Hello:
The message below needs no explanation. Read it and weep about the deception this provincial government is perpetrating. Vicki Huntington is an Independent MLA in the BC Legislature representing Delta South. And do send it out to all the people in your email address book who live in BC -- just as I am going to do right now.
Steve Heeren
Please broadcast far and wide. Send to all your friends, whether they vote Liberal or NDP or Green.
MLA REPORT
Deceptive HST “Voters Guide” taints independence of legislature
Delta, B.C., 13 June – Did you receive the HST Referendum “Voters Guide” the other day? I did. And so did the good people whom I work with at the Ladner constituency office. The guide struck us as a peculiar, agenda-driven voter information package, so we phoned Elections BC to confirm that they had sent it.
No such luck.
An Elections BC employee advised us, in no uncertain terms, that the Ministry of Finance was responsible for the booklet – not Elections BC. The folks at Elections BC are an independent, non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly, after all.
We’re all used to receiving sneaky junk mail designed to deceive – only usually it’s from bad credit card companies, “sweepstake” marketing surveys and the like. Not propaganda from the Ministry of Finance. Add another page to the HST’s long story of deceit.
The booklet doesn’t identify its source. The only indication that you are reading a government-produced document is a dime-sized “British Columbia” logo positioned on the front corner, brushing up next to an image of a pencil eraser. Flip to the back page though, and you see, in emphasis, an “Important Notice to BC voters from Elections BC.”
This “voter’s guide” is a government PR document deliberately designed to make you think you are receiving valuable, non-partisan voter information from Elections BC.
Exploiting an independent office in such a premeditated and consciously partisan manner is simply unacceptable. It is beneath a government to do so, and disrespects voting British Columbians. Yet it is so typical of this government, isn’t it? The more we are told “things are different,” the more things stay the same. It is almost as if this government can’t help itself.
The BC government has a long way to go to prove that “change” is more than mere electioneering. It is one thing to see that the time-old “buy-the-vote” style of politics is clearly alive and well in BC today. It is quite another observe the contempt displayed by those in power when they seek to deceive the very people whom they represent.
The brochure, at its core, is deceptive: it purposely misleads the public and sullies an independent office of the Legislature. It is unacceptable politics. Good tax or bad tax, the government deceived us. And it continues to deceive us. And I am really tired of it.
Vicki Huntington
Office: 604-940-7924
Cell: 604-817-2129
The message below needs no explanation. Read it and weep about the deception this provincial government is perpetrating. Vicki Huntington is an Independent MLA in the BC Legislature representing Delta South. And do send it out to all the people in your email address book who live in BC -- just as I am going to do right now.
Steve Heeren
Please broadcast far and wide. Send to all your friends, whether they vote Liberal or NDP or Green.
MLA REPORT
Deceptive HST “Voters Guide” taints independence of legislature
Delta, B.C., 13 June – Did you receive the HST Referendum “Voters Guide” the other day? I did. And so did the good people whom I work with at the Ladner constituency office. The guide struck us as a peculiar, agenda-driven voter information package, so we phoned Elections BC to confirm that they had sent it.
No such luck.
An Elections BC employee advised us, in no uncertain terms, that the Ministry of Finance was responsible for the booklet – not Elections BC. The folks at Elections BC are an independent, non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly, after all.
We’re all used to receiving sneaky junk mail designed to deceive – only usually it’s from bad credit card companies, “sweepstake” marketing surveys and the like. Not propaganda from the Ministry of Finance. Add another page to the HST’s long story of deceit.
The booklet doesn’t identify its source. The only indication that you are reading a government-produced document is a dime-sized “British Columbia” logo positioned on the front corner, brushing up next to an image of a pencil eraser. Flip to the back page though, and you see, in emphasis, an “Important Notice to BC voters from Elections BC.”
This “voter’s guide” is a government PR document deliberately designed to make you think you are receiving valuable, non-partisan voter information from Elections BC.
Exploiting an independent office in such a premeditated and consciously partisan manner is simply unacceptable. It is beneath a government to do so, and disrespects voting British Columbians. Yet it is so typical of this government, isn’t it? The more we are told “things are different,” the more things stay the same. It is almost as if this government can’t help itself.
The BC government has a long way to go to prove that “change” is more than mere electioneering. It is one thing to see that the time-old “buy-the-vote” style of politics is clearly alive and well in BC today. It is quite another observe the contempt displayed by those in power when they seek to deceive the very people whom they represent.
The brochure, at its core, is deceptive: it purposely misleads the public and sullies an independent office of the Legislature. It is unacceptable politics. Good tax or bad tax, the government deceived us. And it continues to deceive us. And I am really tired of it.
-30-
Contact:Vicki Huntington
Office: 604-940-7924
Cell: 604-817-2129
*****************************************************************************
2 comments:
So no one in the Huntington office could bother to read the top section of the first page of the guide, that clearly explains what each section is about?
First page is a GOVERNMENT position statement, next sections are the YES and NO positions (compare the YES side to the anti-HST brochure previously posted on this website - identical!), and the last section includes comments from an independent panel.
Did Ms. Huntington offer any informed comment on the content of any of these 4 sections, or could she only flip to the last page and read the very first line and get all offended?
No wonder our country is in such trouble.
Talk about a lack of substantive debate! One can't rely on politicians - and not even those pesky bloggers! - to read more than ONE sentence of a brochure before they start making ill-informed comments that serve little purpose other than to inflame the public, detract from the issue at hand, and increase their own name recognition!
Had Gordon Campbell discussed the issue prior to the election using all those arguments which are in the $5 million pamphlet and got elected I would agree with you. But the way they tried to sneak it through after the election while all the reassured us that they would not go for the HST I an not agree. Hard to trust a liar and except for Christy Clark all the players are the same. Have they changed from liars to honest politicians? Hard to say. For one thing, the $1.6 billion has never been paid by the Feds, only $1 billion advance was given to BC so far.
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