There’s been an epidemic of Canadian politicians being screamed at by random unhinged yahoos in recent years, and yesterday it happened to the new Conservative Party leader.
The difference is, said random unhinged yahoo was a veteran reporter for Global News:
Akin is a very good reporter (with a history of working for right-of-centre outlets, contrary to Poilievere’s characterization of him as a “Liberal heckler”) and his apology appears sincere:
Because this is Twitter and we can’t have nice things, Akin is now taking fire from #TruAnon for admitting he acted like a jackass:
What option did he have? He could have refused to cover the event on principle if he felt that strongly about it.
If any reporters heckled and yelled at Justin Trudeau at media appearances in which he refused to take questions, I must have missed it. It’s always interesting to see new standards invented out of whole cloth as circumstances warrant and which we’re all expected to pretend have always been there.
As for Poilievre, he’s gracefully accepted Akin’s apology and admitted that he was out of line in calling him a Liberal partisan and admitted that maybe he should be more open to questioning from the press LOL he’s already fundraising off of this. And that in turn is a sign that he’s committing literal violence against Canadian journalists, and oh God please make it stop:
The die has been cast for the Pierre Poilievre era: a vicious cycle with one side baiting and denouncing the media while the other side acts ever more unhinged and hostile. Whichever side of the partisan divide you’re on determines which you believe started it.
For the rest of us, there’s not going to be enough alcohol even in the vast nation of Canada to see us through it.