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Information as a gateway right: Examining complaints related to the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights
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Heidi Illingworth, Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime
Dr. Nadia Ferrara, Executive Director, Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime
It was not until 2015 that the rights of victims of crime were enshrined in comprehensive federal legislation in Canada through the CVBR. This Act defined a victim as an individual who has suffered physical or emotional harm, property damage or economic loss as the result of the commission or alleged commission of an offence (CVBR 2015). It set out rights for victims that apply across the criminal justice system, from investigation and prosecution of the offence, to the corrections and the conditional release process in Canada; and through the proceedings of courts and Review Boards in respect of accused who are found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder or unfit to stand trial (CVBR 2015). The CVBR gave all victims in the criminal justice system the right to information about how their case was being pursued; the right to protection; the right to participate and convey their views in processes that affect their rights; the right to seek restitution for losses; and the right to file a complaint if they felt their rights had been infringed or denied (OFOVC 2020a). At the time, the drafters of the legislation believed it would afford victims the opportunity to have a more meaningful voice in the criminal justice system, greater information, enhanced consideration of their security and greater consideration to receive restitution (Perrin 2017).
Yet, despite the enactment of this quasi-constitutional federal statute, victims in the Canadian criminal justice system continue to report to the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime (OFOVC) that they lack adequate information about their rights and the services available to them. This clearly illustrates how the adoption of a law in the books is different from its implementation in action (OFOVC 2020a), as criminal justice personnel continue to systematically overlook or neglect victims' legitimate needs.
The right to information is a foundational, gateway right – without it, victims cannot assert or effectively exercise the other rights set out in the Act (Perrin 2017). For example, without being notified of when proceedings will occur, a victim cannot exercise their right to convey their views to the decision-maker (Perrin 2017). Research in victimology is definitive with many studies highlighting the importance of information for victims and the need for timely and concise verbal and written information relating to their rights, justice system processes and victim services. As Manikis (2015, 167) outlines, evidence has demonstrated that when victims are left uninformed about developments in their case, secondary victimization often may occur. According to the victims who have contacted the OFOVC, being kept informed about the criminal justice process remains one of their most important needs. Unfortunately, many are left uninformed as to any developments at all stages of the criminal process, and this leads to increased stress, feeling further disempowered.
What is critical to recognize is that information comes in various forms and so a victim has the right to factual information and the right to be informed of informal aspects of the criminal justice process (Fenwick 1995; Manikis 2015). Factual information is related to the various stages of the criminal court process, such as bail hearings, sentence appeals, release and the informal aspects are more related to the explanatory information and reasoning behind the key decisions (Manikis 2015, p. 168). It is important to clarify the various forms of information so victims know what to request and what they can expect to receive from various agencies (Manikis 2015), and this helps increase clarification and decrease ambiguity for victims seeking information.
Unfortunately, under the CVBR, criminal justice authorities are not required to automatically provide victims with information about their rights or other general information about the investigation, prosecution, the accused or offender; it is provided only 'upon request' (CVBR 2015). The burden of asking for information and to be kept informed of developments in their case is placed upon traumatized victims and survivors at every stage along their criminal justice journey. Many victims simply do not know what to ask for or they assume officials will provide them with the entitlements in the law.
Although responding to victims of crime is a shared responsibility between federal, provincial and territorial governments in Canada (Department of Justice 2015), the CVBR fails to identify which criminal justice officials are directly responsible for upholding victims' rights (OFOVC 2020a). Instead, the CVBR imposes an obligation on criminal justice officials to give effect to victims' rights (Perrin 2017). In effect, by not identifying which officials are obligated to provide information, the obligation falls to no one. This means information about victims' legal rights is provided inconsistently in practice across Canada (OFOVC 2020a). In this paper, we will examine the most frequent complaint received from victims and survivors at the OFOVC in relation to the CVBR, which is their Right to Information not being respected.
LEGAL CONTEXT
The Canadian Victims Bill of Rights (2015) delineates the following:
Every victim has the right, on request, to information about (a) the criminal justice system and the role of victims in it; (b)the services and programs available to them as a victim, including restorative justice programs; and (c) their right to file a complaint for an infringement or denial of any of their rights under this Act.
Investigation and proceedings
Every victim has the right, on request, to information about (a)the status and outcome of the investigation into the offence; and (b) the location of proceedings in relation to the offence, when they will take place and their progress and outcome.
Information about offender or accused
Every victim has the right, on request, to information about (a)reviews under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act relating to the offender's conditional release and the timing and conditions of that release; and (b) hearings held for the purpose of making dispositions, as defined in subsection 672.1(1) of the Criminal Code, in relation to the accused, if the accused is found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder or unfit to stand trial, and the dispositions made at those hearings.
One of the central concerns with respect to the CVBR is that it does not require that victims be automatically provided with information about their rights. In contrast, under Sections 10 and 11 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a crime suspect has immediate legal guarantees once detained or arrested, including the right to know the reasons for their arrest and to know they have the right to a lawyer.
Victims of crime, on the other hand, must ask the police and other authorities what their rights are and ask for information at every stage of the proceedings. How is a victim or survivor supposed to know they have any rights at all? Is it fair to expect a survivor, in the midst of experiencing trauma, to be aware of the complexities of the justice system or their rights within it, if the state has not proactively informed them?
When offenders are incarcerated or being considered for parole or other temporary release, victims who have been harmed deserve information. However, currently, victims must ask for this information. While some provincial victim support programs are mandated to inform victims about their rights in this area (Nova Scotia is one example), victims must still self-register with either Correctional Services Canada (CSC) or the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) to receive any information about their case. The current federal policy reflects the belief that it would violate a victim's privacy (and perhaps be emotionally upsetting) to contact survivors about the offender who harmed them or about their rights, such as the right to participate in hearings or express concerns about their protection. The OFOVC believes this interpretation violates the spirit of the law and reinforces barriers to the implementation of victims' rights (OFOVC 2020a).
Not surprisingly, the number of victims who ask for information about the offender who harmed them is quite low compared with the number of individuals incarcerated in Canada. The numbers also tell us this approach does not work. For example, if we look at corrections and conditional release data from 2018-19, we know there were some 23,000 offenders under federal responsibility. However, only about 8,500 victims were registered to receive information about their case (Public Safety Canada 2019). The lack of a proactive approach to the provision of information interferes with victims' access to their rights along the criminal justice continuum (OFOVC 2020a).
Both CSC and the PBC currently require victims to self-register to receive information about the offenders who harmed them. These organizations should instead provide for the automatic registration of victims and survivors to receive such information with "opt in" and "opt out" choices, so victims and survivors can decide whether registration is in their best interests at any particular time (OFOVC 2020a).
VICTIMS' VOICES – ANALYZING OFOVC DATA
The OFOVC is mandated to review complaints lodged by victims of crime related to their treatment in the criminal justice system, at the federal level. From the time the CVBR came into effect in 2015 until December 2020, the OFOVC received 407 complaints related to victims' rights under the CVBR (Table 1). Of those, 168 dealt with information issues, 65 with participation, 57 with protection, 30 with restitution and 87 with remedy issues.
It is not surprising then that 168 complaints relate to information, because information is a foundational or gateway right (OFOVC 2020a). Without proper access to information, victims and survivors simply cannot exercise the other rights provided to them in the legislation, such as participation, protection and restitution because they are not aware of them. In our frontline experience working directly with survivors, many victims are simply not aware of the existence of CVBR or the rights provided to them therein. Thus, they often approach OFOVC to ask what their rights entail, especially with respect to CSC, PBC and the offender who harmed them.
OFOVC DATA – TABLE 1:
Total number of complaints related to the CVBR received by the OFOVC (April 2015 – December 2020)
Right to Participation
Right to Protection
Right to Restitution
TOTAL NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS
Many survivors who contact the OFOVC voice that criminal justice authorities, such as police, courts, victim services or CSC/PBC, are not respecting their basic right to information. Table 2 outlines the criminal justice agencies about which victims have registered complaints. The unfortunate reality is that most victims of crime also do not know about the OFOVC or the fact that they have a right to file a complaint when their rights are infringed.
OFOVC DATA - TABLE 2:
Right to Information - Complaints breakdown by criminal justice agency (April 2015 – December 2020):
Criminal justice agency:
Number of Complaints:
Police/RCMP
Courts/Trials
Victim Services/Compensation
CSC/PBC
In Table 3 below, the OFOVC conducted a qualitative analysis of the 168 complaints related to the Right to Information, and we have outlined the most common complaints received.
Most common complaints raised with regard to the Right to Information:
Timeliness of information provided by officials, including follow up, is too late or after the fact[1]
Information is unclear, difficult to understand[2]
Victims are unaware of the requirement to self-register to receive information from CSC/PBC[3]
Communications challenges with various officials[4]
Information is not provided at all to victims or it is delayed[5]
Information is restricted by legislation[6]
Personal information about the offender is protected/restricted from disclosure to victims, but officials must share victim information, such as impact statements, with offenders.[7]
Victims are not provided with information about how to follow up or enforce restitution orders that have been made in their case.[8]
Victims are provided very little information about removals from Canada and this process (deportation where there is criminality).[9]
Changing consistency of information provided due to staff turnover.[10]
The fact that victims of crime are not consistently informed of their rights across Canada is a grave reality that requires immediate attention and correction by all officials involved.
