I’ve never known a self-described liberal who believes in a traditional God the Father and Jesus as his son. Nor met one who believes in the human soul or unequivocably believes in a traditional life after death as described in Christian and Jewish scripture.
Does such a liberal exist?
[quote=“Bodo”]
It’s apparent that you feel persecuted, Doctor. Please lay down on the couch over there, and tell me more . . . poor poor conservative 
Bodo[/quote]
Have you ever been physically beaten, had your property vandalized, or received death threats for voicing a political opinion?
Liberals, and in particular liberal media, may think it great sport to constantly vilify conservatives as a threat to society, but what they fail to realize is the intolerance they stir up. Or perhaps they just don’t care.
Here’s another liberal definition:
Tolerance: The ability to accept your own opinion.
Here’s some from the Conservative dictionary.
[quote]black
[quote=“Dr_Zoidberg”]
We should also not forget that we may have varied experiences and, therefore, perspectives. I view what was written in the article from my own experience in a country where the media will spend weeks offering up the harshest criticism of a Conservative MP for something while remaining curiously silent, or even apologetic, when a Liberal MP does the same or worse.[/quote]
Right. If I lived in such a ridiculously politically correct country like Canada, I’d be tempted to pretend I was a right-wing reactionary, Bush-supporting zealot just to piss people off.
[quote=“mod lang”][quote=“Dr_Zoidberg”]
We should also not forget that we may have varied experiences and, therefore, perspectives. I view what was written in the article from my own experience in a country where the media will spend weeks offering up the harshest criticism of a Conservative MP for something while remaining curiously silent, or even apologetic, when a Liberal MP does the same or worse.[/quote]
Right. If I lived in such a ridiculously politically correct country like Canada, I’d be tempted to pretend I was a right-wing reactionary, Bush-supporting zealot just to piss people off.[/quote]
Some media in Canada have a leftist slant, such as the CBC and the Toronto Star. Other media are centrist, such as the Globe and Mail, one of the English-speaking world’s elite newspapers. And other media lean right, such as the National Post, which is actually a fairly worthy paper, and the Sun chain, which is trash.
All of them piled on during the Liberal sponsorship scandal, as they rightfully should have. Otherwise, the degree to which they exercise their critical faculties against the varying political parties depends, as it does anywhere else, on their political slant.
Aside from the media, an American might accuse Canadian political culture of being “leftist,” but that accusation would be made based on an assumption of US politics as being normative, which, of course, is folly. On a first world scale Canada is just about as centrist as you can get, the only seriously leftward tilting factor in comparison with Europe being the fact that we still don’t have two-tier medicine (it’s coming). And, conversely, the only rightward tilt in Europe is the fact that most countries do offer both public and private medicine. The US is solidly to the right, and out of step with the rest of the first world.
mod lang, you know not of which you speak. “Ridiculous” PC culture exists mostly in the US, where people are censured for using the word “niggardly” and the like. Which, of course, is in equal and opposite reaction to “ridiculous” rightwing culture, where politicians pray to a god in public forums and fight to have Bible verses etched in stone on public property (granted, at times various Canadian politicians have performed public functions in churches, so I shouldn’t cast too many stones from my glass house–thing is, I and most Canadians strongly object to these kind of displays, and politicos know it, so they don’t do it that much).
[quote=“mod lang”][quote=“Dr_Zoidberg”]
We should also not forget that we may have varied experiences and, therefore, perspectives. I view what was written in the article from my own experience in a country where the media will spend weeks offering up the harshest criticism of a Conservative MP for something while remaining curiously silent, or even apologetic, when a Liberal MP does the same or worse.[/quote]
Right. If I lived in such a ridiculously politically correct country like Canada, I’d be tempted to pretend I was a right-wing reactionary, Bush-supporting zealot just to piss people off.[/quote]
Wow, TC was right, your feathers are ruffled.
Liberalism != socialism. I can accept that, in fact I never thought they were equal.
Making fun of the liberal media != right-wing reactionary, Bush-supporting zealot. Can you accept that?
