Civility Is A Subjective Term And Not Limited To Politics........

....especially when it comes to blogging. When you have a mass media, like blogging, with virtually no restriction on who can participate you will get a few, and I stress few, individuals who either are borderline illiterate, have a limited vocabulary, have an obession that limits their comprehension and can hide behind the anonymity of the medium and "normal" people will ignore but will still publish their comments. I will guarantee both us will hear from these individuals.

Politics of Civility

Recently, Professor Geoffrey Stevens wrote a column in the Guelph Mercury which went after Prime Minister Harper for his lack of "civility".

I responded with a letter to the editor, which the Mercury has yet to publish.

So I will reprint it here:

In the column “What we know about Harper isn’t nice,” July 13, Geoffrey Stevens complains the “loss of civility in the politics of the Harper era is startling.”

And one of the things which startles Stevens is the Conservative Party’s use of “attack ads.”

Yet the Conservatives are not the first party to use such ads to score points against political opponents.

The Liberal Party of Canada, for instance, ran vicious attack ads in the 2004 federal election designed to make Conservative leader Stephen Harper look like a war-mongering, woman-hating, gun-loving, clone of Satan.

I wonder if Stevens condemned those ads as uncivil, or is it only when Liberals are attacked that he takes offence?

The fact is, uncivil or not, attack ads work.

That's why both the Liberal and Conservatives have used them in the past; it's why they will both use them in the future.

Posted by Gerry Nicholls