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ORIGINAL POST

Something must be wrong with me, which probably isn’t news to everybody. Nevertheless, I am appalled by the $14-plus-billion (and counting) cost of the Canadian auto company bailouts. I don’t think it is worth spending this huge amount of public money to try to save maybe five thousand jobs, especially not at companies that failed to address many obvious issues because executives and union leaders alike knew they could squeeze taxpayers when the poop hit the fan.

When it comes to GM and Chrysler, I think the money being tossed around in Canada is nothing more than a cynical vote acquisition spree by a Conservative government running wild thanks to the Great Recession, which has freed the Harper administration from seriously pretending it prefers to govern with balanced books.

I am not proposing this, but if the bailouts are really about the big economic picture, or even saving the Canadian auto sector, I actually think it might be better to give the money to Honda and Toyota, so they could strengthen local operations. Or maybe even Toronto-based electric carmaker Zenn. Its ownership rights to potentially game-changing energy storage technology is still a long-shot (for more on this, see my new market column in the Tech 100 issue of Canadian Business magazine), but unlike GM or Chrysler, you can at least see the pin.

I am not supposed to think this way. Indeed, I have a young daughter, who, according to current academic thinking, is supposed to have me singing socialist ditties as I bake cupcakes for dollhouse tea parties or dance around the house in frilly princess outfits. I know this thanks to a recent Guardian article, which noted that having little girls makes even the most masculine man “learn to love pink, take part in endless games of dressing up, and even bake fairy cakes if that’s what his little princess desires.”

According to the British newspaper, the simple existence of my daughter is supposed to make me support increased public spending. The article in question was based on two studies that suggest the political views of parents are heavily influenced by the sex of their children. One examined voting records of U.S. congressmen before and after they had children. It reportedly found support for gender equity policies is greater among male politicians with daughters.

The second study claims British voting behavior provides “evidence that daughters make people more left wing, while having sons, by contrast, makes them more right wing.” After men father females, Brit academics claim, they “gradually shift their political stance” and become more sympathetic to raising taxes and the “female desire” for a larger amount of people employed to look after the “public good.” A mother with sons, on the other hand, becomes sympathetic to the “male case” for lower taxes and smaller government.

As a father, of course, I’d argue that these conclusions smell like the puffy clouds generated by Walter the Farting Dog after he eats a brick of very old cheese.

My political beliefs are not fixed. I used to call myself a Platonic Marxist. But that was back in my graduate school days. I never even thought about what the term was supposed to mean. I simply thought it would sound cool to the numerous females in my classes. Back then, I argued with people who misunderstood socialism. But I also took a lot of heat for a poster in my student office that pictured the back-end of expensive cars sticking out of a five-car garage. It had a caption that said: “Justification for higher education.”

Some folks thought that meant I was a member of the young PCs. I wasn’t. They were geeks. I bought the poster because I was a kid with crappy tastes, except in cars.

Over the years, I have learned a few things, and not just that male students should not use the word “platonic” in any self description, unless they actually want to study on study dates. But my political views are still a mess. I enjoy the company of labour leaders and billionaires alike. I believe in capitalism, but know it is far from fair. I support free trade, but don’t really think losing jobs to countries that oppress individuals is a good thing. And I don’t have a huge issue with Buy American spending in the States, at least not in the short term, since the U.S. economy is more important to a global recovery than our own (these ideas are my own, not the stand of the CB editorial board that I serve).

I understand how politics works. In fact, I often think about entering the game, which makes me try to imagine policies that could get a guy like me elected. My best is a real whopper from the left, which looks more and more plausible every day. Since governments are getting into business in a big way, and since banks are being blamed for the financial meltdown, I say why not steal some of their profits by offering a Bank of Canada credit card, which could use personal debt to help pay down national debt by allowing anyone with a private sector card to transfer outstanding balances and pay interest of just a few points above inflation.

