Margaret Wente and Jeffrey Simpson revisit their records over the past 12 months.
I don't regret expressing opinions I know will be unpopular. But sometimes when you throw a snowball, you get buried by an avalanche.
The most contentious column of the year contained the word "savages." It tried a defence of Olympics executive Dick Pound, who was denounced for an offhand comment he'd made (in French) that Canada had once been a land of " sauvages." I tried to argue that European culture of the 1600s had in some ways been more "advanced" than North American aboriginal cultures of the same time.
This was not a popular view, to say the least, nor did I argue it especially well, although it might not have made a difference if I had. Within hours, a Facebook group called Fire Margaret Wente had signed up thousands of new members. Their e-mails to the editor denounced me for ignorance, malice and racism, and didn't stop for weeks. Later, at a symposium on journalism ethics, I feebly explained I hadn't anticipated such a heated reaction. To which one seasoned professor replied: "Well, you should have." She was right. ...
People sometimes ask me if I write just to provoke reaction. The answer is no. I try to write what I think, especially when it may diverge from popular opinion. But columnizing has its hazards. Sometimes, you get the facts wrong. Sometimes, you say things badly. Sometimes, you realize your whole argument is wrong. Last summer, I got up in a bad mood one day and complained about Toronto's Pride parade, on the grounds that, as an expression of identity politics, it has become tired and passé.
But that was a case when I wound up disagreeing with myself. "Margaret Wente dismisses the Pride parade because it's tacky, campy and there's too much sexual exhibitionism," complained a reader. "If that's the case, Caribana, Mardi Gras and Carnival should be nixed, too." Ouch! I realized he was right. I'll try to do better next year, although I'm not sure I'll succeed.
Confidence baldly stated is often confidence misplaced, as in this April 28 comment: “Today, in Canada, no politician would dare call for a deficit.” Today, Jan. 3, 2009, there is no Canadian politician who would not dare call for a deficit.
Lesson: Qualify categorical declarations. After all these years in the business, one should know that the unexpected is the expected, and that reality takes a bite out of ideology and certainty. ...
It turned out to be a raucous political year. Horse-race journalism isn't my style, but I thought the Conservatives would win a majority and intimated as much. They seemed to enjoy so many advantages over the sad-sack Liberals, the retreating Bloc Québécois and the stuck-in-a-rut New Democrats. But the Conservative campaign, which I assumed was so finely tuned, made a series of unexpected errors and frittered away the majority. Memo to self: Be less awed.
I co-authored a long profile of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in which I said he had learned how to be a step-by-step moderate. Then came the ideological economic statement and the government's near-death experience in Parliament. So much for that analysis.