It seems those wily Conservatives are at it again.
Last week, I received two — TWO — of those odious tenpercenters at the villa from Simcoe-Grey MP Dr. Kellie Leitch; one on Thursday, and one on Friday.
And, just to make sure I got the message, they were exactly the same damn piece of paper.
The Harper Government, Kellie wants you to know, Supports Our Seniors. How do I know? It says it right there, in black and white — or, at least, poorly photocopied grey.
It crows about all the good the Conservatives have done for seniors while in though the points could likely easily be countered with a little research.
(A similar flyer was distributed late last year touting the Conservatives support for veterans, at the same time the auditor general was pointing out how the Conservative government was actually giving them the shaft.)
When the Conservatives won a majority government last May, I thought they’d stop working overtime on the Gestetners. Harper had his majority, and one would think they’d get to the business of governing and cool it on the constant stream of partisan propaganda landing in the mailboxes of the nation — mail, by the way, that comes at the expense of the Canadian taxpayer.
In 2008-2009, MPs spent more than $10 million in printing, and in a review of those expenses by QMI, it was determined that of the top 100 in printing expenses, all but 18 were Conservatives.
Former MP Helena Guergis excelled at the practice, and even in her final year as our elected representative, sitting as an Independent, managed to spend nearly $60,000 on the leaflets (in the year previous, while still in the Conservative caucus, she spent more than $28,000 on householders, and nearly $38,000 on tenpercenters; for 2008-09, her printing expense was more than $86,000).
Just to note, Guergis wasn’t near the top of the leaderboard in that respect; as an example, Barrie MP Patrick Brown’s expense for tenpercenters from April, 2010 until March, 2011 (the latest period available) was more than $81,000 — a pace that would make American psy-op operatives distributing leaflets over Iraq jealous. Brown also spent more than $26,000 on householders, for a total printing cost of more than $107,000.
In contrast, neighbouring Conservative MP Bruce Stanton spent more than $32,000 on householders, but only $11,700 on tenpercenters.
But there’s a big difference between householders and tenpercenters: householders are used to distribute information on government programs, and let constituents know what their representatives have been up to. Tenpercenters — which, as the name implies, are permitted to be distributed to 10% of households for a single mailing — are partisan advertising, pure and simple.
The next year, MPs accelerated the pace — dropping more than $10.1 million on tenpercenters, and another $4.5 million on householders (the Board of Internal Economy separated the two during that fiscal year).
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has railed extensively about the practice, and two years ago rallied its members to lobby MPs to pass a motion to chop government waste by reducing the amount of partisan, taxpayer-paid government advertising.
Surprisingly, the Conservatives, supposedly defender of the taxpayer dollar, voted against — their snouts, it seems, barely rising from the trough in order to oppose the motion.
In 2010-11, MPs finally put the brakes on the practice — slightly — spending nearly $5 million on householders and only $4.1 million on tenpercenters, though it’s clear by the amount our then-MP was spending, that some Members didn’t get the memo. The amounts for the last fiscal period will likely be released sometime in September — and we’ll be able to see how much our newly-minted Member of Parliament has been spending.
Not only are we paying for this, but most of it — aside from being partisan dreck — so egregiously relies on logical fallacies that it’s odious (though not as odious as the fact when you send them back, you’re not sending them to Leitch, but the Conservative Research Group, which inputs your information into the Conservatives’ massive databank on voters that I’m pretty sure will be used some day to determine whether big dudes dressed in dark suits show up at your home in the dead of night).
When Leitch was elected, we were under the impression she would bring a different tone in the House of Commons, and work to bring an end to the partisan nonsense. Even former Ontario premier Bill Davis, touring the riding to help Leitch’s campaign, derided the current atmosphere of extreme partisanship that exists in politics: “…what I see lacking is the civility that used to be there — and I think that’s something Kellie can bring back.”
Sorry, Bill, we’re still waiting.
As in previous tenpercenters, this one has the usual call to action: which party is best supporting seniors — with the constituent urged to vote either Conservative, Liberal, NDP or Green.
However, that’s an illogical choice; only one party is in a position to do anything about seniors right now — the Conservatives — by merit of being the government, and a majority at that.
Perhaps Leitch’s next tenpercenter should carry the question: Which party is presently in government, and on that basis should get on with the business of governing rather than wasting time and taxpayers’ money. I think I’d actually mark that one off and send it back.