THE NEED FOR INFORMATION
Research in victimology has found that victims of crime have a need to be informed about their rights, services available to them and the timing of justice system processes (Waller 2011; Manikis 2015). Verbal and written information about their rights, justice system processes and victim services must be timely, clear, and concise.
As first responders to crime and violence, police and law enforcement officers play a particularly critical role in informing victims of their rights. We know that citizens are less marginalized when they are fully informed of their rights under the law. Information is especially empowering for victims and survivors of crime because it allows them to regain some control of their situation. Survivors can decide how they want to be involved in the justice system and what steps to pursue next (Waller 2011). Many victims choose restorative justice to access more information about what happened and why. Unfortunately, law enforcement is also in the unique position to contribute to the secondary victimization of victims when they do not provide necessary information to victims as officers go about their duties (Waller 2011). Because there is no requirement under the CVBR to automatically inform all victims of their rights, it falls to individual police officers to deliver this information, with inconsistent results across jurisdictions (OFOVC 2020a).
In other jurisdictions, law enforcement officials are mandated to inform victims of their rights and the support services available to them. In California, for example, Marsy's Card was created to provide this critical information to victims. This card contains specific sections of the state's Victims' Bill of Rights and resources for victims. Many American states have followed California's lead and implemented Marsy's Card to ensure victims are properly informed and can exercise their rights. A Canadian example is the small CVBR wallet card developed and distributed by the British Columbia Division of the RCMP, but we lack data about how often it is being distributed to victims and whether they are better informed as a result (OFOVC 2020a).
In the immediate aftermath of a crime, providing victims with the information they need about the criminal justice system, their rights and helping them connect to public and private victim support organizations can make an enormous difference. Not only do these actions provide for better healing and recovery outcomes for victims, they also carry a strong message of social solidarity (OFOVC 2020a). We must not leave victims' rights to the good will of professionals and instead mandate criminal justice authorities to provide victims and survivors with their informational rights.
The CVBR does not currently provide equitable access to justice for all victims of crime, primarily because officials do not automatically inform victims of their rights. The language of the legislation places the onus on victims to know, understand and assert their rights. Requiring a victim to ask for information or self-register with various agencies means they must first agree that they are a victim, not merely a person who has been traumatized (OFOVC 2020a). This is difficult for many and may only add to their already overwhelming life experience.
There are many factors that influence unequal treatment and access to basic justice (i.e., reporting crimes, seeking assistance and participation in criminal trials), such as low socioeconomic status, cultural and language barriers, geographic constraints, etc. (McDonald 2019; Martin 2020). We also know that certain victim populations, namely victims of gender-based violence, and Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in the justice system as both offenders and victims (Press 2019; McDonald 2019). A reluctance by victims to ask about their rights may be a result of the trauma they have experienced, but could also be because of barriers or other issues that cause victims to distrust authority figures. This is particularly true of many members of diverse minority and Indigenous communities that have historically faced systemic and other forms of discrimination. New Canadians may also face barriers if they arrive from countries where government authority figures are seen only as oppressors to be feared, not providers of assistance and support (OFOVC 2020a).
Recent pan-Canadian research with survivors of violent crime indicates that the type of crime and victim may also play a role in the inequity survivors' experience. Participants in the Resilience and Survivors of Violent Crime study were generally dissatisfied with the justice system, with less than half, reporting that they were kept informed about their case, that the police or crown attorney had respected their views, or that police had protected their security, identity, and privacy (Roebuck et al., 2020). Just over half felt that the police and crown attorney believed them. Cases involving homicide had the highest likelihood of people being kept informed, while cases involving male survivors of intimate partner violence received the lowest satisfaction scores in all categories (Roebuck et al., 2020).
Ensuring equal access to justice means criminal justice officials must be accountable for informing all victims of property or personal crimes about their rights. A proactive approach to upholding the legal rights of victims is necessary and would ensure that victims automatically receive information about their rights instead of having to request it, and that professionals working in the criminal justice system understand they have a legal obligation to keep victims informed of their rights related to information, protection, participation and restitution (OFOVC 2020a).
OTHER IMPLICATIONS
The global COVID-19 pandemic created new barriers to victim participation and access to justice. With physical distancing, travel restrictions and lockdowns put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Canada, victims' rights as laid out in legislation were overlooked. For example, in March 2020, the PBC cancelled all observer attendance at parole board hearings to comply with COVID-19 prevention measures (OFOVC 2020b) which caused a public outcry. Despite victims having the right to participate in hearings and convey their views as outlined in the CVBR, PBC was slow to upgrade technology to include victims like other tribunals and courts did. With pressure from a statement released by the OFOVC, along with victim complaints and advocacy efforts, the PBC finally implemented teleconference software.
The COVID-19 public health crisis also had a negative impact on victims of gender-based sexual violence due to court delays (Dhaliwal 2020). Frontline anti-violence workers and police services reported increases in isolation-fuelled crimes, such as intimate partner violence across Canada (Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic 2020); yet no large-scale pan-Canadian public education effort was made by the federal government to inform victims about the rights and services available to them, including restorative justice.
The under-use of restorative justice (RJ) in Canada may also be attributed to a lack of information about such programs being provided to victims of crime. Officials in the criminal justice system are not currently mandated to provide information on restorative justice programs to victims who report crimes (OFOVC 2020a). Again, such information is provided to victims only 'upon request' (CVBR 2015). Victims should be informed about all their options as soon as they report a crime. Community-based restorative justice programs are designed to give victims and offenders an opportunity to come together voluntarily to seek a resolution that holds offenders accountable for their actions, leads to the reparation of damages, and helps prevent further crime, harm and victimization (OFOVC 2020a).
RJ better meets the needs of victims and produces higher levels of satisfaction than experiences with the traditional court system (Department of Justice 2018). Despite high levels of awareness about RJ among criminal justice professionals and growing interest among victims, victims do not often receive adequate information or referrals to RJ programs (McDonald 2019). Thus, we continue to see an under-use of RJ, despite well-documented research suggesting positive psychological benefits, as well as increased agency and empowerment for victims (Vanfraechem et al., 2015; Wemmers 2017; Martin 2020).
Five years after the enactment of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights, the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime continues to receive a substantial number of complaints about how victims' informational rights are implemented in practice. Victims report not being informed about their rights or services available to them at all stages of the justice system.
Information is a foundational right for victims and survivors. Information is the gateway that enables access to justice and participation in processes that directly affect victims' safety and financial interests. Since vulnerable and marginalized citizens most frequently become victims of crime, information from criminal justice officials can be life changing. Citizens are less marginalized when they are informed of their rights and can choose the path they wish to move forward. The act of providing information is the act of empowering citizens and criminal justice personnel must be accountable for doing so. In fact, the growing expectation is that the administration of criminal justice in Canada must occur in a manner that is respectful of victims of crime and also upholds their legal and human rights.
Barbara Schlifer Commemorative Clinic. Re: United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women Call for submissions: COVID-19 and the increase of domestic violence against women. https://schliferclinic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/UN-Submission-re-COVID-19-and-VAW-June-30-2020-1.pdf. Accessed December 29, 2020.
Canadian Victims Bill of Rights, S.C. 2015, c. 13, s. 2. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-23.7/page-1.html
Department of Justice. Victims Rights: Enhancing Criminal Law Responses to Better Meet the Needs of Victims of Crime in Canada. Government of Canada, 2015. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/victims-victimes/vrights-droitsv/. Accessed December 21, 2020.
Department of Justice Canada. The Effects of Restorative Justice Programming: A Review of the Empirical. Government of Canada, 2018. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/rr00_16/p3.html. Accessed December 29, 2020.
Dhaliwal, Taz. Experts discuss impact of Covid-19 court delays on sexual assault victims. Global News, September 21, 2020. https://globalnews.ca/news/7349453/covid-19-alberta-court-delays-sexual-assault-victims/. Accessed December 18, 2020.
Fenwick, Helen. Rights of Victims in the Criminal Justice System: Rhetoric or Reality? Criminal Law Review, 843: 846-847, 1995.
Gavrielides, Theo. Bringing Race Relations into the Restorative Justice Debate: An Alternative and Personalized Vision of "the Other." Journal of Black Studies, 45 (3), 216–246, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934714526042. Accessed December 18, 2020.
Manikis, Marie. Imagining the Future of Victims' Rights in Canada. Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, 13:163-186, 2015.
Martin, Rachel. Policy Briefing Note on the Canadian Victim Bill of Rights (CVBR). Unpublished paper for a course at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, Toronto: University of Toronto, November 20, 2020.
McDonald, Susan. Victims of Crime Research Digest: Issue 12. Department of Justice Canada, 2019. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/victim/rd12-rr12/rd12-rr12.pdf. Accessed December 30, 2020.
Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. Progress Report: The Canadian Victims Bill of Rights. Government of Canada, 2020a. https://victimsfirst.gc.ca/res/pub/PRCVBR-RECCDV/index.html. Accessed December 15, 2020.
Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. Update: Ombudsman's statement on Victims' attendance at Federal Parole Board Hearings during COVID-19. Government of Canada, 2020b. https://www.victimsfirst.gc.ca/media/news-nouv/nr-cp/2020/20200324.html. Accessed December 15, 2020.
Perrin, Benjamin. Victim Law: The Law of Victims of Crime in Canada. Toronto: Thompson Reuters, 2017.
Press, Jordan. Measures to protect victims' rights don't go far enough, federal watchdog says. Global News, January 19, 2020. https://globalnews.ca/news/4839034/mcclintic-victims-rights-watchdog/. Accessed December 23, 2020.
Public Safety Canada. 2018 Corrections and Conditional Release Statistical Overview, 2019. Government of Canada. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/ccrso-2018/index-en.aspx#sectionf4. Accessed December 23, 2020.
Roebuck, Roebuck, Holly Johnson, Diana Eisenfeld, Maryann Roebuck, and Jennifer Barkley. (2020). Resilience and Survivors of Violent Crime. Ottawa, ON: Victimology Research Centre, Algonquin College.Vanfraechem, Inge, Daniela Bolívar Fernández, and Ivo Aertsen. Victims and Restorative Justice. London: Routledge, 2015. https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.4324/9780203070826. Accessed December 17, 2020.
Waller, Irvin. Rebalancing Justice: Rights for Victims of Crime. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011.
Wemmers, Jo-Anne. "Judging Victims: Restorative choices for victims of sexual violence," in Victims of Crime Research Digest, (10), 2017. http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/victim/rd10-rr10/rd10-rr10.pdf. Accessed December 16, 2020.
[1] For example, information is shared after an accused is released from remand or after the release date of an offender on a medical pass or other temporary absence from prison, etc.
[2] For example, common complaints involve the Correctional Plan or annual offender progress updates sent by CSC.
[3] Self-registration may cause some victims to miss the ability to participate in conditional release decisions or they find out after the fact that an offender has already been released from prison.
[4] Victims complain about having to chase after professionals for information about their case. One victim said, in relation to communications about a parole hearing, it was ''very poorly handled with little or no communication on how it will proceed."
[5] Complaints received often involve appeals, i.e., when offenders make court appearances to appeal a conviction or sentence.
[6] In some circumstances, PBC is not required to provide written decisions to victims, i.e., ETAs for offenders serving a life sentence.
[7] Victims complain that they cannot know reasons for an offender's medical pass, as an example, but information about their personal recovery and healing is shared with the offender through victim statements.
[8] Victims complain that various officials do not provide instructions or support to help them recover restitution that is ordered by the courts.
[9] CSC is only mandated to inform victims once an offender has been physically removed from Canada by Canada Border Services Agency. There is no information shared prior to this with victims about the removal process, what to expect, hearing dates, timelines, appeals, etc. and no way for victims to voice their concerns throughout this process.
[10] Victims complain that more information or less may be provided when new staff come into a role.

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Home › Ken Burns Country Music DVD Set
Ken Burns Country Music DVD Set
Includes over 16 hours on 8 discs!
Ken Burns' eight-part, 16-hour documentary series, COUNTRY MUSIC, chronicles the history of a uniquely American art form, focusing on the biographies of the fascinating characters who created it. More than eight years in the making, the film follows the evolution of country music from its diverse and humble origins as it emerged, by the end of the twentieth century, into a worldwide phenomenon. Filled with memorable musical moments, interviews with more than 80 country music artists, and evocative footage and photographs - it weaves an unforgettable story that is both intimate and sweeping.
This set is in regular DVD format.
Includes all 16 hours on 8 discs.
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Summer is a season of the year that comes with drastic change in the weather condition. It comes with high scorching heat of the sun that usually increases temperature. The increase in the temperature usually causes lots of issues including damaging of the cars and the accessories. For that reason, most car owners usually search for the best way to enjoy absolute protection in their car during the unbearable summer heat. These are among the reasons this post is organized to provide you with 5 essential tips on how to protect your car for coming summer 2018. Getting a good car umbrella is one of the tips on how to protect your car in the coming summer 2018.
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With the increase in the climatic temperature, cars need to be well-hydrated in order to perform optimally during the summer. The reason is that increase in temperature usually result to increase in the gas evaporation. The interior of your car and the entire needs enough water to cool down to the normal temperature. Also the engine should be well oiled, the radiator coolant level enough and others. These are going to enable your air conditioning system continue to work all through your summer travel.
When the temperature of your car rises, it can cause serious problem to the tires. The air inside the tires will expand during intense summer heat. So, when the tires are exposed to high temperature, the rubbers can get damaged. This can result to serious wears and tears of your tires. So, before hitting the road for your summer drive, you should check tire pressure ensuring it is at the normal level. Also, you should confirm whether there are weak spots, punctures or uneven wearing of the tires.
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Jeanne Gang in spotlight with O'Hare win Crain's Chicago BusinessGang's willingness to take chances on projects big and small pushed her to the brink of starchitect status. The O'Hare project, if she can deliver, will cement it.
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Bost@%Tea62: @thedameupstairs @CelebratingTCM I liked Jeanne Crain's movies!!
....working on a plantation. A white girl living on the plantation gets pregnant and gives her baby to the black maid to take care of. The girl then leaves to become a nun. The movie probably was filmed in the 1950's. It's not Imitation of Life. The main girl kind of looks like Nathalie Wood. Thanks!
I'd have to say for me Gene Tierney, Grace Kelly, Jeanne Crain, Rita Hayworth, Olivia De Havilland, Joan Fontaine, Sharon Tate, there's more but that's all I can think of at the moment.
There was a black and white movie (Can't even think of the era) where the father of several kids timestudies everything. He is asked to talk at a convention but dies before he has a chance to go so his wife takes his place. Cheaper by the Dozen was it, thank you very much.


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Entertainment The Best Harland Williams Movies
343 votes 65 voters 5.7k views 35 items
List Rules Vote for your favorite movies, regardless of critic reviews or how big the role was.
List of the best Harland Williams movies, ranked best to worst with movie trailers when available. Harland Williams's highest grossing movies have received a lot of accolades over the years, earning millions upon millions around the world. The order of these top Harland Williams movies is decided by how many votes they receive, so only highly rated Harland Williams movies will be at the top of the list. Harland Williams has been in a lot of films, so people often debate each other over what the greatest Harland Williams movie of all time is. If you and a friend are arguing about this then use this list of the most entertaining Harland Williams films to end the squabble once and for all.
If you think the best Harland Williams role isn't at the top, then upvote it so it has the chance to become number one. The greatest Harland Williams performances didn't necessarily come from the best movies, but in most cases they go hand in hand.
This list has a variety of films, like Surf School and Kart Racer, in it.
"This list answers the questions, "What are the best Harland Williams movies?" and "What are the greatest Harland Williams roles of all time?"
RocketMan Beau Bridges, Shelley Duvall, Harland Williams
RocketMan is a 1997 comic science fiction film directed by Stuart Gillard, and starring Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler and Jeffrey DeMunn. It was produced by Walt Disney ...more
There's Something About Mary Cameron Diaz, Sarah Silverman, Ben Stiller
There's Something About Mary is a 1998 comedy film, directed by the Farrelly brothers, Bobby and Peter. It stars Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller, and it is a combination of romantic ...more
Dumb and Dumber Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Teri Garr
Dumb and Dumber is a 1994 American road buddy comedy film starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. It was written by the Farrelly brothers and Bennett Yellin, and is the Farrelly Brothers ...more
Half Baked Snoop Dogg, Jon Stewart, Willie Nelson
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text:
Xiaomi to break into ever-expanding electric vehicles market
BEIJING: Chinese leading smartphone-maker Xiaomi expects to break into the ever-expanding electric vehicle market by establishing a Beijing plant capable of producing as many as 300,000 vehicles a year from 2024.
Xiaomi signed an agreement with the committee of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone to land the ambitious electric cars project in Yizhuang, a suburb southeast of the Chinese capital.
The new plant will be built in two phases with Xiaomi to create its auto unit's headquarters, sales, and research offices as well, the local government announced in a WeChat post.
In March 2021, the smartphone company announced plans to invest up to $10 billion in a new e-vehicle enterprise over the near-decade. Xiaomi completed the business registration of its EV unit in late August. The firm pledged to start the manufacturing process for its first electric car by 2023 in order to release the EV in the market by early 2024.
Earlier this year, Xiaomi acquired an autonomous-driving-focused startup called Deepmotion and is reportedly expected to launch a subsidiary to further increase the pace of the project.
Meanwhile, some 500 employees out of nearly 14,000 working in the company's research and development (R&D) wing are currently focused on the EV project, according to the recent financial report.
