dan gardner

In January, the Globe and Mail appointed longtime editor and correspondent Sylvia Stead its first “public editor”. What say we pause right there, before we go any further? The job of “public editor” is one most closely associated with the New York Times, which has had five different people doing the job since it created a post with that title in 2003—soon after the Jayson Blair fabrication scandal. The function of the public editor at the Times, as the title suggests, is to advocate for journalism ethics, fairness, and proper practice on behalf of the paper’s readership, dealing with concerns and challenges as they arise.

Responding to the lament of Peter Van Loan, Dan Gardner praises political gridlock.

Bruces Foster and Ravelli argue the government is pursuing crime from the wrong angle.

Response to the government’s omnibus crime bill has been fascinating to watch. Thoughtful observers, like Dan Gardner over at the Ottawa Citizen, despair over the government’s refusal for some years now to offer anything like a reasoned argument for its approach, especially on limiting the discretion of judges by imposing more mandatory minimum penalties and no longer allowing  “house arrest” sentences in many cases.

Tim Flannery, an honorary pallbearer at Jack Layton’s funeral, arrives at a conclusion similar to that arrived at by Michael Valpy and James McKee.

Dan Gardner suggests a fitting tribute to Jack Layton would be the completion of a guiding document for our democracy.

Dan Gardner considers.

Dan Gardner considers the way politicians talk.

Chris Selley posts the context for the latest clipped quote to appear in an attack ad.

Tony Clement takes on the worldwide statistical conspiracy.

The enduring riddle of opinion polling and the relationship between what people say they want and what people actually want is perhaps best captured by this bit from a new Environics poll commissioned by the Council of Canadians.