When being serious, of course, I think Canada should hang tough and stop justifying more and more deficit spending by claiming it will help us fight a global downturn that we can’t really influence. In global monetary affairs, we are a spectator nation. So maybe we should try to keep our fiscal heads, which was our competitive advantage when the world economy was firing on all pistons.

For the record, however, I absolutely love Tea Virginia Reed Watson, my wonderful kid, who came into this world in my living room-where I catered to the needs of four midwives (one for my wife, one for my daughter and two students) before fighting them all for a ringside seat at the birthing tub. I took parental leave and was happy doing it. In fact, since helping deliver my child, I have shared the caregiver role equally with my equally loving wife. I have played My Little Pony for hours on end in the local public pool and I have watched The Little Mermaid at least once for every dollar being tossed at GM.

I get behind my daughter’s causes. Indeed, I am Twiller Baby aware, so I fully supported Thumbelina’s campaign against urban developers. I worry about my child’s interests. In fact, I could write a graduate thesis on the negative gender stereotypes projected by the Berenstain Bears. Simply put, I’ll do anything for my daughter, which is why I didn’t care about the shocked looks I got on Toronto Island two summers ago when doing what it takes to deal with a seriously bad case of childhood constipation.

But, hey, I still want lower taxes. Maybe it is because I also play dad to Oscar Snow Mittens Reed Watson, a semi-evil male cat, who would be a lot safer with fewer cars on the road. Whatever the reason, I think the market should have a lot more say in what automakers survive this downturn, not to mention how GM and Chrysler restructure. In my humble opinion, spending $2.5 million per job to save positions at companies losing money in an industry with overcapacity and demand issues is just nuts. It isn’t even fair to the real working class.

I try to imagine how liberal capitalism will shake out for my daughter. Free nations around the world are relying on Red Capitalism to bail them out of this crisis. And to buy time, the States is doing some pretty large-scale social planning that doesn’t seem to care much for creditor rights. Since nobody seems to want to allow failing companies to fail, I can’t imagine what will happen with inflation or during the next major downturn (or the one after that).

Any way you slice it, the future looks pretty depressing, especially for parents who don’t like taxes. And so, for Father’s Day, I hope to help someone, right or left, escape current events with a giveaway package of reading material worth about $200. To try to win, just post a comment on this blog, making an argument for or against the auto sector bailouts. I’ll pick the best of the bunch and send the poster a free subscription to Canadian Business magazine, along with the following package of books from Simon & Schuster Canada: Old City Hall, a Robert Rotenberg legal thriller set in Toronto; John Connolly’s The Reapers; Bryan Gruley’s Starvation Lake; The Last Patriot by New York Times best-selling author Brad Thor; Roadside Crosses, the third in Jeffrey Deaver’s high-tech thriller trilogy; and Fool’s Gold, a market meltdown tale by award-winning Financial Times journalist Gillian Tett.
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DOUBLE TAKE: Aside from trying to promote myself while generating Web traffic that helps put bread and butter on my table, this blog aims to stir debate by taking a harder look at current news and events. I obviously enjoy voicing my own opinions, but I am a big boy and I welcome all comments that don’t require R ratings. So let me have it via this blog or send me an email at tom.watson@canadianbusiness.rogers.com. I reserve the right to post email comments without disclosing the sender’s name. If you don’t think I am a total twit, follow my DOUBLE TAKE posts via my NotSOCRATES Twitter site.

THOMAS WATSON is a senior writer, market columnist and editorial board member at Canadian Business magazine. Since winning a community journalism award as a cub reporter with the Hamilton Spectator in the early ’90s, he has covered business, finance, politics and technology for various news outlets. Prior to joining CB in 2001, he reported on the steel and automotive sectors for the Financial Post. Watson received two National Magazine Award nominations for business feature writing in 2008, winning a silver award for his coverage of Canada’s ABCP fiasco. He landed his first NatMag nomination for exposing a stock manipulation plot aimed at Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text during the dot-com boom, when he headed investor relations for an international venture capital outfit in the City of London. Watson holds graduate degrees in journalism, international relations and public finance and undergraduate degrees in history and politics.

