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I won’t lie to you. This election won’t change everything. It might not even change much. But we must stop Stephen Harper from continuing to erode our constitutional rights, cultural institutions, social programs, values, environment, democracy.
So much damage has been done to so much of what we cherish as Canadians. How we undo it, I’m not exactly sure. But what I do know is that we need more news and information, more vision and more ideas on how to repair our increasingly unjust and unequal society.
rabble is one small but substantial platform for exposing, discussing, and solving the problems created by the Conservatives. That’s because, in today’s concentrated, corporatized and industrial media world, those who challenge the established order rarely get any ink or airtime.
Throughout this marathon election campaign, we have found little progressive analysis and coverage of issues that matter to labour, women, First Nations people, veterans, the aged and the ailing — and those of us who want to leave future generations pristine rivers and forests, not mountains of debt.
Independent media give voice to those who we rarely hear from. Independent media give voice to people like us. They are the very lifeblood of social movements. They are the megaphones for the silenced and even the subversive. But they can’t exist without all our support. Every contribution to rabble helps in a big way.
Throughout the election — and even before the race was on — I have relied on the writing of rabble’s Parliamentary correspondent Karl Nerenberg. I used to work with him at CBC Montreal. His perspective not only incorporates years of political journalism in the toughest arena in Canada — Quebec — but he also pulls no punches.
When it came to Nigel Wright’s emails, Karl didn’t pussyfoot around on what the prime minister probably knew about that $90,000 payoff and when he likely knew it. While the mainstream media were obsessing over the definition of recession, Karl focused on the bigger picture, reminding us of ground-level issues that were lost in the poll-to-poll coverage. Even before the body of little Alan Kurdi washed up on that Mediterranean beach, Karl had Jason Kenney in a lather over the government’s record on refugees and immigration. His most recent column on the Liberal campaign co-chair moonlighting as an oil industry lobbyist shows just how muscular his work really is.
In this election and, indeed, afterwards, we need fearless pundits like Karl who don’t soft-peddle. In this not-so-brave new corporate media world, we need activist political reporting and alternative voices on the Hill.
Supporting rabble will keep Karl in the House, where he belongs and where we need him.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