On the other hand, automakers are having to get creative to cope with the global shortage of semiconductors. The shortage, due to supply problems and a surge in demand for consumer electronics during the pandemic, has hit the auto industry hard, with millions of vehicles worldwide not being produced because important parts are missing.
With the problem lasting longer than initially expected, manufacturers including Daimler and Volkswagen have had to rethink production strategies. Car manufacturers usually buy parts from major suppliers such as Bosch and Continental, which in turn buy from suppliers further down the chain.
Daimlerelectric vehiclesVolkswagenXiaomi
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From her workshop on the outskirts of Canberra, Annie sources all of her copper from scrap metal yards where she finds coppers, hot water systems and copper trays which she then dismantles and cuts into shapes ready to be forged over an anvil and welded together. She also uses down pipes, fridge and gas tubing, electrical wire & water pipes for the stems and reeds. The end result is luscious water fountains, wall flowers, garden features and more to be custom made to suit any garden, no matter what size.


Rockin' For Kaleb's Kourage, held at Rockstar Music Hall in Windsor on Sunday, November 18 did exactly what it set out to do – raise funds and honour the memory of Kaleb Houle, courageous 13-year-old teen who succumbed to his third battle against cancer a week prior to the event. The concert was presented by LiUNA 625 with support from David Hunter of The Drive.
Kaleb Houle died around on November 11, 2018 after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer three times since 2014. He was first diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a blood cancer that's rare in kids, in February 2014. He went into remission after three months of chemotherapy in London. But it returned in December of 2016.
The fundraising show was part of an effort started by Tea Party drummer Jeff Burrows and had raised more than $50,000 in the weeks before the show. He hoped for another $20,000 at the show.
Local bands at the show included Leave Those Kids Alone, The Van Lares, Madeline Doornaert, Disaster Strike, The Formula, The Family Soul and closing the night, ITABITH (Is The A Band In The House), featuring fundraiser organizer Jeff Burrows and former Big Sugar member Kelly Hoppe. Local musician Justin James Jewell, himself a recent cancer survivor, approached Jeff Burrows last minute about participating in the fundraiser and was given a slot to perform a few songs.
519 Magazine photographer Kirk Harris (K&M Photography) stopped in to check it out and meet the family.


Introducing the NEW Panasonic EX-10S Series photoelectric sensors. Featuring an ultra-slim size at just 3.5mm thick, the EX-10S Series can easily be embedded in applications where mounting space is limited. The narrow beam spread of the EX-10S Series allows for the sensors to be mounted in close proximity while avoiding mutual interference without the requirement of accessory slit masks. Furthermore, the narrow beam spread enables the detection of small parts down to 0.5mm in diameter. With a 0.5ms response speed, the EX-10S Series can be used to detect fast-moving or falling objects, even those that are smaller in size.


text:
The Political Junkie's Presidential Debate Preview
Published October 3, 2012 at 2:17 PM EDT
NEAL CONAN, HOST:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan, in St. Louis. The candidates get set to duke it out in Denver, Ross Perot will endorse neither, and Joe Biden passes ammunition to the other side. It's Wednesday and time for a...
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Barry...
CONAN: ...edition of the Political Junkie.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDINGS)
RONALD REAGAN: There you go again.
WALTER MONDALE: When I hear your new ideas, I'm reminded of that ad: Where's the beef?
SENATOR BARRY GOLDWATER: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
SENATOR LLOYD BENTSEN: Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore.
SARAH PALIN: Lipstick.
GOVERNOR RICK PERRY: Oops.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: But I'm the decider.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCREAM)
CONAN: Every Wednesday, Political Junkie Ken Rudin joins us to recap the week in politics. And today we're both here with a studio audience at the University of Missouri St. Louis, at Grand Center, home of St. Louis Public Radio, and thanks everybody for coming in.
CONAN: The president and his challenger try to downplay expectations for tonight's debate, but Chris Christie predicted a game-changer. Early voting's already underway in some states, and here in Missouri Todd Akin longs for a more ladylike opponent.
In a few minutes, we'll focus on that Missouri Senate race and on the debate, of course, and we'll end this super-sized edition with historian Thomas Fleming on one of Ken's favorite topics: campaign buttons.
Political junkie Ken Rudin joins us here in the studios at St. Louis Public Radio, and Ken, we begin, as usual, with a trivia question.
KEN RUDIN, BYLINE: Hi, Neal. I'm glad to be in St. Louis. OK, here's a tough one: Who won the 2011 World Series?
RUDIN: Oh no. The things I'll do for a gag. OK, OK, in order and through history, which two Missourians received the most votes in the presidential primaries?
CONAN: If you think you know the answer to this week's trivia question, and that is the Missourians who have received the most votes in presidential primaries in order, the one with the most first, the one with second-most second, give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. We'll also be taking suggestions from the studio audience here in St. Louis, where they should certainly know the answers, don't you think?
But Ken, big news, no not the debate, our long national nightmare is over. The Political Junkie T-shirt has arrived.
RUDIN: Matter of fact, this being radio, I just want to hold it up to the radio audience.
RUDIN: Neal, what do you think?
CONAN: Who do you think you are, Dennis Kucinich?
RUDIN: Actually during a debate eight years, Dennis Kucinich held up a pie chart during a radio interview.
RUDIN: But I am holding up this Political Junkie T-shirt that you can get for answering the trivia question correctly.
CONAN: Well, you can get that, anybody can get that, in fact, by just laying out some simoleons, some American dollars. But there is now a special prize available only to the winners of the trivia contest and to the ScuttleButton winners, and that is special Political Junkie no-prize button. And we're going to be talking more about campaign buttons later.
So anybody can now get a Political Junkie T-shirt because demand has been overwhelming.
RUDIN: I came to St. Louis, and all I got was this lousy button.
CONAN: But the winners of the contest will get a button, as well, that they can put on their Political Junkie T-shirt. In any case, Ken, there seems to be something going on tonight in Denver. We're going to be focusing on that a little bit later in the program. But the political backdrop of this is that a lot of people think that the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, is behind and needs to throw a Hail Mary pass.
RUDIN: Well except if you look at the history of presidential debates, debates have not always been that conclusive in determining the winner. Of course we always talk about the famous Gerald Ford gaffe in 1976. It's my understanding that Soviet Union...
CONAN: No Soviet domination...
RUDIN: Domination of Eastern Europe, right. And we also think of Ronald Reagan, his great lines against Jimmy Carter in 1980.
CONAN: There you go again.
RUDIN: There you go again, and are you better off now than you were four years ago? Those seem to have changed the dynamic there, but ultimately, you know, Walter Mondale clear, by most accounts, easily beat Ronald Reagan in the 1984 debates.
CONAN: In the first debate but not the second one, which is the one everybody remembers.
RUDIN: Right exactly, the great line about my opponent's youth and inexperience. But the point is when you're down by so many points, it can't be game-changer, but it can change the dynamic of the race, as we saw with Bush and Gore in 2000. Al Gore had a five-point lead going into the debates in the Gallup polls. He left the debates, and his sigh, now his famous sigh, I think he got the Cy Young Award for that.
CONAN: That year, yeah.
RUDIN: There's booing in St. Louis. And after the debates, Bush had a five-point lead.
CONAN: In the meantime, there will also be next week a vice presidential debate, and Joe Biden, as is his wont, seemed to have stepped in it a little bit on the campaign trail this week when he said that the middle class has been buried these past four years.
RUDIN: Well obviously because Mitt Romney was president the past four years. Wait a second, Barack Obama was - I know, Joe Biden has this way of infuriating and just making Democrats roll their eyes. But you think of amazing moments in vice presidential debate history, and you think of Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.
Lloyd Bentsen had this great line, you know, you're no Jack Kennedy, I served with Jack Kennedy, you're no Jack Kennedy. And yet for all the applause he got and all the embarrassment that it caused Dan Quayle, the Bush-Quayle ticket won 40 out of 50 states that year.
So we could talk about vice presidential debates and its importance until we're blue in the face, but ultimately it's about Obama versus Romney.
CONAN: And we're going to be focusing on the Senate race here in Missouri, as well, that has attracted a considerable amount of national interest, and one of the questions there is: Will Republicans, who had foresworn Todd Akin, their GOP candidate here, will they come back in now that the Senate may be in play? Democrats face a similar kind of question in the state of Maine.
RUDIN: Right, what's going on in Maine is that you have a very popular former governor, Angus King, who won two terms as an independent.
CONAN: As governor.
RUDIN: As governor, as governor, and he's running for Olympia Snowe's vacated Senate seat that the Republicans aren't giving up. Most people feel that Angus King will caucus with the Democrats once - if he's elected. So the Democrats are kind of staying aback from their Democratic nominee, Cynthia Dill. The Republicans are going all out with Charlie Summers, who's really been attacking Angus King constantly, day in and day out.
So the Democrats can't come in and endorse Angus King because they have their own Democratic nominee. So instead they're coming in with a lot of money to attack the Republicans.
