October 2, 2008

It's Thursday, October 2nd.

Canadians are eagerly awaiting tonight's televised election debate.

Currently, oh, and apparently the leaders of the five major Canadian parties are doing something too.

This is The Current.


Bush's Conservatism

To his critics, George Bush has been many things, few of them good. But the idea that he would spend his last months in office trying to convince members of his own party that he's not a socialist... well, that would have been unimaginable even just a few months ago. Of course that was before his administration bailed out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and before he proposed a 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout the biggest government intervention in the economy since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

President Bush says those actions are meant to save free-market capitalism, not undermine it. But for Republicans who see their party as the home of free enterprise, small government and individualism above all else... if it walks and talks like socialism, then it's socialism.

According to Brian Doherty, that's not as shocking an allegation as you might think. He is the Senior Editor of Reason magazine. He's also the author of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement and he joined us from Los Angeles.

But there are still plenty of Republicans who just aren't buying the idea of George Bush as socialist. Tony Blankley is one of them. He's was a press secretary for Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a speech writer for President Ronald Reagan. He's now a columnist for the Washington Times and he joined us from Washington.

Letters

Every week throughout the federal election campaign, our Friday hosts have been highlighting issues close to their hearts. This week, our Friday host is Craig Kielburger. Craig has been recognized as a global leader in the area of children's rights. He is the founder and chair of Free The Children, an international development and youth empowerment organization. He is also the co-founder and director of Me-to-We Social Enterprises , an organization that encourages ethical living.

Also, all of the fears over the financial crisis and how it might change the way we behave and the choices we make as consumers got us asking: what would Darwin say? So we called Gad Saad.

Gad Saad is an evolutionary behavioural scientist and a professor at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. He's the author of The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption.

Community Confidential

By one estimate, there are more than 120 different radio and television programs and more than 500 publications, all catering to immigrant communities and new Canadians. And as their audiences grow, those media are giving traditional news outlets a run for their money. During the election campaign, Canada's ethnic press are tailoring their coverage to reflect issues that matter to their communities. And that means they're often covering stories that aren't on the radar of mainstream media outlets. So for a look at what's making headlines in some of those communities, we've reconvened our "Community Confidential" panel.

Winnie Hwo is the News Director for the Chinese-language network Fairchild TV. She's in Vancouver. Nadia Zouaoui is a documentary maker, and a contributor to Radio Canada. She wasin Montreal. And Anis Farooqui is the Editor of Voice Of Toronto.com, a news website that caters to South Asian Canadians. He was in Toronto.


Last Word:

We began the show talking about the proposed 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout an issue that will likely be front-and-centre as the American Vice Presidential candidates square off in their first televised debate this evening.

And to give you a sense of Republican Sarah Palin's sparring style on the issue, we'll leave you with her answer to a question Katie Couric asked her last week, "How would she convince Americans that the bailout is necessary?"