A funny thing happened on the way to the 2019 election, Canada’s media noticed that there are these things called third party groups.
Its not that the media in this country haven’t noticed that third parties have existed before but now, there is an alarm being sounded. A warning has been issued.
LOOK OUT!!!!
There is a conservative third party now!
A piece from the Canadian Press that was posted on most major media websites over the weekend warned about Ontario Proud and collusion with the Conservative Party of Canada.
Now chances are you have heard of Ontario Proud.
Started by a former Sun News colleague of mine named Jeff Ballingall, Ontario Proud is the most active political Facebook page in Canada.
They barely operate a website, instead they live on social media and helped drive the narrative in the last provincial campaign.
After helping frame Kathleen Wynne as out of touch with Ontario voters, Ballingall wants to do the same with Justin Trudeau.
And that is what has the MSM worried.
But the arrival of Ontario Proud on the federal scene renews questions about when political advocacy crosses the line into collusion with a political party, enabling the party to raise and spend more money than legally allowed and, in the process, undoing decades of effort to neutralize the influence of big money on Canadian elections.
Hmmmm…..renewing questions from whom? Who exactly is worried?
I know I am but not so much about Ontario Proud as I am about groups like Lead Now.
More on that in a moment.
Who is actually concerned?
As for who is raising the concerns about Ontario Proud, the article quotes former Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand.
Mayrand was in charge of running the last federal campaign when Lead Now, a group that took in piles of American cash before the campaign, then targeted 29 Conservative held ridings.
Running a shadow campaign that included polling, voter identification, getting out the vote and little in the way of advertising, Lead Now took credit for flipping 25 of those seats. Most of them went to the Liberals.
Where was the outcry then?
Where was the concern about American billionaires and American foundations funding a group that was running to unseat Conservatives?
It didn’t exist.
Other than myself and few other individuals there was no alarm sounded. A report was prepared and submitted on the issue and then promptly ignored.
Watch for this to become a major issue in the coming campaign.
Ballingall and his team will be accused of undermining democracy, even subverting elections if he is successful in doing damage to Trudeau’s brand.
Meanwhile the many more groups on the left will be ignored, given a pass or a brief mention.
Now that Ontario Proud and Ballingall have targeted Trudeau, they will become the targets of traditional media.
Don’t try to tell me there is no bias.