The event was moderated by tweeter Boyd Neil, who is also senior VP and national director of Hill and Knowlton’s corporate communications practice in Canada. He set the tone by asking audience members if their employer was prepared to withstand an attack launched on YouTube or Twitter.

Peter Acteo was on hand to share his reasoning for tweeting as the CEO of ING Direct Canada. You can find them on Twitter. But simply put, he thinks anyone who can talk openly and honestly online as an executive, without plugging products, has an opportunity to better connect with consumers.

Suzanne Fallander, Intel’s manager of corporate responsibility, flew in from the States to explain why her company runs CSR@INtel. The intent is to use social media to create greater transparency through an open dialogue with Intel bloggers, who manage Intel’s CSR strategy in the areas such as environmental sustainability and philanthropy.

My job was to express my opinion on social media as a print journalist. “In all the discussion about the impact of social media on the declining financial health of print and broadcast media, the most interesting question,” according to Boyd, “is whether journalism today is surrendering its role as the watchdog of political and business behaviour to a much broader cadre of watchers, which sometimes includes members of the public who are simply in the right place at the right time.”

“Is this true?” Boyd asked me. My answer, of course, was: “No.”

I wasn’t just offering a self-serving answer. It is a free market. The advertising revenue that supports traditional media is obviously free to (and should) search out the best means possible to attract eyeballs. There will be an adjustment period for news organizations. There will be lost print publications. And the survivors will have to explore the proper mix of paper-based and electronic forms of information delivery. But there will always be a need and demand for traditional journalism.

As I told the Empire Club audience, anyone can run around screaming like the town crier, but they can’t deliver information with the same authority. I do not, in any way, dismiss the power and reach of bloggers. I just do not feel that my profession (trade actually) is threatened by bloggers like Toronto’s Neil Pasricha. He posts about things like loving warm underwear on 1000 Awesome Things, which recently won a coveted Webby Award in the best personal/cultural blog category. He could report news as well, but the coverage would not necessarily be awesome.

I am privileged to work for Canadian Business magazine, which frequently allows me to spend months chasing major feature stories that could not be told, at least not nearly as well, without the resources of a traditional media organization. That includes folks in the art department, not to mention the editors, who help me package my stories and investigative reports. It also includes the researchers and fact checkers and lawyers who help me report complex and controversial tales the right way.

I don’t know exactly how daily news and magazine-style journalism will be delivered a decade from now, but I do know there will always be a market for the kind of unique content that recently helped Canadian Business land a nomination for best magazine of 2008.

In the meantime, corporation must indeed take note that social media has empowered consumers. Last year, I wrote about the Canadian investors who used Facebook to face down Bay Street insiders during the ABCP restructuring. A similar event just took place in the UK, where Busts for Justice, a Facebook campaign launched to support large-breasted women, just forced Marks & Spencer to admit it “boobed” when trying to charge extra for bras with a DD cup or larger.

But be advised, social media also has made journalists of all stripes more powerful than ever before. I just published a massive feature in Canadian Business after an 8-month investigation into UK-based shareholder complaints directed at three Montreal businesses, including the former Canadian franchise partner of socially responsible Ben & Jerry’s. I used the Internet to collect information while joining overseas chat groups to see if other shareholders had similar concerns with these companies. What I found is a fascinating tale of international investor protection woes. To find out more, please check out the current issue of our magazine, which is also jammed with other interesting features and our I500 market data on Canadian companies. And, hey, you really can’t get that combination of informative goodies anywhere else.

