Marcus Gee, editorial page editor of The Globe, was on-line earlier Monday to answer your questions on our Saturday editorial [Three reasons why it's time for a change] endorsing Stephen Harper and the Conservative party in the Jan. 23 election.
The questions and answers are at the bottom of this page.
Mr. Gee also writes a weekly column on international affairs.
Born in Toronto, he graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1979 with a degree in modern European history, then worked as a reporter for The Province, Vancouver's morning newspaper. He spent four years in Asia in the early 1980s, the first three in Hong Kong as an editor, writer and correspondent for Asiaweek Magazine, the last as a reporter for United Press International in Manila and Sydney. After returning to Canada, he worked as a foreign affairs writer at Maclean's Magazine and as senior editor at the Financial Times of Canada. He joined the Globe in 1991 as an editorial writer.
Mr. Gee has won two National Newspaper Awards for his commentary. In 2003, Amnesty International gave him its annual John Humphrey award for human rights reporting. Among the events he has covered are the war in Kosovo, the violence in East Timor and the turmoil surrounding the overthrow of Indonesian President Suharto.
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Editor's Note: The same rules applied to this live discussion as normally apply to the "reader comment" feature. Globeandmail.com editors read and approved each comment/question. Not all comments/questions could be answered in the time available. Spelling and grammar errors were not be corrected. Comments/questions were checked for content only. Comments/questions that included false or unsubstantiated allegations, personal attacks, vulgar language or libelous content were rejected.
Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor, globeandmail.com: Welcome, Marcus. Thanks for joining our readers today to discuss The Globe's decision to endorse Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. The Saturday editorial is quite detailed. But can you tell us if there was one factor more than any other that led to this decision?
Marcus Gee: I think the main factor was the evolution of the Tories under Harper. Last time around, we toyed with endorsing them, but went with the Liberals in the end because the Tories had not really pulled their act together. Harper himself still seemed immature and edgy. This time around, he was much steadier, and the Conservative platform markedly more moderate.
William Feader, Kingston, Ont: With the poll numbers continuing to show the probability of a Conservative majority government, I think responding to your editorial may be a moot point. None the less, I have some concerns that I would like to get on the record. First off I was disappointed to read the editorial. I find your articles, coverage and tone to be generally unbiased and fair. So I was rather struck by the fact that your editorial board wrote an article than in my opinion amounts to a call to change for changes sake. When it come to the future of Canada, I think even suggesting that we should change political parties when things are going so well simply because your board wants to see some fresh faces is absurd . . .
Marcus Gee: I don't think we want change for change's sake, But when a party has been in power for four terms and 12 years, you have to start thinking about alternatives. Democracy doesn't mean much unless you have a change of government from time to time. If Canada were to keep re-electing the Liberals -- for a fifth time? a sixth? -- it would risk becoming a sort of one-party democracy like Mexico once was and Japan still is to an extent. The result is usually stagnation and corruption; witness the sponsorship scandal, which sprang directly from the sense of entitlement that develops when a party considers itself the only one truly fit to rule: a natural governing party.
Justa Reed, Vancouver: I've found the Globe's reporting on this campaign to be already heavily biased in favour of the Conservatives, and this pronouncement confirms it. The question needs to be asked: Is it right for a news publication to take sides in an election it is supposedly covering? What ever happened to objective reporting? How can readers ever get a fair picture? I am very disappointed in the Globe and Mail, but sadly am not surprised.
Marcus Gee: You will find that all the major papers will endorse one party or another in this campaign, as they do in every one. There's a long tradition of this, going right back to our founder, George Brown, in the 1800s. It does not affect our news coverage, which strives to be as impartial as possible. Reporters and even most editors do not know which party the editorial page is going to endorse until the editorial appears in the paper.