CONAN: So this is an indirect approach to try to get Angus King, as you say, expected to caucus with the Democrats, but he's not said, and that could be an issue in the race if he does say so. So he's not in fact raised a lot of money for his own campaign so relying on outside money from Democratic allies.
RUDIN: And the polls are much closer than anybody expected.
CONAN: In the meantime, we're going to be getting some people on the line who think they know the answer to this week's trivia question - we'll get to you, too. 800-989-8255. In order, the Missourians who have gotten the most votes in presidential primaries, one and two, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. And we'll start on line one with Rob(ph), and Bob's(ph) with us from Rochester, Minnesota.
BOB: Hi, now is this for a real T-shirt this week?
CONAN: A real T-shirt and a real button, real T-shirts now.
BOB: And a real button, OK. My guess, I believe it is Dick Gephardt and Stuart Symington because Harry....
RUDIN: That's a very good guess, but it's incorrect.
CONAN: Incorrect, Bob, thanks very much.
BOB: Oh, OK, thank you.
CONAN: Bob, what? I think we - well, I'm on an odd system today. In any case, let's see if we can go next to - this is line two, to Eileen(ph) in Charlotte.
EILEEN: Hello?
CONAN: Hi, you're on the air, Eileen. Go ahead, please.
EILEEN: Well, I think it should be Truman first, maybe, and Gephardt.
RUDIN: That is incorrect. I can't explain why it's incorrect because there's only one answer. There's a right answer or a wrong answer, and that's the wrong answer,
CONAN: That's a wrong answer. Not entirely wrong we get the feeling, but in any case, let's go to the microphone here in St. Louis.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Is the answer Harry Truman and Tom Eagleton?
CONAN: Harry Truman and Tom Eagleton was the guess.
RUDIN: We should mention that this person who's answer this question is 10 years old, and he's a Political Junkie, and he scares the heck out of me, I'll tell you that right now. But Tom Eagleton actually never ran for president. He of course was George McGovern's running mate briefly, but he never ran for president. But good guess.
CONAN: Let's see if we can go next to...
RUDIN: I hate this kid.
CONAN: Let's go to line eight and Charles(ph) and Charles with us from Wildwood in Missouri.
CHARLES: Yeah, hey, good afternoon. Well, I'm going to make a - first of all, greetings from the home of Todd Akin. He lives in my town.
RUDIN: Wait, is that a legitimate greeting? Oh, I'm sorry.
CHARLES: It'll have to pass for one, how's that?
CONAN: Go ahead, Charles, we cut you off with badly timed applause there.
CHARLES: No, it's always fun to know my congressman is known by my friends in England and Holland now. But that's another story. My answer is Gephardt and Truman in that order.
RUDIN: That is the correct answer.
CONAN: Ding, ding, ding.
RUDIN: And actually they're not that far apart. Dick Gephardt got 1.388 million votes in the 1988 primaries. Truman got 1.375 million in 1948.
CONAN: And so Charles, stay on the line, we will collect your particulars. We will send you out a Political Junkie T-shirt and a Political Junkie no-prize winning button. You're the first to earn that, so you can be very proud of that. And there's the T-shirt again on the radio, yeah, you can get a good look at it there. So congratulations, Charles, appreciate it.
CHARLES: Thank you.
CONAN: All right. In the meantime, Ken, there's some other early - some other news in the presidential election. One of the things about swaying the vote in the presidential race, as many as a third of the voters are expected to vote early. That's already started.
RUDIN: Yes, and theoretically that could be bad news for Mitt Romney in the sense that Mitt Romney knows he's behind. He's certainly behind in the swing states, the key battleground states. And what he needs to do is certainly help make his case through the debates. But if people are voting early, and Iowa's vote is - I think early voting began in Iowa the end of September, Ohio began yesterday.
So a lot of these people may go to the polls and not this, quote, "Romney comeback," although I suspect that many people who do vote early have their minds made up, and they're not going to change.
CONAN: Not going to change no matter what.
RUDIN: But it also takes away the possibility of an October surprise because, as you say, up to a third or even more voters of the electorate may have voted before November 6.
CONAN: And we've lately been seeing the Republican candidate trying to make hay on foreign policy, thought to be a great strength of Barack Obama, the man who after all ordered the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. But as more and more details leak out about the raid, the attack on the consulate in Benghazi and various explanations afterwards, it's looking like a liability.
RUDIN: Well certainly Mitt Romney hopes so. Now of course the first debate tonight will be about domestic policy. It won't be the third presidential debate until they talk about foreign policy, although I do suspect that Romney will talk about it in some way this evening.
But having said that, you're absolutely right. There have been conflicting and contradictory responses from the State Department, from the administration, about what exactly happened in Benghazi, and Romney sees that as an opening.
CONAN: And there's another issue that's come up lately. The Daily Caller posted a video of 2007 speech by then-candidate Barack Obama where he questions the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: What's happening down in New Orleans? Where's your dollar? Where's your Stafford Act money? Makes no sense. Tells me the bullet hasn't been taken out.
Tells me that somehow, the people down in New Orleans, they don't care about as much.
CONAN: And that before a African-American audience during the campaign, covered widely by the media at the time.
RUDIN: Yeah, I mean, the Republicans are obviously trying to make a point that Obama speaks to one audience a certain way and a different audience the other way, but I think since he was president, this is 2007, but since he's been the president, he speaks to everybody the same way.
CONAN: More with the Political Junkie in a moment. This is NPR News.
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan. It's Political Junkie day in St. Louis this week with a studio audience here at the home of St. Louis Public Radio. Ken Rudin's with us, too, and Ken, a ScuttleButton winner this week?
RUDIN: Yes actually we have two because I was out last week, but there's two winners. Last week's puzzle, there was a Gray Davis, recall Gray Davis button from California, a Huckleberry Hound for vice president button, he never ran according to official records.
CONAN: He's not from Missouri, anyway.
RUDIN: No, right, an anti-bussing George Wallace button. The answer was Greyhound Bus. And Ethan Majock(ph) of Gainesville, Florida, was a winner there. And the week before that, there was a Russia button, a show-me button from Missouri and an NAH button. It because Rosh Hashanah. And that was the answer.
RUDIN: And the funny thing is, I can see Rosh Hashanah from my kitchen window.
CONAN: Really?
RUDIN: I'll work on that joke later. And anyway, Joan Steinberg(ph) of Scarborough, Maine, is a winner there, two T-shirts.
CONAN: You can find this week's ScuttleButton puzzle and Ken's Political Junkie column, all at npr.org/junkie. And again shirts are going out, ladies and gentlemen, they're in the mail. It's fitting the first presidential debate falls on a Political Junkie day. Ken may have made a few calls to make that happen.
In a few minutes, we'll ask you: What do you want to hear in the debate this evening? You can call us now, 800-989-8255. Or email the question you would like to ask if you were the moderator. That's at talk@npr.org. And we'll get comments from the questions - from the studio audience here in St. Louis, as well.
But first, the political showdown here in Missouri. Joining us here in the studios of St. Louis Public Radio is Jo Mannies, a political reporter for the St. Louis Beacon, and Joe, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.
JO MANNIES: Well, thanks for having me.
CONAN: And let me ask you: Is this Senate race still being defined by the legitimate rape quote?
MANNIES: A bit, but there's also a lot of other things involved. A week before Congressman Akin had come out against the school lunch program - saying he was opposed to federal involvement in the school lunch program - he's very conservative on a number of issues, and a lot of people are just now been paying attention to what he's been saying.
On the other hand, Senator McCaskill, Claire McCaskill has her own set of issues. She has been hammered by the Republicans for a couple years now for her perceived closeness to President Obama and also her own problems with a plane that her family failed to pay property tax on for three years here in St. Louis County.
CONAN: And finally, we've seen an ad from the Akin campaign attacking Claire McCaskill, and we played her ad attacking him last week. This is what his ad sounds like.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Ever wonder why Claire McCaskill called the stimulus bill wildly successful, the stimulus that didn't create jobs but cost us billions? Well, now we know: The stimulus made McCaskill rich, more than $1 million paid to partnerships owned by McCaskill's family. When she gives us excuses, just remember this:
SENATOR CLAIRE MCCASKILL: There was a group that went through the bill line by line.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Claire McCaskill, getting rich off us, line by line.
CONAN: And that might be an effective ad, it might not be, but it's no good at all if nobody sees it. Is there any money to run that ad?
MANNIES: There's very little, but I think one of the reasons they put it out, they only earmarked about $50,000 in airtime, which is small, even by Missouri standards. But I think they're hoping that some national groups come in. However, there is a problem with that ad.
It's - all of our studies looking at it at the Beacon but also other news outlets; it's inaccurate.
CONAN: A political ad that's not completely accurate?
MANNIES: Yes, yes, it's inaccurate, and I'm not taking sides on this, but the HUD documents will show that while her husband, who is a wealthy developer, did have - does have a role in a number of these partnerships that actually his share of it, which was stipulated on her financial disclosure reform, was $26,000 for all of these, not a million.
CONAN: OK, so as we go through this, there's also been debates between the candidates. How has that come out?
