Summary
Let's consider [Dion]'s week. While [Spears] was shearing herself, a Strategic Counsel poll was finding that not only were Dion's Grits fading but that whatever honeymoon his leadership had was officially over. In any number of key categories, voters thought more of Stephen Harper than Dion. And get this, Harper even beat Dion in the charisma department. Let me repeat: Dion has somehow found a way to make a prickly economist appear charismatic.
More problematic, what Spears and her ilk do and say matters. A recent Newsweek poll found that 77 per cent of Americans believe that Britney, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan have too much influence on young girls. I figure the results north of the border wouldn't be much different -- and that their influence isn't limited to just young girls. Given a choice between listening to Spears or Dion, I'm betting more would say, "Hit me one more time, Britney." If not Britney, then there's certainly someone else to pay attention to from the world of supermarket tabloids. We know how much Oprah's choices in books matter. We've seen how Angelina Jolie can attract attention to the plight of refugees in a way most politicians can only dream of. Even Al Gore is being celebrated these days. But Gore's celebrity status comes not from his credentials as a former presidential candidate but because of the inconvenient truth that is the glow of an Oscar nomination.See the full content of this document
Extract
Dion's Just Not, Well, Britney
Liberal leader doesn't get our attention
PAUL SAMYN - NATIONAL REPORTOTTAWA -- Who had a worse week: Stéphane Dion or Britney Spears?I'm thinking it may have been the Liberal leader, even though he, unlike the now-bald bad g...See the full content of this document
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