FORSETH – Give me a break, are you really that thin-skinned, Pierre?

A COUPLE OF DAYS ago I received an email from Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada; to say I was not impressed is mild. Here, word for word, is the content of that email, which of course came with the obligatory request for a donation:

Alan,

You won’t believe this. I couldn’t believe it, and it happened to me.

Today, I was delivering a statement about how Trudeau’s inflation is hurting everyday Canadians when someone started shouting.

First, they hurled obscenities and then started shouting at me.

Was it some left-wing protestor? Maybe it was a Liberal MP or staffer?

No, it was a member of the media.

That’s right. David Akin from Global News was swearing, shouting and heckling. He wasn’t interested in hearing what I had to say, and he certainly wasn’t interested in reporting it in an unbiased way.

This is what we are up against.

It’s not just the Liberals with all the advantages and resources of the federal government at their disposal.

It’s the media, who are no longer interested in even pretending to be unbiased. They want us to lose.

But we have a secret weapon.

You, and hundreds of thousands of other Conservatives across this country. People who want inflation to go down, the out-of-control spending to end, the CBC to be defunded and all the hurt caused by Trudeau turned into hope for a better future.

We can’t count on the media to communicate our messages to Canadians. We have to go around them and their biased coverage. We need to do it directly with ads, mail, phone calls and knocking on millions of doors. And to do all that we need your help.
Chip in to help us go around the biased media.

Thank you,

-Pierre Poilievre

PS. We can’t take on the Liberals and the media and win without your help. Chip in here: donate.conservative.ca

Having spent a couple decades working in the media, and still having friends active in it, that didn’t sit well with me, and so I took a few minutes to send the following response:

OH, GIVE ME A BREAK! Are you really that thin-skinned Pierre?

No, of course not. In fact, you were consciously stirring up the masses of dim-witted conspiracy theorists, COVidiots, and media bashers who are little more than sheep bleating the same tired slogans … with never a thought of their own. All the while ensuring that it will solicit the much hoped-for response of a cash donation.

You spent month after month beating up on the media, and then when you finally address reporters, expect them to eat up, and then regurgitate, every word you had to say.

You KNEW that wasn’t going to happen.

I don’t need to say this because you’re not dumb enough to believe that’s how the media works, but for the sheeple hanging on your every word — they don’t, and won’t — well, except for Rebel News(?) and True North and others which are like minded.

If this how your leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada begins, Canadians in the center of the political spectrum — those whose votes go either to the left or right during election campaigns — will look at your antics with dismay after hoping to find a realistic alternative to the Liberal/ NDP pact.

Canadians are desperate for leadership that will address four crises:

A crumbling healthcare system … inflation eating away at family budgets … rampant crime and assaults on city streets and neighbourhoods … and a continued lack of affordable housing.

THOSE, Mr. Poilievre, are what the overwhelming majority of Canadians are concerned about — and the certainly don’t give a damn about your petty childish attacks on the media.

Give Canadians a real alternative to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals or once again be prepared go down to defeat come the next election — for the 4th time in a row!

Alan Forseth is a Kamloops resident. For 40 years he has been active, in a number of capacities, in local, provincial and federal politics, including running as a candidate for the BC Reform Party in the 1996 provincial election. He recently was involved in the BC Liberal leadership campaign.