MANNIES: Well, there's only been one so far, and this was about a week and a half ago. And it was - they pretty much plowed some similar ground, but this was the first time they'd both been on the same stage together. And Congressman Akin, as I said, who is very conservative, is very clear, making clear his points about less government, more freedom, as he calls it.
And he is critical of Social Security and Medicare, a number of things. McCaskill was pointing some of that stuff out, and again, he was pointing her closest to the president. Now, he contends that she was not ladylike enough in that forum, although actually if you listen to it, eh, it's not that, it wasn't that harsh on either side.
CONAN: And afterwards she characterized her opponent this way.
MCCASKILL: This is somebody who kind of makes Michele Bachmann look like a hippie.
CONAN: And Ken, a real issue for Republicans now, national Republicans, who said hands off Akin after the legitimate rape comment, they now see their prospects of taking over control of the Senate slipping away unless they can win in Missouri.
RUDIN: Well, it's iffy with or without Akin, but a lot of Republicans - I mean, we've seen this both with Roy Blunt and Kit Bond, senator and former senator here in Missouri, and as well nationally, as well, saying that, look, we distanced ourselves clearly, completely from Todd Akin's remark, but we need four seats, three if Romney wins, to win back the Senate.
And Claire McCaskill until this comment was very, very vulnerable. As Jo said, the Air Claire comment about her plane and things like that, her perceived closeness to Obama. So they want the seat, and a lot of them are willing to go past the Akin apology.
CONAN: And Jo Mannies, she all but campaigned for Todd Akin in the Republican primary, and would any of the other Republicans in that primary have been more difficult for her?
MANNIES: Yes, I think there's no question. In fact, I wrote a story this week that said this is an unusual matchup of the candidate who was supposed to have no chance of winning re-election against the candidate who was supposed to have no chance of winning the primary. All the polls had showed that Akin was not supposed to be winning the primary, but he did. He did handily.
Congressman Akin often underperforms in polls. So even some of these polls that show her with a few points ahead, that's something that most of us who have been covering him for a long time keep that in mind. He often underpolls. He actually performs better on election night.
CONAN: So too close to call at this stage?
MANNIES: Correct. He has a base of supporters, homeschoolers, social conservatives who will come out no matter what. It doesn't matter what the weather is, doesn't matter anything. They will come out. And so he has before beaten better known rivals who he wasn't supposed to win, and so that could happen. I think it is too close to call, I really do.
CONAN: Ken?
RUDIN: One thing that perhaps may hurt Akin is the fact that - understanding out there that Mitt Romney will take Missouri, and the Romney camp knows that. And because of that, they're taking resources out of the state and focusing them elsewhere, like in Florida, Virginia, where it's very, very close.
So if there's a lack of Republican money in there, that could also hurt Akin's attempt at winning.
CONAN: And when is the last time people can - money would make a difference, Jo Mannies?
MANNIES: Yes, in Missouri - well, it could take - part of the issue is that any of this direct money can only be $5,000 or a few thousand each. It's this indirect money that - I mean, the superPACs. It's whether or not they come back in and put up big money just within a few weeks.
And now Ann Romney is going to be here tomorrow to raise money, but she's not expected to see Akin or say anything about Akin.
CONAN: And Jo Mannies, thank you very much for your time today, we appreciate it.
MANNIES: Thank you.
CONAN: Jo Mannies, a political reporter for the St. Louis Beacon, with us here at St. Louis Public Radio. She also reports for beyondnovember.org, a media collaboration here in St. Louis. There's something after November?
MANNIES: I hope so.
CONAN: The big political story today, of course, tonight's debate, the fist in a series of matchups between Mitt Romney and President Obama. The president still holds a bit of an advantage in the latest polls in most swing states, though that lead shrank a little bit in recent days. Mitt Romney hopes a strong showing tonight will give him a boost going into the final weeks of the campaign.
If you were the moderator, what question would you pose to the candidates tonight? 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. And Ken, everybody's been trying to downplay expectations in advance of the debate, though, apparently Chris Christie didn't get the memo.
RUDIN: Right, Chris Christie thinks something dramatic will happen, and something dramatic could happen, but whether it will change the numbers is another thing. But obviously, Romney wants to make the point that the president is a great orator, he knows what he's doing, and he's been very successful at this.
And the Obama people have been saying that Mitt Romney had 23 debates this year, and he really wiped out the rest of the Republican field because of his showings in the debate. So both sides are up - are downplaying their own chances, talking about how good the other side is.
CONAN: And the questions tonight are going to be focusing on domestic issues, primarily on the economy.
RUDIN: That's true, but again, you expect that if Romney has a line that he wants to use about international politics, he'll use that, as well.
CONAN: Anything he's got, any ammo in his locker, he's going to see if he can get it off tonight.
RUDIN: Really, it's his last chance to make a first impression with many voters.
CONAN: And let's see if we can get some suggestions from callers, and I'm sure Jim Lehrer is listening carefully so he'll know what questions to ask tonight. Well, we have somebody here in the studio in St. Louis. Why don't we start with you, sir?
TOM ROTH: Tom Roth(ph), city of Saint Louis. I'd like to ask kind of two different questions to both of them. The first question to Government Romney is: What are the good aspects of Obamacare? And then the question to President Obama is: What are the not-so-good aspects of Obamacare?
CONAN: And those could be well asked tonight.
Ken Rudin, the good aspects of Obamacare, there's a lot of people in the Republican Party who say, wait a minute. We're never going to go back to the day when a 25-year-old can't stay on their parents' health coverage.
RUDIN: Yeah. And if Mitt Romney wants to talk about the good aspects of Obamacare, he could talk about his tenure as governor of Massachusetts when, ostensibly, he had those good parts of the Obamacare. Now, Romney has since tried to distance himself away from that, saying his first act would be repealing Obamacare. But he's - obviously, that's a very good question, Tom, because he's going to have to - obviously, it's not going to go away completely, and he's going to have to make the case what works and what doesn't work.
CONAN: And let's see if we can go to a caller, and let's go to line six. And Michael's on the line with us, calling from Kansas City.
MICHAEL: Hi.
CONAN: Hi. You're on the other end of the state, but we can still hear you.
MICHAEL: OK. That's cool. My question for both of them would be that 22 percent of children in this country (unintelligible) live in poverty, and I'd like to see what either candidate would address, since I haven't seen that number be brought up in any form in the national discussion.
CONAN: Ken, poverty, in general, has, well, not gotten a lot of attention, except in the 47 percent discussion.
RUDIN: No. And Mitt Romney has still not recovered from that, and that's really because he was starting to make a move, even though that there was momentum coming out of the Democratic Convention, Romney was ostensibly going to make the move, and then he's been saddled by that 47 percent. But Republicans can make the case that, look. We still have 8-plus percent unemployment, which no president since FDR has been elected with that high of an unemployment number.
So the people are still enmeshed in poverty. There's still unemployment, still no great sense that things will change. But the latest polls show that more people are confident about the future than they have been before, and obviously, that's a good plus for the president.
CONAN: And the president might be able to say, well, look. If you look at the CHIP program, we've passed legislation to address this issue, though we're nowhere close to where we need to be. If you look at my health care program, this is meant to address part of that situation, as well. If you look at my education programs - but the fact is, as the caller points out, 22 million children still in poverty, and he's been president almost four years.
RUDIN: Right. If you make the - if you try frame this election as a referendum on Barack Obama, which is - the Republicans tried to do for the longest time, then, theoretically, the president would be in trouble. That's why the Democrats would like to say this is not a referendum about Obama. It's about the choice between Obama and Romney, and that's where these Democrats think they have the advantage.
CONAN: Here's an email question from Judy in Cincinnati: I would ask if each candidate could stop negative ads and only put out ads stating their position on the issues. And she's apparently going to vote in utopia.
RUDIN: Right, exactly. You know, she's obviously - I mean, ideally, you would have the candidates doing positive ads, and then you have these third-party superPAC ads being the negative. But both sides are just - because they think negative campaigning works.
CONAN: We were talking earlier this week with Ari Shapiro, who did that great reporting on political advertising in Colorado. And he said there'd been some 1,500 ads ran during one period of time, of which five - not 5 percent - five were positive.
RUDIN: Well, you and I live in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and because Virginia is such a swing state, it's such an important state, such a dead-even state, we're bombarded day-in and day-out with negative ads, nonstop.
CONAN: I'm blessed to live in the Baltimore television market, so I don't get those ads. I get to watch them online. It's the Political Junkie every Wednesday here on TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. And let's go back to the microphones here in Saint Louis and get another suggestion for what the moderator might ask tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Thank you. We have had discussion in Missouri recently of a proposed amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced budget. That amendment might include total expenses, plus a 3 percent reduction in the deficit each year could not exceed revenues. I would like to hear a reaction to that.
CONAN: The balance budget amendment has been proposed many times in Congress, Ken, and has never really gotten anywhere.
RUDIN: Well, actually, I think it came within one vote a bunch of years ago. Mark Hatfield was the one Republican who voted no, and that's why it was defeated. It's always been a pet cause of the Republican Party.
