his mistake, as he often does.

Here's the part of that post that pissed off so many readers:

Canada's once pristine image as the much kinder and gentler America is quickly being destroyed by the Prime Minister the majority of you put in office.

Well, 36% is not a majority, and a lot of readers called him on it. Finally, the post has been edited, but with absolutely no comment from Mr. Aravosis, which I believe is quite unusual for him:

Canada's once pristine image as the much kinder and gentler America is quickly being destroyed by your own Prime Minister.

Maybe he was just having a bad day, but as long as he doesn't admit error, especially after revising the post without comment, it just makes him look worse, IMO.

I just needed to say I'm really annoyed at the way this is being handled, particularly from a blog whose motto is "Because a great nation deserves the truth."

There. Just had to get that off my chest. Rant off.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

1. And you all give us a hard time about the Electoral College.

:rofl:


Just pickin'. I'd actually prefer a parliamentary system.

[kansasblue]

2. Canada, you have two great feature of your system....

1) minority parties can be affective and get a foothold.
2)the pres is easier to toss when they go bad.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

23. Absolutely.

If you vote, you get representation for your viewpoint. Even if you "lose."

Great system. Too bad we can't use it - yet.

[Xeric]

3. He's a dilettante

John "I don't necessarily have a problem bombing Iran" Aravosis doesn't like to admit he's wrong about anything. Too bad it happens so often.

[tuvor]

4. Where did he say that?

A comment like that would get him right out of my bookmarks.

If you have a link I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Xeric]

5. He said it on his website

A few months ago along with how he is "tough on defense" and thinks the Democrats should be more so. I don't have a link but when I called him on it he deleted my post and banned me. Other people also called him on it at the time. It is an exact quote however.

[Domitan]

6. I added my 2 cents there.

Along with dozens other, we gave John a piece of our minds to get his facts together. I enjoy going to AmericaBlog (Joe and Chris write very good posts there), but John's Harperistic tendencies (shutting down critics most of the time) leave me disappointed. I like going there, but until John stops being a shrill bitchy control freak, I won't give any donations to Americablog. I like John's passion, intrigue and hard-hitting articles (even if I don't always agree with him), but he has to learn to take criticism instead of shutting them down.

To John's credit, he hasn't removed all those Canuck criticisms of his misinformed article.

[MrPrax]

7. I am outraged...

Never have I seen an American ever make a mistake about what goes on in those 4NR type places...

(Mind you why so shocked?...they get shit about their own states' wrong all the time...nothing personal...it's just the way their country is basically...they don't know much about what goes on in the state next to them let alone Canada)

Point well taken, a minority government is not really a majority and if anything quite a few Democrats would LOVE to be in a position that if the gov't screws up that badly, we can kick their asses out through an all-party vote...

Democrats can only just type in numbing despair, as they look as some dictator's numbers fall to the level of Hitler. <--not a violation of Godwin's Law! as I am comparing popularity and NOT the persons>

As usual Tuvor, a great post and YES AmericaBlog's Aravosis can freely peruse the Canada Forum here and find out more about Canada rather than saying dumb demoralizing shit.

[idgiehkt]

8. strange, I didn't read that post.

and I read just about all of them everyday. I think the sentence you quoted that he changed was the one that just kind of strayed me away from it. I don't know why..I think it was because of the Russia/gay pride thing already and I just couldn't handle any more.

I have mixed feelings about the comments...last night there were some horribly homophobic comments on there, just terrible, so I think he just kind of goes through 'em and deletes them quick, I had one deleted for no reason one time. I'll be forever grateful to him for Dear Mary and the Gannon thing...no matter what. I think it's at the point where it's evolving into a message board and he is wanting to have the control of a blog...it's probably just growing pains.

[enigmatic]

9. He's really pissed me off lately

I read that post and cringed; it seems like he has one diva-es-que/freakout moment every couple of weeks, and instead of apologizing or at least acknowledging he has made a mistake he instead just fans the flames and acts like a supreme ass instead.

I used to post there regularly some months ago until these episodes became more frequent; I still read now, but that's it.

Firedoglake is the best blog out there these days IMO, and w/o the drama that seems to blanket AMERICAblog every week b/c of John's freakouts.

It's too bad, because he's got some great takes on what's going on in DC. Oh well...

[tuvor]

10. Thanks, enigmatic.

Will have to bookmark firedoglake.

[IntravenousDemilo]

13. I really like your avatar because I was named after Douglas.

Plus I was born in Saskatchewan. Is it one of the stock DU ones, or did you find it elsewhere? It's really tempting for me to change mine.

[enigmatic]

14. I made mine

If you'd like a copy let me know; I'll be glad to send it to you..

[IntravenousDemilo]

17. Thanks, I'd much appreciate it.

Do you need my email, or are you just going to put it in my DU inbox?

[enigmatic]

19. I'll pm you

Give me a bit and I'll shoot it to you:)

[enigmatic]

20. I forgot to tell you

At a local antique show a few months ago I picked up a CCF 10 Year Member pin; it's one of my prized posessions...

[Domitan]

16. Word!

John has a lot of potential to give, but he seriously needs to grow up in this department.

[w4rma]

11. 36%? It looks like Canada had their own "Nader moment". (nt)

[Domitan]

15. Bullshit

We do not have a 2-party system like the USA, and we are fucking proud of it.

[w4rma]

21. It looks like you let "pride" get the better of you.

Since you let that guy get into power (maybe prideful that your parlamentary system would keep folks like that out of power), in partially same way that Bush got into power down here, with our two party system, via a spoiler.

[Cha]

12. Thanks for posting this..

I didn't know harper got in by 36%! That makes me feel a little better about him getting in..that and the way your media won't take shite from him like our counterpart American lapdoggies do do.

[Pierre Trudeau]

22. it's not unusual

Anyone who's been following Canadian politics for awhile knows that it's hardly unusual for a party to win with a popular vote of 35-40%.

In fact, in 1997 Jean Chretien was re-elected to a majority government, even though the Liberals received 38.5% of the popular vote.
And HE was pretty popular, compared to Harper.

Not since Dief in 1958 (and before that Mackenzie King in 1940) has ANY party won a majority of the popular vote.

[Jazz2006]

18. Thanks, tuvor.

I posted on the blog, too.

What a buffoonish story that was.