The Dion Interview: An Analysis
CTV: We sat down that afternoon with Stephane Dion. I began by asking Mr. Dion about his comments that the Prime Minister has done nothing to put Canadians minds at ease about the current economic problems. I asked him, quote “If you were prime minister now, what would you have done that Mr. Harper has not done?” After beginning to answer the question, Mr. Dion asked to start the interview again because he did not understand the question. After a second false start, a member of Mr. Dion’s staff explained the question to Mr. Dion and there was also a third false start. Perhaps we shouldn’t have agreed to restart with the questioning and the Liberal campaign was anxious that his exchange not be broadcast and initially we indicated that it would not be, however, on reflection, CTV News believes we owe it to you to show you everything that happened.CTV: Thank you. Mr. Dion, thank you, good of you to come again.
Dion: Thank you Steve.
CTV: Mr. Dion the economy is now the issue in the campaign, and on that issue you’ve said that Mr. Harper’s offered nothing to put Canadian’s minds at ease and offers no vision for the country. We have to act now you say, doing nothing is not an option. If you were Prime Minister now what would you have done about the economy and this crisis, that Mr. Harper has not done?
Dion: If we had been the Prime Minister two and a half years ago?
CTV: If you were the Prime Minister right now and had been for the past years…
Dion: Right now, ok. If I’m elected next Tuesday, this Tuesday, is what you’re suggesting
CTV: No I, I’m saying if you hypothetically were Prime Minister today…
Dion: Today!
CTV: What would you have done that Mr. Harper [fading] hasn’t done.
Dion: I would have started the 30-50 plan that we want to start the moment that we’ll have a Liberal government. And the 30-50 plan, the 30…in fact the plan for the first 80 days, I should say, the plan for the first 80 days, once you have a liberal government… Can we start again?
CTV: Do you want to?
Camera Man: Sure.
Dion: Yeah.
CTV: Yeah, I’m OK to start again.
Dion: Yeah. Because I’ve been slow to understand your question. I don’t think…[Unintelligible]
Camera Man: I’m recording.
CTV: Mr. Dion good of you to come again.
Dion: Thank you Steve.
CTV: Mr. Dion, you have said today the Mr. Harper has offered nothing to put Canadian’s minds at ease during this financial crisis, you go on to say that he has no vision for the country, you say we have to act now, doing nothing is not an option. So I’d like to begin by asking you, if you were Prime Minister now, what would you have already done in this crisis that Mr. Harper hasn’t done.
Dion: I can’t…I don’t understand the question. Because are you asking me to…respond/answer at what moment? Today? Or since a week? Or 60 weeks? Or…
CTV: No, if you were, if you were the Prime Minister during this time, already…
Dion: We need to start again. If I was the Prime Minister starting when? Today?
Staffer: If you were the Prime Minister, when, since Harper’s been Prime Minister.
Dion: Back then, two years and a half ago.
Staffer: At any given time. We week or 5 years ago.
Dion: Two years, two years and a half ago.
Staffer: What would you have done differently between…between the time that Harper’s been there, to change things.
Dion: Yeah, but if I had been Prime Minister two years and a half ago we would have had an agenda… Let’s start again.
CTV: OK.
Camera Man: Still recording
CTV: Mr. Dion, thank you for coming.
Dion: Thank you Steve. Let’s start again [Laughs]
CTV: It’s a good job tape is cheap.
Dion: But give me a first date where I am Prime Minister, where I can figure out what you question is about.
They then played the interview in its entirety.
CTV: Mr. Dion thank you for coming.
Dion: Thank you Steve.
CTV: The economy is now the major issue we’re confronting in this campaign and on that issue you’ve said that Mr. Harper has offered nothing to put Canadian’s minds at ease and offers no vision for the country. You say we have to act now and doing nothing is not an option. I’d like to ask you Mr. Dion: If you were Prime Minister of Canada, today, what would you have done by now that Steven Harper has not done about this economic crisis.