CONAN: McCoy never forgave him.
The McCoys never forgave him.
RUDIN: No. Versus the Hatfields, I get it, yeah.
RUDIN: Wow.
CONAN: Ooh.
RUDIN: I want to bend(ph) with that joke.
CONAN: So the difficulty is a lot of people would say if you get into a situation like Pearl Harbor, the federal government went into enormous debt after December 7th, 1941 to fund the Second World War.
RUDIN: I mean, that's a very fair point. If you think of during the Clinton years, there was tremendous surpluses which seemed - once 9/11 happened, that went out the window, right?
CONAN: Let's get another caller in. Let's go to line seven. This is in Philadelphia, and Haley(ph) is on the line with us. Hello, Haley.
HALEY: Hi. How are you?
CONAN: Good. Thanks.
HALEY: I am a senior in high school, and so I'm looking at colleges right now. And I'd like them to address the situation of college tuition, because it's rising 15 percent each year, and I think everyone should have an equal chance to go to college.
CONAN: This is a question that comes up perennially, Ken Rudin.
RUDIN: Yes. And a matter of fact, not only is it a presidential issue, it's a state issue, as well. We've seen governors around the country, including here in Missouri, and Jay Nixon, who's the governor running for re-election, has - is very popular in the polls, but state spending on education in Missouri is down 12 percent from the previous year. There are tremendous cuts in everything...
CONAN: And as you see the situation in California, where, again, cuts to the budget and those costs are then shifted to student tuition.
RUDIN: Exactly. It seems like education is the first one they go to cut, and that is kind of criminal.
CONAN: So thanks very much for the call, Haley. We have another...
HALEY: Yeah.
CONAN: ...person here at the microphone in Saint Louis.
BETTY SIMS: Hi. I'm Betty Sims(ph) from Saint Louis, and both candidates spend a lot of time talking about jobs and creating jobs. So my question is I'd like you to be more specific. I'd like some specific programs as to how do you intend to create jobs.
CONAN: And that is very likely to be - I think Mr. Lehrer's listening to you. That's very likely to be one of the questions that comes up tonight.
RUDIN: And both candidates think they have the advantage on that issue. Obviously, Obama is very prone to talk about how Obama - how Mitt Romney is creating jobs in China with outsourcing and things like that, whereas Mitt Romney says, look. Just look at the numbers. Look at the number of jobs that have been created in the past four years, far less than anybody expected, far less than Obama promised.
CONAN: Far less than Obama promised, but he would then reply: The situation when I came in was far worse than I expected.
RUDIN: Right.
CONAN: And, in fact, if you look at the numbers, we have now created more net jobs during my administration than we lost. And indeed, the numbers have been going up over the past several months.
RUDIN: Right. And if we're talking about a blame game, the question is: Are we still blaming George W. Bush, or do we blame Barack Obama for the last four years? And both sides have a case.
CONAN: On this program, we'd like to blame Ken Rudin...
CONAN: ...every Wednesday with The Political Junkie segment. We're going to take more of your suggestions on what the moderator in tonight's debate ought to ask. 800-989-8255. Email: talk@npr.org. We'll also be talking about the history of campaign buttons when we come back. Stay with us. It's the TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News.
CONAN: Right now, we're talking with Political Junkie Ken Rudin and getting suggestions from the audience about what questions ought to be asked at tonight's debate. And let's see if we get another caller on the line. Let's go to Eric, and Eric's with us from San Francisco.
ERIC: Hey. How are you all?
ERIC: Great. So my question is: How are the candidates going to address the huge partisan divide that we have in this country that has literally just paralyzed our ability to move in any direction at all? And I'm curious how they can address this in practical terms and really get this country working together.
CONAN: And this is something that has bedeviled every person elected president. George W. Bush famously said I'm a uniter, not a divider. That didn't turn out to be true. Barack Obama vowed to change the political culture in Washington. If anything, it's gotten more toxic, Ken.
RUDIN: It has absolutely gotten toxic. I think it started - perhaps, it started with Bill Clinton in '92, followed by George W. Bush, followed by Barack Obama. There are several reasons. First of all, I think a lot of the stuff you get from cable television - and I'm singling out Fox News and MSNBC - they seemed to like to rile up their supporters and - by preaching to the converted. There's no reason for anybody to tone down their rhetoric. But also, we've seen - when there are several members of Congress who try to work with the other side, Republicans trying to work with Democrats and vice versa, they're almost immediately challenged as either traitors or sellouts or being hit with primary challenges from the right or the left. So you can talk about bipartisanship and reaching across party lines, but the folks back home, the ideologues back home really don't want it.
CONAN: And it's a byproduct of the primary system where, in Republican primaries, you generally win by outflanking to the right, and in Democratic primaries, a lot of places, you can win by outflanking to the left. And it's going to be interesting to see what happens this year in California, which has a new system this year.
RUDIN: Right. What happens in California - and we saw this in the June primary - everybody runs on the same two - the ballot, all the candidates, regardless of party. And the top two finishers move on to November. So there will be a lot of Democrat versus Democratic and Republican versus Republican, especially in congressional races.
CONAN: So I think the answer to your question, Eric, is that every challenger has an advantage on this question, because they can promise to change this for the better. Every incumbent has a real disadvantage, because they already know it's not going to change any time soon. But thanks very much for the call.
ERIC: You're welcome.
CONAN: There's a question here at the microphone in Saint Louis.
WILLIAM: Yes. My name is William from Chesterfield, Missouri. I'd specifically like to ask the candidates what policies would they advocate for to address education in this country, specifically to - to address high school dropouts, to close what is referred to as the achievement gap, to raise K-12 academic gains across the board and to keep college affordable and accessible for all.
CONAN: Well, we already talked about that last point with an earlier questioner. The dropout rate, this is an indictment of American education, Ken.
RUDIN: That's absolutely true, and especially if you compare it to European nations, what's it like. And I have not seen - I mean, it's clearly a problem. It's growing problem, and we've seen it from more than just the Obama administration. But again, with all the issues out there, I have not seen this addressed as fully by the candidates this time.
CONAN: And let's see if we can get another caller in on the conversation. Let's go to line four, and George is on the line, calling us from San Jose.
GEORGE: Good afternoon. We baby-boomers are a little bit concerned about what we're hearing about Social Security, especially decreasing the benefits, raising the age and changing the cost of living adjustment to change CPI. So I'd like to know what the presidential candidates plan to do.
CONAN: And again, I think this is something that - it's very likely to come up tonight, Ken.
RUDIN: Exactly. And we saw that when Mitt Romney named Paul Ryan as his running mate, we thought that this would be the overriding issue in his campaign. For better or for worse, Paul Ryan will make the case that the - Social Security, Medicare is in danger of getting - going broke, and there need to be cuts, serious cuts. But at the same time, there are a lot of seniors, a lot of people who are just frightened by the thought of long-time entitlement program being weakened. So I guarantee that will come up this year.
CONAN: And a lot of people would say it's not an entitlement. It's an earned credit. People paid into this their whole lives. But I think it's fair to point out that both Republicans and Democrats at this point, I think, say this would not change under anybody's program for anybody over the age of 55.
RUDIN: Well, that's, you know, that's certainly the Paul Ryan/Romney point, although a lot of people like to call it the Romney/Ryan campaign. But, obviously, all the issues about Medicare - once Romney picked Ryan, that was the poster for the Democrats there.
CONAN: And if there's one question you could ask tonight, Ken, if you could slip into the chair for just a moment, what would that be?
RUDIN: Who would - OK. Let's just assume a Yankee/Cardinal World Series. Who would you start...
CONAN: All right. Political Junkie Ken Rudin is with us here at the studios of St. Louis Public Radio. And we should let you know, by the way, that there is a T-shirt image of our new Political Junkie T-shirt up on Ken's blog, @npr.org/junkie. We don't yet have a picture of the button, but we will get one up as soon as we can. So those of you who weren't clairvoyant and saw Ken's holding up the T-shirt on the radio earlier, go to npr.org/junkie. And when we come back, well, speaking of buttons, we'll be talking about the history of campaigns. Stay with us.
Ken Rudin we know is not just a Political Junkie. He's a bit of a political button junkie too. Yes, all those buttons in the ScuttleButton puzzle we put together every week come from his personal collection. Most of them do, anyway. How do those little political symbols influence an election? Thomas Fleming knows his political buttons. He's an historian, novelist, former president of the Society of American Historians and wrote a piece called "How Presidential Politics Fastened Onto Buttons" for The Wall Street Journal last month. And he joins us now from our bureau in New York. Nice to have you with us today.
THOMAS FLEMING: Oh, I'm delighted to be with you.
CONAN: And I have to ask, have you ever entered the ScuttleButton puzzle?
FLEMING: No, I haven't. There's - I just don't feel I'm very ingenious in that department.
CONAN: Well, neither is...
RUDIN: I am.
CONAN: ...Ken, so he'll be a good company.
RUDIN: Why are you laughing?
