Last year I joined all three of Canada’s major political parties. Not because I can’t make up my mind, but I love getting their fundraising pitches in my inbox and comparing them. My interest is professional.
One kind of writing I love is asking people for money, especially when all they get in return is a tax receipt. It’s also very hard to do well. If I ask you for $50 and give you two Swiss Chalet dinners in return, that’s a lot easier than giving you a tax receipt for your $50 and a warm feeling that you’re supporting the Canadian Cancer Society.
When it comes to political fundraising, reading the parties’ different pitches reveals not only who they are, but who they think you are. The Liberals’ writing style is what I call ‘big tent.’ They’re not only looking to shore up their support among long-time Liberals, but pick off Tories from the right who don’t like Pierre Poilievre, and NDPers from the left who don’t like…well, there’s the problem right there. The NDP doesn’t have a leader and won’t until March 29. Avi Lewis (the son of Stephen Lewis and grandson of David Lewis) has 90.5% of the party’s support and here’s where he stands.
Back to my inbox. Here’s a typical Liberal message: “At this turning point for our country, we need to work together as one team Canada. Because we can’t control what other nations do, but we can control how we respond.”
That kind of language won’t get millions of us to rip open our wallets and send money Mark Carney’s way. But it’s a whole lot better than the Conservative’s pitches.
First, the Tories talk to me as if I’m a child. Their emails are one step up from “See Dick Run. See Jane Run.” Really? Try this. But the Tories’ pitches are also degraded by half-truths and straight out lies. Whenever I see them, one word comes to mind – Trump! – and I run from their message.
A number of Tory e-mails refer to “communities…being terrorized…and families no longer feel safe in their own neighbourhoods.”
Let’s dig into that via the murder rate for Toronto. In 2023, 73 people were murdered here. The next year it rose to 85, and last year it fell by more than half, to 38. This year so far, two people have been murdered in Toronto.
Last year, a Tory e-mail said this: “Violent crime is up 50%. Hate crimes are up 250%. Gang-related homicides are up 78%. And violent gun crime is up 116%. So I asked AI if these numbers were correct, and it replied they are “not accurate…they appear to mix or exaggerate figures drawn from narrower context and different time periods.”
Here again are the Tories’ claims vs. the facts.
“Violent crime up 50%.”
Nationally, violent crime has increased, but nowhere near by 50%. From 2009-2023, Statistics Canada claims violent crime rose by 9%.
“Hate crimes up 250%.”
From 2019 to 2023, hate crime more than doubled, rising by 130% nationally. It rose by 32% in a single year, 3,612 incidents in 2022 compared to 4,777 in 2023.
“Gang-related homicides up 78%.
In 2024, gang-related homicides fell from 174 the year before to 152. This rate dropped below 0.40 per 100,000 for the first time since 2016.
“Violent gun crime up 116%.”
From 2009 to 2019 criminal use of firearms rose by 81%. In 2020 violent gun-crime rose by 15%.
It’s clear that the Tories’ strategy of frightening Canadians into voting for them isn’t working. As of last week “… 45 per cent say they would vote for the Liberals in a future federal election, compared to 32 per cent who prefer the Conservative Party.”
Meanwhile…
1. Epstein Files. The U.S. Department of Justice has six million pages of evidence, but has only released 3.5 millions of pages, including 180,000 images and 2,000 videos. It is so vast that the New York Times has two dozen reporters working full-time to find and reveal what’s in the files. Here’s how you can access them.
2. Book and other clubs. The Hay Festivals have a free online book club. This month’s book is Jan Morris’ novel, Sultan in Oman. In 1955, Morris accompanied the Sultan of Oman on the first crossing of the Omani desert by motorcar as a professional observer, and was inspired by the experience to write her major work of imperial history, the Pax Britannica trilogy.
3. Moving bodies…Hands up…Hands clap…plus Dottie’s Dying (and half-price heroin)…and waving goodbye…and smooth moves…And a baby giraffe was born at the Toronto Zoo last week…and speaking of other pretty pictures, check out these. Plus, he lives like a monk and dines like a king.
4. Trips to the edge of your world. We still have space at The Canada Summit atop the Rocky Mountains Aug. 30-Sept. 3 with speakers Steve Paikin, Dr. Heather Ross, Ron Deibert and Cynthia Wesley- Esquimaux.
5. Stop…panicking about the death of reading. This university librarian says we’rereading it all wrong. Plus how Paul McCartney carved out a happy family…and Scotland fans can now wear their sporrans (“an essential purse worn in front of a Scotsman’s groin”) to World Cup matches.
6. Patrick Radden Keefe is one of the hottest reporters in the world. He wrote about an IRA killing in Say Nothing, the Sackler Family in Empire of Pain (which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for the best non-fiction book in the English language.) He’ll be speaking at a RamsayTalk on June 15 on his new book London Falling. Tickets here.
…if you’re looking for a great discussion by authors who matter, take in Remembrance as Resistance: Why Canada’s World War II Stories Matter Now on March 25 from 7:00 to 8:45 p.m. at the Leah Posluns Theatre with four bestselling Canadian writers: Maureen Jennings, Robert Rotenberg, Joanne Kormylo and Ellin Bessner. (15% discount for blog readers. Promo Code: BOB15).
7. Losers. First, the U.S. Men’s hockey team. Plus Doctor Foster is a wolf tonight…plusfrat house hazing on the run. Winners? This hockey fan, and a retired American couple.
8. Winners. Since 1972, the Council for Canadian American Relations has promoted the arts and artists in and between our two countries. On May 11 in New York, their bi-annual gala celebrates Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, as well as the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Philadelphia Orchestra; artist Cindy Sherman; Glenn Lowry, director emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art; and Matthew Teitelbaum director emeritus of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.
9. On the road again…with the best road rations of all…plus, for the past four years, the city of Chicago has run a “Name the Snowplow” contest. Of the six winners this year (I guess they buy six new snowplows every year there), #1 was “Abolish ICE”, followed by “Stephen Coldbert”…plus, a new Canadian hiking trail opens: the Rocky to Nordegg Rail Trail in central Alberta. It takes 6 days to hike its 109 km.
10. American health care…can’t answer the simplest question. At least Dr. Casey Means, Donald Trump’s candidate for U.S. Surgeon General, won’t. Dr. Means, who graduated from med school, but isn’t licensed to practice medicine, ducked every questionduring her nomination hearing to be “America’s Doctor”…The Lancet is one of the most respected medical journals in the world. Its editorial last week on Robert F. Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure, is revealing, if not surprising…and…there are almost as many medical spas in America as there are McDonald’s.
Meanwhile, until now the FDA insisted on two full and successful clinical trials for all new drug candidates. Then this past February, it reduced that to one successful trial plus ‘confirmatory evidence’. Drug developers are ecstatic; they’ll save millions of dollars and years in waiting for approvals. And patients may be happy to get new lifesaving drugs. Time will tell if they work.
11. Annals of travel…should they ban autos from the Las Vegas Strip? Plus…private jets are so last year…but private trains? And a reminder that the first self-driving cars hit the road in 1904…And here’s oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz by country. Finally, if those luxury hotel newsletters you signed up for produce only envy and regret, read this from the Fogo Island Inn.