Schadenfreude - Now Available in Stripes

Linda McQuaig has always been a little too far the left for me (or even for me, depending on your point of view) - that said, her most recent book on Canadian-US relations Post-11/09/01 is entitled "Holding the Bully's Coat", four words that form the most concise, excoriating and to-the-point indictment of Canada's moral and policy failures in the Bush-era I've ever read - but her column on Conrad Black and The National Post's impact on Canadian political discourse is worth a read:

He used his ample resources to create the National Post, a vehicle that helped him push the mainstream debate in Canada considerably to the right. Black relentlessly used the Post as a platform for himself and a host of like-minded commentators to ridicule the Canadian taste for equality and strong public programs, to denigrate what amounted to the Canadian way of doing things.

Black liked to present the Post as an irreverent, scrappy upstart of a newspaper that shook up the staid Canadian media scene and challenged the establishment with its "take-no-prisoners" approach. The only problem with that image was that, far from challenging the establishment, the Post was – and is – the establishment.

It may well have been a scrappy upstart, but from the beginning it was an attack-dog fighting on behalf of Canada's financial elite, who have never been shy about defending their own interests. Could anyone seriously argue that, before the Post came along, we had heard insufficiently from business on the subject of the need for tax cuts, free trade or deficit reduction?

Seriously.

Up to 35 years in a US penitentiary? Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

eta:

"July 13, 2007, will be remembered as the end of the line for two wealthy Toronto businessmen: Conrad Black and Ed Mirvish. Both were larger than life and spent time in the spotlight. One, born outside of Canada, made it his cherished home, while the other renounced the country of his birth to obtain a foreign honour. One was known for his self-deprecating humour, humility, common touch and generosity. History will be the ultimate judge of these men.

David Haig, North Bay, Ont."