There's a great disconnect between the Winnipeg Free Press and the public. As the newspaper's circulation has melted away by the thousands, its owners have gradually abandoned the average citizen to align themselves with the rich and powerful. They don't stand up for the little guy anymore; they believe the little guy is standing in the way. They see their own readers as stupid, so consumed by their petty hardscrabble lives that they can't see the big picture and thus need the guidance of the Winnipeg Free Press to understand reality. Case in point---a column Saturday mocking the hoi polloi by veteran city hall reporter Bartley Kives which was titled: What do we want? Everything! Just don't raise our taxes http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/breakingnews/what-do-we-want-everything-138735589.html Kives compared Winnipeggers to spoiled children. He called them "impressionable if not outright clueless", people too dense to realize that
The origin of the Usher of the Black Rod goes back to early fourteenth century England . Today, with no royal duties to perform, the Usher knocks on the doors of the House of Commons with the Black Rod at the start of Parliament to summon the members. The rod is a symbol for the authority of debate in the upper house. We of The Black Rod adopted the symbol to knock some sense and the right questions into the heads of Legislators, pundits, and other opinion makers.