Violating the Spirit

The following was sent by me to all households in my riding after we received numerous complaints about negative flyers being sent to London citizens. It's a Conservative practice that has started to take on nasty overtones and, in this case at least, turned many good citizens off the political process. It's worth repeating here.

Within the last month, residents of London North Centre received in their mailboxes a flyer from the Conservative Party of Canada that reflected on the party’s international accomplishments. It was a highly partisan document and it asked for Londoners to send in a reply in support of their efforts.

As many of you are already aware, I have attempted in my communications with you to be as respectful and non-partisan as I can about federal developments. This recent mailing undercut the more respectful tone people desire from government officials. In many ways it has the same tone as the darkly negative advertising that the Conservative Party used in London North Centre’s last by-election and which the good people of this riding rejected out of hand.

I decided to write you about this piece of Conservative literature for a number of reasons. In parliamentary terms it’s called a ten-percenter and here are my problems with it.

1)   Many such Conservative flyers might well be illegal. Official complaints have already been filed with officials concerning the Conservative practice of having a member of parliament from one area flood another riding in the country that has nothing to do with her or his responsibility. In this case, the supporting member of parliament was Leon Benoit, a Conservative MP from Alberta. He was used by the party to spread its message into a region he knows little about. At the very least, this practice should be halted until official investigations reach a conclusion as to their legality.

2)   Such flyers are distributed using taxpayer money. Usually, all MPs send out these ten-percenters to their ridings as a means of keeping the people informed. This has been a well-approved practice. But this new initiative by the Conservative Party, in permitting its MPs to send out these flyers across the country, has meant mushrooming costs for the taxpayers and is a violation of the spirit of the practice. It doesn’t matter that the recent flyer came from a Alberta member of parliament – you are paying for it.

3)   It is a disguised effort to get you to return their attached form, with your contact information, so that they can then contact you for assistance with funding their party. This, too, violates the spirit of the initial intention of ten-percenters.  We have already heard from some who have sent in a reply only to receive a phone call asking them to donate.

My office has been flooded with calls from Londoners upset by both the tone and audacity of the recent flyer. I feel badly that things in federal politics have sunk to this level. It is a practice that demeans the office and the taxpayer at the same time. I of course disagree with much of what was stated in the piece but that is not the issue here. I will continue to communicate with you in the respectful and above-board manner I have practiced since entering office and I am saddened that you were subjected to such negative literature.

I believe in a kind of politics that breeds hope, not fear. I believe in a model of public service that reaches beyond the partisan divide and seeks to bring people together, in common cause, to find ways to tackle our collective challenges. There are not hyper-partisan solutions; there are simply solutions. We need to devote our energies to finding — and implementing — the solutions that work. 

I was elected to practice that kind of politics in London and in Ottawa, and I intend to continue to do just that. This Conservative mailing represents the kind of partisan politics we need to put behind us. If you agree, please contact my office and I assure you your name and contact information will be forwarded on to the Parliament’s Board of Internal Economy and will not be shared with any political party and will not be used for fundraising. We have to do what we can to fight this kind of politics.