That’s not exactly what I meant. If you ever had the misfortune of living in a genuinely conservative, Republican values stronghold like Iran or South Carolina, you’d be running back to liberal, socialist, tolerant, politically correct Toronto as soon as you could. Your conservatism is simply a knee-jerk reaction to all the obnoxious, cookie-cutter liberals surrounding you in Canada. I doubt that you could handle the real thing.
Yeah, you’re probably right on that one. With Canadian conservatives and liberals all trying to occupy the middle ground, there’s no obvious dividing line these days.
The only thing that separates them is liberals like a big government spending big on big social programs, while conservatives like a not so big government spending not so big on not so many social programs.
As was said earlier, today’s conservatives are yesterday’s liberals.
[quote=“mod lang”]That’s not exactly what I meant. If you ever had the misfortune of living in a genuinely conservative, Republican values stronghold like Iran or South Carolina, you’d be running back to liberal, socialist, tolerant, politically correct Toronto as soon as you could. Your conservatism is simply a knee-jerk reaction to all the obnoxious, cookie-cutter liberals surrounding you in Canada. I doubt that you could handle the real thing.[/quote]Sorry Mod Lang …that just don’t work.
You are not the only person here to grow up in a rural, conservative, dumb as fuckin dirt red neck environment. I did, and probably 20 + yrs prior to your wet spark of life gaing a foothold in your momma womb. I saw all this throught the eyes of an outsider. My folks were "foreigners’ who made good. No matter how hard te old man worked he was still…“The hillbilly with the accent.”
even when we sold out the farm and moved to the “upscale” neighborhood, we were still the folks who had the ‘pick-up truck in the driveway’ while the neighbors had the Mercedes. Of course when they had any problems…gues who they came to to fix them…yeah…thats right…The Scottish/Hillbilly with all the connections.
So forget the sympathy for growin’ up poor and discriminated against. You grew up in America. You are the one who decided what baggage to keep with you. You did what you had to do to better yourself, got educated, moved to a country most of your contemporaries couldn’t even spell much less find on a map and still you whine?
Dude…get over it. You beat the system…enjoy it and thank what ever rock, tree, spirit or image your hold relevant… 
The CBC is a government-run medium, and, like all government-run media, it’s purpose is to voice the government’s point of view. We’ve had Liberal government for something like 75 of the last 100 years, so obviously the CBC leans to the left.
The Toronto Star is also left-leaning, but that is hardly unexpected. Torontonians are on the political left, so it only makes sense from a business perspective. When in Rome…
The National Post hasn’t been leaning as far to the right since long time Liberal supporter Izzy Asper took it over. I would say it has more of a centrist feel to it these days.
The Toronto Sun, while trashy on the surface, isn’t one rung up from supermarket tabloids as you would have everyone believe. Yes, it does have the Sunshine girl, and when I left Canada it was still full of classifieds for escort services, but, as with the Star, look at it from a business perspective. It sells papers.
The news coverage is the same as you will find in any other medium. The editorials lean to the political right, but the Sun makes no pretences. What I do like about their editorials is they will tear a strip off Stephen Harper just as readily as they would Paul Martin.
Its columnists run the gamut from right-wing religious fanatic Michael Coren to Eric Margolis, who has made a career postulating how all the evils ever known to man are solely the fault of the United States in general, and George W. Bush in particular.
I’ve never read the Globe, so I won’t comment upon it.
Indeed, but we should also consider their coverage after the public’s initial outrage over AdScam subsided. The Star went back to its traditional role of Liberal cheerleader. Presumably they saw nothing incongruous in a political party purging itself of corruption while still in power.
Indeed, but then the world has always used the superpower of the day as its political barometer.
Watching both political parties contorting themselves in order to occupy the middle ground is a pathetic spectacle.
[quote=“porcelainprincess”]the only seriously leftward tilting factor in comparison with Europe being the fact that we still don’t have two-tier medicine (it’s coming). [/quote] We’ve had two-tier medicine for years. Those with connections go to the front of the line, those without connections but with deep pockets go to the United States. Then there’s a whole range of medical services, from physiotherapy to chiropractic to opthamology, where you pay or do without.
Universal health care: A health care system that is inaccessible to everyone.
Two-tier medicine: Someone who isn’t a Liberal politician using a private clinic.