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DOUBLE TAKE: Aside from trying to promote myself while generating Web traffic that helps put bread and butter on my table, this blog aims to stir debate by taking a harder look at current news and events. I obviously enjoy voicing my own opinions, but I am a big boy and I welcome all comments that don’t require R ratings. So let me have it via this blog or send me an email at tom.watson@canadianbusiness.rogers.com. I reserve the right to post email comments without disclosing the sender’s name. If you don’t think I am a total twit, follow my DOUBLE TAKE posts via my NotSOCRATES Twitter site at http://twitter.com/NotSocrates. THOMAS WATSON is a Senior Writer and editorial board member at Canadian Business magazine. Since winning a community journalism award as a cub reporter with the Hamilton Spectator in the early ’90s, he has covered business, finance, politics and technology for various news outlets. Prior to joining CB in 2001, he reported on the steel and automotive sectors for the Financial Post. Watson received his first magazine award nomination for exposing a stock manipulation plot aimed at Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text in 2000, when he was head of investor relations for an international venture capital outfit in the City of London. Watson holds graduate degrees in journalism, international relations and public finance and undergraduate degrees in history and politics.

I’d also like to encourage Canadian Business readers to weigh-in on what corporate responsibility actions have the greatest long-term benefit: reducing environmental impact, or improving the performance of social/community programs. Click here to let me know what you think.

Also, I’ve been itching to jump in on the AIG bonus saga in this space, but have instead dumped my thoughts into ink and paper–they’re in an Editor’s Note in the next issue. Basically, I argue along similar lines to Tom Watson’s probably unpopular take here.

Finally, as an MSM alert: is it just me, or are you starting to feel sorry for big newspapers? Not only are they shutting down or cutting back all over the place, but last night even Barack Obama dissed them. During his prime-time news conference, he did not as is usual presidential practice field questions from The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street  Journal, USA Today or the Los Angeles, reports Howard Kurtz, of the neglected WP. Instead, Obama called on not only the usual suspects from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, but also reporters for Ebony, Stars and Stripes, the Washington Times (the capital’s second newspaper, with a fraction of the circulation of the WP), Univision and Agence France-Presse.

Expect a return of the Freedom Fries movement any day now…

Switzerland 1 (2)

Sweden 2 (1)

Luxembourg 3 (5)

Norway 4 (4)

Iceland 5 (3)

Finland 6 (7)

Canada 7 (11)

Denmark 8 (10)

Ireland 9 (9)

Japan 10 (6)

Australia 11 (13)

South Korea 12 (12)

Netherlands 13 (8)

New Zealand 14 (15)

Austria 15 (16)

United States 16 (14)

United Kingdom 17 (17)

France 18 (18)

Germany 19 (20)

Czech Republic 20 (23)

Mexico 21 (19)

Belgium 22 (21)

Spain 23 (22)

Portugal 24 (24)

Turkey 25 (26)

Italy 26 (25)

Slovak Republic 27 (28)

Greece 28 (29)

Poland 29 (30)

Hungary 30 (27)

Last week we here at CB magazine put to bed a special edition on Canadian competitiveness called “How We Can Win” (catchy, eh?), which not only was our biggest issue of the year in terms of size, but also in terms of impact, since in it we launched the basic elements of a complete redesign — new masthead logo, new fonts, new layouts. (The fully redesigned mag, including a new section or two, is to be published on Oct. 22 — we’re working on it now.)

The issue was also big in terms of ambition: it’s all about how Canada’s economy is shaping up over the next decade, and identifying the challenges and opportunities in the future for Canadian investors, businesses and policymakers. So the articles address such issues as infrastructure (crumbling roads, water pipes, bridges, etc), health care, education, the potential of the North, global warming (not unrelated to previous topic), immigration and a whole lot more. And they do more than raise the problems: they attempt to point to some solutions.

All in all, it’s a good and thought-provoking read, if I do say so myself, on the big picture for Canada going forward. (There’s also a rather large ‘big picture’ of me in it on page 9 — not my idea, believe me. Blame my art director!)

The issue hit newsstands today in Ontario, and will be rolled out over the next few days across the country — check it out and let us know what you think.

In the meantime, you can read a special web-only entry on the theme of Canadian competitiveness—by John Gray, on how to fix the Canadian justice system’s embarrassingly ineffectual approach to white-collar crime. You can read it here.