Michael Moore Statement on Canadian Election

[SmithSmith]

Oh, Canada -- you're not really going to elect a Conservative majority on Monday, are you? That's a joke, right? I know you have a great sense of humor, and certainly a well-developed sense of irony, but this is no longer funny. Maybe it's a new form of Canadian irony -- reverse irony! OK, now I get it. First, you have the courage to stand against the war in Iraq -- and then you elect a prime minister who's for it. You declare gay people have equal rights -- and then you elect a man who says they don't. You give your native peoples their own autonomy and their own territory -- and then you vote for a man who wants to cut aid to these poorest of your citizens. Wow, that is intense! Only Canadians could pull off a hat trick of humor like that. My hat's off to you.

Far be it from me, as an American, to suggest what you should do. You already have too many Americans telling you what to do. Well, actually, you've got just one American who keeps telling you to roll over and fetch and sit. I hope you don't feel this appeal of mine is too intrusive but I just couldn't sit by, as your friend, and say nothing. Yes, I agree, the Liberals have some 'splainin' to do. And yes, one party in power for more than a decade gets a little... long. But you have a parliamentary system (I'll bet you didn't know that -- see, that's why you need Americans telling you things!). There are ways at the polls to have your voices heard other than throwing the baby out with the bath water.

These are no ordinary times, and as you go to the polls on Monday, you do so while a man running the nation to the south of you is hoping you can lend him a hand by picking Stephen Harper because he's a man who shares his world view. Do you want to help George Bush by turning Canada into his latest conquest? Is that how you want millions of us down here to see you from now on? The next notch in the cowboy belt? C'mon, where's your Canadian pride? I mean, if you're going to reduce Canada to a cheap download of Bush & Co., then at least don't surrender so easily. Can't you wait until he threatens to bomb Regina? Make him work for it, for Pete's sake.

But seriously, I know you're not going to elect a guy who should really be running for governor of Utah. Whew! I knew it! You almost had me there. Very funny. Don't do that again. God, I love you, you crazy cold wonderful neighbors to my north. Don't ever change.

Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=192

[SmithSmith]

Moore hopes Canada doesn't vote Conservative
Updated Sat. Jun. 19 2004 6:33 PM ET

Canadian Press

TORONTO — Hopefully Canadians will not set a trend at the end of the current federal election and vote into power a political party that says it would have joined the Bush administration's invasion-of-Iraq coalition, says U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore.

"For you to go backwards would be a horrible thing to see happen," the scruffy-faced Moore said when asked about the stance of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper. He said he was grateful the former Liberal government stayed out of Iraq.

Moore arrived in Toronto on Friday to help promote his already-controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, a scathing indictment of President George W. Bush's handling of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

In an interview, Moore said he resented the criticisms by some right-wing American opponents that his film amounts to liberal propaganda.

"It's a work of journalism," he maintained. "It's the real journalism that the journalists should be doing. The movie is filled with a lot of facts, a lot of background information, a lot of research and then the film is an op ed piece. Propaganda? That's a bit of a strong term. Propagandists believe it's OK to take the facts and tell half-truths and twist them to meet their purposes. I present to you the facts."

As for those who say he isn't playing by the rules because he manages to be both a social satirist and a documentary journalist not held to the traditional rules of impartiality?

"Like bona-fide journalists do? Bona-fide journalists are not impartial. Bona-fide journalists in the U.S. supported this war, cheerleaded this war, got in bed with the administration, never asked the hard questions and completely failed the American people by not doing their job."

And he said those people undoubtedly will come after him because Fahrenheit 9/11 shows things not seen on the nightly TV news.

"And a lot of people are going to leave the theatre wondering why. Why did they put Bush through a filter? Why didn't we see him as he really is? Why don't we hear from the soldiers who are against the war?" Moore asked.

As for the shortage of Moore's traditional sense of humour in the admittedly dark film, he said he decided to leave most of the humour up to Bush.

And Moore doesn't expect to win any hearts and minds among the ultra-right. He says he's preaching to the choir because in America the choir has been asleep by not voting.

"Who's the choir? The 50 per cent of the American people who don't vote. Are they the elite? Are they the rich? Are they the well-educated?

"They are the poor, the working class, the single moms, the young people and the African-Americans."

He said those people have given up, have sunk into despair and cynicism and that it's his job to pull them back and urge them to give it another try.

"I hope to give the choir a song to sing and I hope they sing it loud as they leave the movie theatre."

Asked why he is hated so much by the ultra-right in the U.S., Moore said it's because they smartly perceive that his form of documentary film is effective.

"Unlike most of the left, I have reached a wide mainstream audience, something the left doesn't usually reach. And that is dangerous, and they need to stop that."

Pro-Republican groups in the U.S. have already geared up to oppose the film, including a massive letter-writing campaign to theatre chains. Moore says some theatres will even have security posted.

In the U.S. distributors are appealing to get the film a PG-13 rating, not an R. The Motion Picture Association of America appeals board is scheduled to meet Tuesday. The Ontario Film Review Board will consider the film's rating Monday night.

Moore said it's important that teenagers get to see the film despite its graphic images of death and dying in Iraq.

"My position is that if these kids are going to be asked to go fight a war in a couple of years, they should at the very least be allowed to see what's going on over there on a movie screen."

The film has had a rocky course already. Although winning the top award at the recent Cannes Film Festival, its release by Miramax Films in the U.S. was temporarily blocked last month when parent company Disney argued that it would represent an improper intrusion into the upcoming American election campaign. It has since found other distributors, including Alliance Atlantis in Canada.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...?hub=TopStories (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1087607582860_49/?hub=TopStories)

[LSD]

um...you do realize that that CP article is from 2004, right?

And what was the point of posting this?

Yet another bourgeois celebrity encouraging us to "rock the vote" and "choose our Canada". How exciting. <_<

Sorry, but the time when real change happens at the polling station is long over.

[JKP]

Please don&#39;t bring that fat fuck into this forum. He is just a reformist liberal and has no relation to the emancipation of the proletariat in any way.