Sunday, February 01, 2004

B. STRONACH, WHATEVER.

Graham Fraser has a decent primer on things to watch for in tomorrow's speech from the throne. They include:

- How much of the speech is focused on process, and how much on product?

- How much of the speech will focus on areas of federal jurisdiction, and how much on provincial jurisdiction?

But then, near the end of the article Fraser evaluates the Conservative leadership candidates. See if you can spot the problem here:

Instead of the merged party generating more support, money and stronger candidates, the new field appears to be the weakest of the five: Stephen Harper, who led the former Canadian Alliance, Tony Clement, an Alliance founder and defeated cabinet minister from Ontario, and, car parts heiress Brenda Stronach, who has concluded that party leadership is an entry-level position.

Brenda Stronach? How does something like this make it into the paper? How does a national affairs columnist for The Star not know the name of one of the leadership candidates? Or, alternately, how does that kind of mistake get past an editor? It seems to me that if you're writing dismissively about politicians you should at least get their names right.

Certainly this is just a case of very sloppy journalism but is Fraser and/or The Star unconsciously underestimating Stronach? They may be in for a surprise.

Posted by Matthew @ 1:30 p.m.