CONAN: And so tell us, political buttons per se, reading your piece, date back to the first president, George Washington, but not in the sense that we commonly associate them with today.
FLEMING: That's right. They didn't - they weren't worn before Washington was elected unanimously or perhaps he did. But he wore a very - an American-made suit with had - which had very attractive silver buttons on it. And thousands of his followers wore them, too, as a testimony to their admiration for him.
CONAN: So those...
FLEMING: That was one of the - that sort of started people thinking about how buttons could say something.
CONAN: But it took a while before they entered the campaign lexicon.
FLEMING: Yes. Really, the first time - well, as I said in the piece, or maybe I'll say it now anyway. For a long time, candidates for president depended on totally biased newspapers that slaughtered the opposition right and left. Washington himself was a victim of some of this. But the buttons really came into their own in 1828 when Andrew Jackson ran for president against a very solemn and sort of conservative New Englander, John Quincy Adams, the son of the second president. And the buttons that they cooked up for Andy were startling.
The - he was - he had a nicknamed, Old Hickory, which dated back - God know - nobody knows exactly how long. But it had to do with his supposed using a hickory cane as he walked along with the troops. And in the course of this, he got off his horse to help a wounded soldier, and he flourishes his cane and said, I'm ready to go right with the troops. And so they then turned into a - almost a business. They had dozens of buttons of all kinds made of wood and - very often - and they were shaped in canes and all sorts of other things.
And the - meanwhile, to speak of anti-attack approach, Quincy - John Quincy Adams was calling him a murderer because he left a trail of dead bodies in his wake as he dueled numerous people back in Tennessee. And he also claimed that he married his wife without bothering to, actually, have a ceremony performed. And this was very insulting and very upsetting stuff, but it didn't touch Jackson at all. And he cruised to a tremendous victory, and it was a triumph for the first time - and the buttons really helped in this - of personality over issues.
CONAN: Ken, do you have any of those Old Hickory buttons?
RUDIN: No, I don't. Actually - but we've said, you know, the buttons as we know them, the celluloid buttons, began in 1896. And I'm all excited by the...
FLEMING: That's right. And so there's a long jump between Hickory and those buttons that we know. That's true.
RUDIN: You know, I'm thinking of...
CONAN: But the...
RUDIN: I'm sorry.
CONAN: Go ahead. Yeah.
RUDIN: I was just going to say, I'm always thinking of how negative and how nasty - as bad as we see the commercials of today, how nasty the buttons were. I remember when - not that I remember, but I have the button...
RUDIN: ...but Al Smith, the first Catholic to run for president in 1928...
FLEMING: Yeah.
RUDIN: ...the Hoover button said, we want a Christian in the White House, as if the Catholic was not a Christian. When Ronald Reagan was running in 1984 for re-election, it says, no more run, but instead no moron. I mean...
RUDIN: ...we would do things. And some of them were clever, and some of them weren't.
FLEMING: Yes.
RUDIN: And there was - and when Roosevelt ran for a third term in 1940, there were hundreds and hundreds of anti-Roosevelt buttons, no third termites. We would talk...
CONAN: That's good. Yeah.
FLEMING: Another button that they had at that time was, and we don't want Eleanor either.
CONAN: Celluloid transformed the industry, or created an industry really. It made it possible for mass production of buttons in, what, a penny piece?
FLEMING: Yes. So it was - they're very inexpensive. And they really had an impact right at the start. They were invented in 1896, and William Jennings Bryan was running - raging that, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold, and he was seen the ultimate radical. And McKinley's buttons, if you look at them, they are pictorial recitation of this Bryan. He looks like an executive. There's a firmness about his mouth, and there's sort of an angry look in his eyes as if he was thinking about Bryan and what a nut case he was.
RUDIN: You know, one thing that's certainly different is that in the old days, you could go into campaign headquarters and just fill your pockets, as I did, with campaign buttons.
RUDIN: But now, you have to buy them. You have to buy them online, and you probably have to buy them from a third-party vendor. The campaign don't produce them like they used to.
FLEMING: Yes. No, they don't. They really don't, but that's because television is sucking up all the money. And it's just - there wasn't anything left over. And buttons have, I think, become a little controversial. In another sense, not a lot of people really want to advertise their choice to the public that way.
CONAN: We're talking...
FLEMING: And that's has another - have something else to do with it, I think.
CONAN: We're talking with historian and novelist, Thomas Fleming, about the history of the political campaign button. Political Junkie Ken Rudin is with us as he is every Wednesday. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
And, Ken, a penny piece in those days, what would a McKinley button go for today from a collector?
RUDIN: Well, it depends. I mean, you could get a McKinley button for five, $6 or some that goes for hundreds of dollars. The most valuable button was a 1920 Democratic ticket when James Cox was the governor of Ohio and some guy named Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for vice president. And a picture button of the two of them have gone for, like, 50, $60,000.
CONAN: Whatever happened to them?
RUDIN: Well, James Cox died a long time ago, and I think FDR died in Warm Springs.
CONAN: Something like that.
FLEMING: Roosevelt spent the next three or four years trying to figure out why he lost.
RUDIN: And that was pre-polio Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was the assistant secretary of the Navy.
FLEMING: Oh, yes. He was marvelous. He was a marvelous candidate.
FLEMING: He really was. And he was absolutely baffled and - but now, we historians can sum it up in two words, Woodrow Wilson.
RUDIN: You know, I remember also going into 1968, Eugene McCarthy, when he was challenging Lyndon Johnson, everybody was wearing all these - the people against the war in Vietnam were all wearing this McCarthy button.
RUDIN: And conservatives were so upset, they produced Joe McCarthy for president buttons to get back at them.
FLEMING: That's very good. Yeah.
CONAN: You mentioned, Thomas Fleming, that this really is part of the process of cultivating personality over position.
CONAN: And maybe most strikingly, as you put it in your piece, the Dwight Eisenhower, who was a not a natural as it were on TV or the campaign stump.
FLEMING: No. Yes, but he had a wonderful motto, I like Ike, and that looked great on a button. And it really did have a huge impact. That gave him some personality. And then, also, I think it's very important that buttons can alter somebody's personality as perceived by the voters. Reagan, for instance, when - his first buttons, when he was running against Jimmy Carter, they featured him wearing a big, white cowboy hat and this wonderful smile. And he was immediately recognized as a Westerner. And that, you know, he was about as much of a Westerner as I am in many respects. He was a movie actor, but this button really had a lot to do with getting over the problem of him being an actor and all that.
CONAN: We got a caller on the line. Sharon is with us on line one from Redwood City, California.
SHARON: Yes. I had to share my dad's campaign button I loved. It was: Truman was screwy to build a porch for Dewey.
RUDIN: I love that one. Different.
FLEMING: I'd love to see that button because Harry Truman was the first president I voted for.
RUDIN: What's - I have that button too. What's great about it is that they were remodeling the White House and the Republicans saying, why would you boost the Truman when Dewey is the next president. Truman was screwing to build the house for Dewey, I love it.
CONAN: A porch for Dewey.
RUDIN: Yeah, porch, yeah.
CONAN: Sharon, thanks very much.
SHARON: Thank you.
RUDIN: You know, sometimes, you have buttons for candidates that only the people who are wearing them know what they mean. There was one button that said, 007, and you think it's a James Bond-related movie - button, but it was Allard Lowenstein, who's the - he was number seven on the Nixon enemies list. And when ran for Senate, his button just said 007.
FLEMING: Oh, my God.
CONAN: I think we can squeeze one more caller in. Cathy(ph) is on the line with us from Hood River in Oregon.
CATHY: Hi. In 1972, I was a high school journalism and student, and we were taken to the Press Club in San Francisco where we saw a presentation from Nixon's people. And the button that we were all offered said, young voters for the president, which I thought was a very strange comment - button. In those days, there weren't many young voters who are doing anything but opposing the Vietnam War.
FLEMING: Well, it's...
CONAN: Not entirely.
RUDIN: Except he won 49 states. But my favorite Nixon button from 1968...
FLEMING: Yes, I was about to mention that.
RUDIN: ...it says: The I in Nixon stands for integrity. How do you like that one?
FLEMING: That's even better.
CONAN: Well, wasn't that the election that then produced the famous bumper sticker, not quite the same thing, I'm from Massachusetts. Don't blame me.
FLEMING: Don't blame me, yes, exactly.
CONAN: All right. Cathy, thanks very much for the call. Ken, is there one in particular that's your favorite political button or you have one or two?
RUDIN: Well, I have this great picture button of Lyndon Johnson. Remember, in 1965, he had a gallbladder surgery and showed his scar to all the press. There's one button of Lyndon Johnson, he's picking up a shirt and the scar was in the shape of Vietnam.
CONAN: Thomas Fleming, thanks very much for your time today.
FLEMING: Oh, I've enjoyed it very much.
CONAN: Thomas Fleming joined us from our bureau in New York. Ken Rudin, our Political Junkie, next week, we'll be together again in the swing state of Ohio, at WOSU in Columbus. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.