Conservative mailings: A questionable culture of accountability

by Joe Hueglin, Niagara Falls Editorialist

A "cross-Canada awareness campaign about government policy" exists according to Rick Dykstra, Conservative Member of Parliament for St. Catharines. The nature of this campaign raises questions about his party's promised "culture of accountability."

All the mailings sent out "to ridings in every province." be they "Age is no excuse", "Not on our watch", "Toxic" or "CANADA'S BACK" include the likeness of a ballot. The words "Check one " followed by an arrow point to Stephen Harper's name not the other choices offered, Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton, and interestingly, Elizabeth May rather than Gilles Duceppe.

Either through ignorance or purposefully the inaccurate statement that ballots are to be sent to the "return addresses for Conservative MPs" sending them was made by Dykstra. In reality all returns, with name, address, telephone number and email on them, are delivered to "CRG-Government Caucus Services". Once there the Information will be entered into the Conservative Party's Constituent Information Management System for use in the upcoming General Election.

Conservative Leader Harper said when introducing his Accountability Act "We must clean up corruption and lift up the veils of secrecy that have allowed it to flourish - replace the culture of entitlement with a culture of accountability."

Inundating the electorate with information gathering pamphlets is not a legitimate use of Members' of Parliament entitlement to interact with their constituents through franked mailings .

Harper's culture of ACCOUNTABILITY ought to include providing an accounting of the savings to his Party made by having the printing and distributing of information gathering mailings paid for by taxpayers.

This inventive utilization of Members' entitlement for tax paid partisan mailings are as unjustifiable as moving National Campaign funds "in and out" of local candidates accounts to build up their war chests Unjustifiable, that is, to all except Steven Harper and his supporters.

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