Press Panic Sweeps the Nation

By Donald Gutstein

Did Canada's commercial press help the Harper government cling to power last week?

From Halifax to Victoria, most mainstream newspapers declared the country was in a political crisis, attacked any suggestion that a "leftish" coalition government was legitimate or useful, and concluded that Stephen Harper, despite his serious missteps, was still the right man for the job.

The Asper-owned Canwest papers in particular pulled out all the stops to ensure the party they endorsed in the election would stay in office.

SNIP

Was there really a political crisis as Barbara Yaffe and others claimed? Or was it little more than a media fabrication? Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines crisis as "an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference for better or worse."

A media system that reflected the views of the 62 per cent of Canadians who didn't vote for Harper would have framed the situation, not as a crisis, but as a simple transfer of power from an unstable minority government to a more stable -- because it controlled a majority of parliamentary seats -- coalition government.

In the end, the media-generated crisis was not about the Constitution or the viability of the Canadian political system. It was about the possibility of a centre-left government. This could not be allowed to happen.

http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2008/12/12/PressPanic/

And I say that as someone who's written for them and is friends with some of the employees.

Elaborate a bit on why it was a crisis?

I have not read the article yet, but all the media was talking about it going from one type of crisis to another type.

I would be interested in hearing of why you see it as a crisis?

No one knew what was going to happen. We didn't know if our government would be replaced by a coalition or remain the same or be on hiatus... it's instable, and that's bad for the country.
As far as I'm concerned we're still in crisis until Harper shows us his economic plan and we can gauge if it will be supported.