The Rebick/Cruickshank/Wente Debate on Q TV

Canada is sometimes seen as having a less than provocative culture of public commentary...one that's more muted that countries such as the UK and America. Most people agree that a wide diversity of opinion helps a democracy thrive. Does Canada reside too much in the mushy middle? Margaret Wente, columnist for the Globe & Mail, John Cruickshank, publisher of The Toronto Star and Judy Rebick, founder of rabble.ca step in for a Q debate.

Category:

• Entertainment
• Documentary
• Reality & Game Shows

Produced by:

• Ben Aylsworth

Tags:

• judy
• rebick
• margaret
• wente
• john
• cruickshank
• jian
• ghomeshi
• cbc
• qtv
• bold
• globe
• mail
• toronto
• star
• rabble.ca
• proroguing
• protest
• facebook
• democracy
• conrad
• black
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• post

[wovokanarchy]

Wenter is your typical intolerant right-winger, "pull shit out of one's own asshole and throw it against the wall and hopefully some will stick".

[SwobyJ]

All they need is either an innate humility, or a true humbling experience. In fact, that's all what everyone need, imo.

That's why I liked Crickshank more in this video. He's not taking himself too seriously, but also wants to get his thoughts across. Wente came off as preaching (as well intentioned as she may be), and Rubick came off as pretentious. That's no way to debate, but as I recall, everything in my education (just highschool and a little university) tells us to debate this way. Lame.

[DavidEdwardSchnell]

writers write books now or they dont write at all. articles are too brief and usually can be summed up in the space of a tweet, quoting a legal case, naming a film or a pithy saying.

[thedeeliciousplum]

yes...from what you have listed, I do side with your analysis of this. I, too, wonder if elitism sometimes acts more like a stumbling block than a mechanism that offers a worldly view of one's surroundings. Thanks for your comments.

[s2macdon]

Democracy SHOULD be just clicking on your opinion. It should NOT necessarily mean getting ANGRY enough to physically protest all day and evoke National Security. Facebook makes us all safer...plus in cold Canadian Winters, who wants to stand outside to protest?

[SwobyJ]

If the 10% want to make a true difference, there NEEDS to be a true reaching out and I suppose 'enlightenment' of the Canadian populace. As long as we have our entertainment distractions and the 10% have the pseudo-elitist attitude, I dunno how that's even possible.

[SwobyJ]

What I'm trying to say is that there is the, say 10% of more-or-less well informed Canadians who have intellectual pursuits and debate freely with one another, then there is the 90% who just follow whatever is in front of them in the media discourse (usually done by the 10%).

[SwobyJ]

It's not *just* apathy. These people are often boring, discussing in their closed communities about intellectual topics, giving off the feeling of 'Canadian elitism'. I'm talking about mostly people -25 here though, the ones most impacted by mass entertainment culture.

[SwobyJ]

This 'debate' was full of mushyness in itself - a lot of crossed arms and 'I/we know better' attitude.

Crickshank was quite nice though, imo.

Also, I gotta say, bringing in BOTH Suzuki and Gore and claiming to show all sides is so very lame. If you're going to claim that, bring in some of the scientists afterward who have opposing views - they do exist.

[SwobyJ]

Yup, as soon as we:

-lose the bread (easier access to food and personal care)

-lose the circus (easier access to entertainment and luxury)

We'd sure get 'engaged' quickly enough.

What I'm actually worried about is how so many (Gen X onward), for the most part, don't know HOW to positively be engaged in a good debate in a bad situation. We know how to do it when things are good, but...