The 'ethics' of politics - An oxymoron in the extreme.

Do you think that Dalton McGuinty's re-election efforts to pillory John Tory's proposal for Faith-Based funding have more to do with opportunistic tactics than altruistic concern for public education? Well whatever the reason, polls show the strategy is working.

And the Ontario Liberals appear to have some heavy-hitting support behind them. Why? Because of course, union jobs may be in jeopardy.

In today's Sun, Lorrie Goldstein berates MSM, strategists and politicians who pounce on a perceived weakness and play it to the hilt; deliberately distorting the truth and ignoring clarifications - An Education in Election Coverage:

A proposal by Conservative Leader John Tory to extend public funding to non-Catholic religious schools (Catholic ones are already funded) if they agree to teach Ontario's approved curriculum and meet other criteria, has been transformed by hysterical media and shameless Liberals into a silly suggestion Tory would allow the teaching of creationism as an alternative to evolution in schools.

That's not what Tory's policy -- which has been public for months -- says.

One phone call to the education ministry by the media would have revealed that Ontario's existing, publicly funded Catholic schools only teach evolution -- in the science curriculum.


However they may also teach creationism -- in religious studies and world religion courses, where the context is obviously entirely different.

Tory's promise is to extend public funding to Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu and other religious schools, which 53,000 students attend, on the same basis as Catholic schools, which 650,000 students attend, now receive it.

Instead of explaining this, the media, overwhelmingly hostile to Tory's proposal, seized on one poorly worded remark by him early in the campaign, that the "theory" of evolution is still called a "theory" (true, but it's the widely accepted one) and that creationism could be taught in addition to evolution (true, but not as part of the science curriculum) to suggest Tory was advocating what they knew he wasn't -- using public funds to teach creationism on a par with evolution as a scientific theory.

The Tory campaign sent out a clarification a few hours later, but by then, the Liberals were also pretending Tory was saying what they knew he wasn't.

This gave the story "legs." Why? Because the media wanted it to be a story and the Liberals fed them the quotes needed to make it one, even though it had no basis in reality. Typical.

Well said, Lorrie.

And the time-strained electorate gobbles up the sound-bytes without bothering to investigate the issues.


Although Goldstein himself supports a "single, secular, public school system", he suggests we follow the open-minded attitude of Pope John Paul II who "advocated continuing scientific investigation into the "Big Bang" theory of creation, and the theory of evolution, stressing these were not antithetical to faith."


Unfortunately, lying and politics seem to go hand-in-hand, so I doubt we will ever progress to level of adults rather than "'gotcha'" journalists and scheming politicians".

Because in politics, only winning matters, right?

* * * *

Related: Please watch tonight's leadership debate. Info here.

Great op-ed in the Star - Fear of Islamic Schools Based on False Stereotypes.

Also, lots of letters in the National Post under the title Flawed Thinking on Diversity and School.

* * * *

Post Debate Impressions - I thought John Tory handled himself very well tonight. In fact, he looked positively Premier-ish.

A few MSM sources have commentaries already up.

Globe - McGuinty's integrity focus of debate.

Star - McGuinty Put on the Defensive.

Post - Live-blogging the leadership debate.

More from the Post here.