As a regular reader of your newspaper’s Opinion pages, I appreciate the way the Gazette tries to present a variety of opinions in the Commentary section of the paper. However ...
Over the last few months, I have been disappointed at the way that certain contributors have used language that is both vitriolic and illogical. I agree with William Lillie’s recent letter where he says he had to read a March 23 article “a few times to see if the author was joking”! In my opinion, the “musings” in the April 17 paper have descended to a new low. That article stated that “the NDP has portrayed all UCP voters as Nazi-like barbarians full of hate for all other races, women, the poor, other religions, etc”. I do not believe that this statement is true. I will apologise in advance if anyone can produce evidence that the NDP has repeatedly made this statement about all UCP voters.
I also take exception to the use of the phrase “our idiot American cousins” earlier in this article. I recognize that the current U.S. president uses this sort of language and makes very inappropriate generalizations. This does not excuse a well respected newspaper for lowering its content to this same level.
These days, almost all political parties, including the NDP, have tended towards a negative attack approach in order to get elected. In contrast, I do not expect the paid columnists in the Gazette to descend to these levels. I expect them to present well-reasoned, logical critiques, such as the one on April 20. That article outlined in some detail the underlying issues of the SNC Lavalin affair and the resignation of the two ministers. It was critical of the prime minister in an organized and logical way, and the most demeaning language used was when it described the current situation as being “a circus”. A description that I feel was quite justified.
The Gazette should not include the sort of aggressive, vitriolic pronouncements that are uttered by many would-be politicians. The exaggerations, insulting terminology and apparent attempts at humour that have become the trademark of certain paid contributors are quite out of place when commenting on serious issues of provincial and national importance.
Tony Druett, St. Albert
