February 13, 2012

Craig Oliver has covered 19 federal elections, From Diefenbaker to Prime Minister Harper, over the course of his more than 50-year career. He's watched politics change and evolve as Canada has transformed from a mostly agricultural society to one that is high-tech and a global political player. He says he's not sure if journalists are better at covering politics. In fact, sometimes the aggressive coverage can even keep potentially good candidates out of the political arena.

In this clip, Craig talks about...

The quality of our political leadership
"I think the fact that reporters have become so hard on people in politics is one of the many reasons why some of the best people in the country arent' going into it anymore. And they used to you know. Some of the real stars in businesses and other professions used to go into poltiics and they don't anymore so I think the quality of our political leadership has declined."