At Home in Hespeler

Enjoyed this letter in today’s Toronto Sun from trained professional John Northey (edited because some of it is just silly):

…I have yet to see a single person with a statistical background (via degree or profession) in favour of the voluntary census. All surveys on this issue, which would become biased if the census were made voluntary, show a split among average Canadians on the issue – even though the majority have no statistical training and thus little knowledge of how vital the census is…

In other words how dare you, John Northey’s underling, question the use of imprisonment as a threat for refusing the pimply minions of bureaucracy’s desire for information. And don’t give me this “never had a… single person go to jail.”  Imprisonment is on the books, so it is under threat of imprisonment that you currently refuse the long form.

But really it’s all moot, since his argument is based on an unknown sample size of “person(s) with a statistical background,” who answered under no coercion. Therefore, we can conclude it is inaccurate and meaningless.

Interesting, as well, that Northey opens the letter with a shot at cartoonist Andy Donato’s presumed political affiliation:

Andy Donato’s July 30 political cartoon makes me wonder if he is now a Conservative staff member or shooting for one of those senate seats.

Yet he does not mention that he works for, or at least does work for the Green Party of Canada.

pimply minions of bureaucracy Andy Donato, Green Party, ten percenters, Toronto Sun

sounds more like a patch honest politicians would wear on their Armani jacket. It is, instead, a rule for an MP sending Parliamentary flyers to someone else’s riding.  It’s wrong, and it should end.

When a bureaucrat designs a "ten percenter" patch.

John Mraz goes over the top,  calling it corruption. It’s not, but it is, as he notes, “the diversion of public resources to politicized ends.” I would not call it corruption more because it’s above board, and of such a small scale. Mraz, a former Liberal campaign manager, also throws a blame grenade at the Conservatives, both here and in the US. Note, for example, fringe Republican Obama birthers are the only ones who are nuts, ignoring Democrats who thought GW Bush was a) the dumbest man ever to learn to knot his own tie b) the criminal mastermind behind 911. In other words Mr. Mraz’s biases get in the way of his thesis.

His thesis, however, is spot on. Ten percenters are wrong. Parliamentarians are using the rule that allows them to send informational material to ridings other than their own, up to a total of ten percent of the constituents in their riding. I have complained before about this policy, but still receive quarterlies from Jack Layton. These things are not informational, they are propaganda. Paper wasted bashing the other party, taking biased surveys, that you can send back at parliamentary expense (i.e. taxpayer expense).

To be sure, I receive the same nonsense from my MP, Conservative Gary Goodyear, but he’s at least my MP. Their is a legitimate argument to be made that an MP needs to communicate with constituents, and needs to offer constituents a forum to let their MP know how they feel on issues. If I find the communiques so offensive, I can always vote for someone else. I can’t, however, choose to vote against Jack Layton MP. So why am I receiving his mailers? And why, far more significantly, am I receiving his mailers at parliamentary expense?

Conservatives and Liberals are not innocent in this, and Gary Goodyear has been the subject of a formal complaint to the speaker on this very subject.

They are all doing it. And they are all wrong. On this, I agree with Mr. Mraz. It’s time to stop the practice of ten percenters.

Politicians acting badly, Silly Politicians 911 truthers, Barack Obama, Canadian Parliament, Conservative Party, Democrats, Gary Goodyear, GW Bush, Jack Layton, John Mraz, Liberal Party, National Post, NDP, Obama Birthers, one percenters, Parliament, Republicans, ten percenters