Martin Launches National Weekly Radio Address

The mail servers over at the Liberal Party of Canada must be smoking with all the activity of the past week and my inbox is filling up fast. Cutting through the wake of their fall newsletter comes the news that Paul Martin wants to be more presidential than prime ministerial and speak to the masses on the radio each week.

All of 28 stations across our vast land will pick up his ever-so thunderous tones and, unlike in the US where the White House feeds the networks and affiliates air the address at their discretion under no obligation, Martin's addresses are paid for.

In the release I received, "Given that there may be occasion to speak to political matters, the Prime Minister has instructed that the cost of these broadcasts be borne by the Liberal Party of Canada."

This, friends, is what is known as "pre-writ" spending. It's a common practice among all parties who have such luxurious resources. It'll be interesting to hear how the addresses are packaged from the Prime Minister of Canada and not from the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. And just how much "political content" will they contain?

The average listener is about to be sprayed with a weekly dose of partisan rhetoric and propaganda from our top government representative and, while they have the choice to turn the knob, they'll still hear about it from other media who, undoubtedly, have already inked the weekly broadcasts as mandatory coverage on the political beat.

It's slithery, I agree, but clever and technically above board. Where the microscopes come out, however, is during election time when those broadcast costs must be included in the campaign spending under the Canada Elections Act, should they choose to continue the broadcast schedule.

Of the 28 radio stations contracted to run the addresses, only 2 are News/Talk: VOCM in St. John's and CFRB in Toronto. The remainder are decidedly skewed Adult Female in the Soft/Light/EZ-Rock mould with a few Country stations thrown in. CJMJ (Majic 100) and CIMF (French) are the Ottawa sources.

I guess they don't want to talk to "angry white guys" or renegade classic rockers.

PM the PM hits AM and FM for the first time tomorrow, barking on softwood lumber. Dithers' diatribes will last approximately two minutes, though they'll seem much longer.