Roundup: Big numbers for hate clicks

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I’m not a big fan of pieces that construct data in a way to give the worst possible reading, with the intention of making readers angry, because it’s not only bad journalism but it’s irresponsible because our job should be about providing context – not weaponizing it for hate-clicks. And yet, here is a shoddy piece from the National Post designed entirely for the purpose of stoking the fires of the supposed anger in Western Canada right now, by producing a piece which purports to show how Alberta is basically funding Quebec. Oh, they’ll say – this is all Statistics Canada data! But as with any statistical data, it is dependent upon how it is contextualized and presented, and in this case, it’s in terms of “net fiscal transfers” without breaking out what that entails, nor does it actually explain equalization in any way. The most nuanced the piece gets is citing economist Trevor Tombe who reminds people that Albertans pay more in taxes because they have the highest incomes in the country – but it doesn’t then explain that those taxes go to federal general revenues, which then get distributed in programs, which can include equalization. There is no talk about equalization being about the fiscal capacity of a province and ensuring that they can have an equal level of service compared to other provinces, and how that is impacted by their provincial tax rates, or the fact that Alberta has chosen to keep its provincial taxes artificially low and making up the shortfalls with the revenues from their non-renewable resources. The favourite figure is how much Quebec gets in equalization payments, ignoring that on a per capita share, Quebec’s equalization is actually below most other provinces. These are all figures and context that matters – simply throwing big figures around is only designed to make people angry. It’s shite journalism, and yet here we are, yet again.

And speaking of fiscal transfers, here’s a look at how the $1.6 billion that the federal government has been using to bail out Alberta after their last oil crash has nearly fully been paid out, while the province keeps insisting that Ottawa has been “indifferent” to their situation.

Senate costs

The other story that bugged me was the perennial cheap outrage that the Senate costs money – particularly now that it has (essentially) a full complement after a decade of consistent vacancies, that they are in a new building and can’t share some of the resources with the House of Commons like they used to (especially around things like catering lunches at committee meetings), that the government is asking them to do more work which means doing things like committee travel, and the fact that the insistence on blowing up the existing model of two caucuses means that there will be greater costs in the various groups that are emerging as modes of organizing senators. And parliamentary democracy costs money, and insisting that we do it on the cheap always ends badly. There are pretty strict financial controls in the Senate after the scandals of days gone by, and there is no indication that any of this is because of mismanagement or graft. Not that it stops the perpetual cheap outrage stories where people throw up a big number with no context so that people can get mad about it.

Good reads:

  • We’re deep in Cabinet speculation season, with calls for Chrystia Freeland to be made deputy PM with a domestic portfolio, and talk of a larger Cabinet.
  • Here’s an interesting look at Canada’s evolving diplomatic presence in Iraq.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the time limits for trials do apply to youth criminal trials as well.
  • Elizabeth May says she’ll vote against the Throne Speech unless there are stronger climate measures, as though it’s a real threat.
  • It looks like Brian Pallister made a bunch of false claims while he was in Ottawa earlier in the week during his blame-shifting visit. (More in this thread).
  • Scott Moe insists his new trade offices won’t be stuffed with partisan appointees – then signed a $240K deal with Harper and Associates to help them out.
  • Kevin Carmichael parses the latest research paper from the Governor of the Bank of Canada on technology, growth, and monetary policy.
  • My weekend column delves into the decision by the Senate Liberals to rebrand themselves as the “Progressive Senate Group.”

Odds and ends:

For the Sixth Estate, I wrote up their panel discussion on implementing pharmacare, and it’s a far more complex undertaking than certain party leaders would let on.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Big numbers for hate clicks”

  1. Thank you again for peeling the skin off the political beast and exposing the tendrils of the big lie, the very thing that the uneducated masses need to understand their world and which keeps the political, religious puppet master fully in charge with and by their myth machines.

  2. I guess the real data lacked “pizzazz.” Isn’t that the going standard by which important news is measured these days?

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