Dion: I assume that I have been elected today Prime Minister, my first thing I would do is to consult with the Privy Council office, Minister of Finance to know exactly in which situation we are according to data. I would speed up the…my ability to appoint rapidly a government with the Minister of Finance, to be able to be Prime Minister right away, as soon as possible. And once we are the government we have 30 days of an action plan that we announce. So we will need to work with the regulatory agencies to have their best recommendation to protect our savings, to protect our mortgages, our pensions, and our jobs. I will speed up the investment in infrastructure and in the manufacturing sector to create economic activity and jobs now. Good jobs, well paid jobs. I will call a first ministers meeting to be sure that our great federation, everybody will work in coordination: provinces, territories and the federal government. I will consult the best economists of the private sector to ask them why are we ready [reeling?], us Canada and the world; what is their forecast for the situation in which we are. There are a lot of things that I would do. I would not be passive like Mr. Harper.
CTV: But looking back over the past two weeks, what specifically should Mr. Harper have done about this economic crisis that he has not done.
Dion: He did nothing. And what I will need to do is to be sure that the regulatory agencies will come with their best recommendations. There are things to examine. For instance, can we improve the insurance on the deposits of Canadians, as other countries have done. Can we put our seniors in a situation where they are not obligation to sell savings when the stock market is so shaky. There are a lot of things other countries are doing. Here in Canada Mr. Harper is doing nothing.
This entire exchange is a farce and Mr. Steve Murphy is an asshole. Dion clearly had an answer for both versions of the question but Murphy refused to rephrase his question in a clear way.
The question, as I take, was if Dion has been elected Prime Minister instead of Harper in 2004, what would have he done differently. Instead of asking “What would you have done differently in the past two years?”, Murphy chose to word the question like a moron.
The primary failure in the question is Murphy’s continue use of the term “now”. Now denotes immediacy, not reflection upon two years ago. Thus Dion was confused between alternating tenses. On one had Murphy wants to know about “now” while at the same time asking “what would you have done”. These two things are in contradiction with each other. For someone whose English is secondary, it is patently unfair to phrase something this awkwardly then not feel the need to change the wording as to make it more clear.
If you look at the beginning of the exchange, after the initial confusion, Murphy does correct Dion stating “If you were the Prime Minister right now and had been for the past years” and Dion responded to the “right now” comment, missing the “past years”. As such, he begins to answer the question as if he has just then been elected prime minister, but Murphy interrupts and says no, “if you hypothetically were Prime Minister today”. Of course that only makes the question even more confusing, rather than less. What Murphy should have said was “if you had been hypothetically elected in 2006″. But instead of this he continues to lure Dion into this linguistic trap.
At the second start Murphy continues to make the question even more confusing. He states “if you were Prime Minister now, what would you have already done”. This is a ridiculous sentence. He asks part of the question in the present and the second half in the past. That is, if you were there now, what would you have done in the past? It would have been very easy to explain that he meant two years ago instead of adding the more perplexing “already” contrasting the present tense “now”.
Following this exchange there is some discussion between Dion, a staffer and CTV. Yet this again shows the failure of CTV. The staffer is essentially on the right track explaining that Murphy meant that if he were Prime Minister in the past two which Dion responds that he understand that he means two and a half years ago. Indeed he even begins to explain what he would have done saying “I had been Prime Minister two years and a half ago we would have had an agenda…” He then ask to start over on the condition that they “give me a first date where I am Prime Minister, where I can figure out what you question is about.” However, as the question starts again Murphy asks the question in the same backwards manner. Despite Dion asking for a specific date Murphy repeats “today” or ‘now’ instead of specifying the past. As such Dion continues to answer the question on the basis of being elected today.
As such this interview is abhorrent, not for Dion’s misunderstanding, but for CTV’s ridiculous question and their lying about broadcasting it. Dion’s first language is not English and to compound upon that he has a hearing problem. Thus this interview is an example of the stupidity and insensitivity to people whose English is not perfect.
Harper and the Conservative’s response to this interview is also reprehensible. Harper claimed, “I don’t think this is a question of language at all. The question was very clear. It was asked repeatedly.” There is no way that this question was clear, especially to someone in Dion’s situation.
I think everyone should email CTV News and tell them that they are pathetic: atlanticnews@ctv.ca, news@ctv.ca.
And this is coming from a non-Liberal.