Following this introduction, you will find the posting from
Jared Butcher of
"The Butcher Shoppe" blog.
Jared Butcher of Victoria, British Columbia caught this Editor's attention when he was sent multiple propaganda flyers from Conservative MPs including multiple flyers from Langley's very own MP,
Mark Warawa just like we all in Langley are having to endure. You all have recently gotten
the same multiple flyers that have silly poll questions that provide no real info but really are in my view unadulterated propaganda spam and pure political pollution.
So we contacted Jared and asked him to inform us Langleyites about this issue with MP Warawa and what he is doing about it. He has been trying to contact Warawa to no avail yet. I guess if Mark can bother him with multiple flyers maybe he should out of courtesy respond to Jared too! Jared will keep us up to date as the issue develops or probably doesn't!
Oh, by the way on the above LFP editorial political pundit spoof picture of a Warawa banner erection team (lol), you may jump to conclusions as to what my intent was in nicknaming his propaganda team the "Blackwater.." boys. To help you out, view these next 3 links and tell me which one you think I referred to or which one I should be referring to! Blackwater Option One or Option Two or Option Three. Without further delay, on to Jared.
Conservative MP Roll Call by Jared Butcher of Victoria BC
A Special Submission For Langley Free Press
In the recent weeks I have written on my blog (www.butchershoppe.blogspot.com) about the flood of Conservative Party flyers ( here - here & here) I have been receiving in my mail box. However my anger and frustration with these mailers goes back for over a year now. I first received similar ones that would ask a question like “Do you believe in a strong stance on crime?” and the only answers were ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I think that most Canadians have a slightly more nuanced position on how to deal with such a vast and complicated problem as “crime.”
Each of these flyers comes courtesy of a Conservative M.P. and encourages you to send it back to the M.P., courtesy of the Government Caucus Service in Ottawa. As a member of the internet generation I decided why send this by mail? I’ll just look up that M.P. and email my answers and concerns about having these materials delivered to my house.
I was raised to believe that our M.P.’s and M.L.A’s were there to serve their constituencies. An example that was set for me by my grandfather who was a B.C. M.L.A. for 13 years, even after he had retired he would still do some light work for people in his former riding. So I sent off my email to a few Tory M.P.’s assuming that although I wasn’t in their riding that if they felt strongly enough about people outside of their riding to send them flyers they could at least reply to my email right?
Wrong.
This brings us to the last two weeks, in which I have received a grand total of eight flyers from 7 Tory M.P.’s, including two on every Thursday, and two on every Friday. So rather than just emailing these folks I’ve decided to give their offices a call. Now sadly I haven’t been able to reach a real live person so far or get a reply back. I say so far because I haven’t called the two M.P.’s from today’s flyers yet. What can I say I’m an optimist.
Now this being the Langley Free Press I suppose I should make some comments directly about your Conservative Member of Parliament, Mark Warawa. I received a flyer in his name on Thursday August 7, 2008. The topic of the flyer is “The Senate Must Change.” Inside the flyer it contrasts a “Conservative Senate” against a “Liberal Senate.” The key features of the Conservative senate are: Elected by you, Limited terms, Accountable to you.
Right, so let’s take these points one at a time.
“Elected By You,” should really read “Elected By You, unless we need an unelected cabinet minster from Quebec.” The Conservative commitment to an elected senate is laughable at best, after two years in power there has been zero movement on this issue. Whatever your feelings on the senate are the issue here is that the Harperites are saying one thing and doing another. Like appointing Michael Fortier, an unelected party operative, to the Senate so that he could sit in Cabinet. So if Mr. Warawa is so concerned about the Senate that he allowed his name to be put to this flyer where was he when his Prime Minister was appointing unelected party friends to the Senate? I looked and I can’t find any record of Mr. Warawa speaking to this issue at all.
“Limited Terms.” This would be perhaps the easiest and cheapest reform that the Government could introduce. I also see this being something that would get all party support or at least a majority. And yet two years in there has been zero movement on this issue either, ask your self, people of Langley, do you think Mark Warawa is talking to his caucus colleagues and the Prime Minister about making sure that this issue is moving forward? It would seem to be important enough to him that he sends someone on Vancouver Island a flyer about, what action is he taking on this file? And if he is not acting on it how can he be trusted to act on the things that matter most to you?
“Accountable To You” is kind of vague and I’m not sure what is really meant by this. Does it mean that if we do the above things then it will be accountable? If so shouldn’t the accountability start with the M.P.’s like Mark Warawa ensuring that these promises are held?
No matter where you stand on any of these issues or what your political stripe is I believe, personally, that you should ask yourself some serious questions.
1.>When was the last time you received a mailer or information from you M.P.?
2.> If Mark Warawa is so concerned about the Senate and yet takes no action on it, then how can he be trusted to follow through on anything else?
3.> Why is Warawa wasting time sending campaign flyers to a riding (Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca) where the Tory’s have never finished higher than a distant third?
4.> And finally why isn’t Warawa spending that time in his community?
Now I should point out that I have placed a call to Mr.Warawa’s office and I left a lengthy message on his voice mail, listing my concerns and inviting him or someone from his office to call me back and discuss all of this. So far I have not heard back from him or his office. Maybe Warawa has been fighting in caucus for a reformed Senate, maybe Warawa has good reasons for sending flyers to people on Vancouver Island, but that is a lot of maybes and a lot of questions that Mr.Warawa does not seem willing to answer.
Jared S. Butcher is a political science student at Camosun College and The University of Victoria .
LFP Editor NOTE: Thank you Jared. And by the way, am I the only one that finds it tragically amusing that the Conservatives' environmental secretary, Mark Warawa, to Environment (oxymoron) Minister John Baird is essentially mass mailing with our Canadian clear cut trees a deluge of paper product propaganda flyers multiple times to Langley taxpayers as well as to who knows how many other Canadian ridings including Jared's Victoria riding? Is this proper & responsible governance that you condone of your Langley MP?...
and currently a sitting Langley School Board Trustee will in the next few weeks announce that she will be running to be elected this November as a Langley Township Councillor! Reliable sources suggest that she has decided to instead run for Township Council because of the recent Provincial government reported study of rail for the valley being delayed until after the provincial election. This, in LFP's opinion as well as many others, essentially is deep sixing the promised study. I am told this was the final straw that convinced her to now seek political office in the Township to help fight for light rail transit in Langley and the Valley. 
