Good old Rob Anders
By now this is old news, but I didn't have time to write it down when it was new news, and it's worth recounting.
In Canada, sitting Members of Parliament receive a certain amount of government money each year to stay in touch with their constituents through what they call "householders"--little flyers or brochures detailing what the MP has been doing and the issues in the community. There is often grumbling if they send something out too close to an election period, because this arguably means tax dollars being used for election propaganda. Only one MP, though, has ever used his householder budget to send flyers or brochures out to some other constituency, somewhere else in the country. His name is Rob Anders, he's a Conservative MP from Calgary, and he's tried it twice. The first time was in 1999, when he sent them to Edmonton-Centre, the constituency of Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan. The second time was last week, when he sent them to Richmond, British Columbia. During an election.
This time around, the "householder" took the form of a survey with a photo of a masked gunman on the front, bearing the words "Are you concerned about the impact of the Crystal Meth epidemic in your community?" The capitalization is a little wonky, and sending the thing out to thousands of people who had never even heard of Rob Anders even weirder, but okay, it's a reasonable question. On the inside flap, though, was the first suggestion of his true motives: the sentence "Tell [Liberal Prime Minister] Paul Martin to get tough on crime by filling out this questionnaire." Aha.
Just when you think it's going to get sinister, though, it takes a turn for the seriously weird. Because these were the four "survey questions" on the inside of the mailout:
Perhaps the weirdest thing about the whole story, though: despite all efforts to oust him, unless they start having snowball fights in hell, this buffoon is going to be reelected.
[Edited to add: There is apparently not a *single* person on livejournal who lists homosexual sex marriage as an interest! TRAGEDY!!!]
In Canada, sitting Members of Parliament receive a certain amount of government money each year to stay in touch with their constituents through what they call "householders"--little flyers or brochures detailing what the MP has been doing and the issues in the community. There is often grumbling if they send something out too close to an election period, because this arguably means tax dollars being used for election propaganda. Only one MP, though, has ever used his householder budget to send flyers or brochures out to some other constituency, somewhere else in the country. His name is Rob Anders, he's a Conservative MP from Calgary, and he's tried it twice. The first time was in 1999, when he sent them to Edmonton-Centre, the constituency of Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan. The second time was last week, when he sent them to Richmond, British Columbia. During an election.
This time around, the "householder" took the form of a survey with a photo of a masked gunman on the front, bearing the words "Are you concerned about the impact of the Crystal Meth epidemic in your community?" The capitalization is a little wonky, and sending the thing out to thousands of people who had never even heard of Rob Anders even weirder, but okay, it's a reasonable question. On the inside flap, though, was the first suggestion of his true motives: the sentence "Tell [Liberal Prime Minister] Paul Martin to get tough on crime by filling out this questionnaire." Aha.
Just when you think it's going to get sinister, though, it takes a turn for the seriously weird. Because these were the four "survey questions" on the inside of the mailout:
- Do you like the way Paul Martin spends your taxes?
- Are the Liberals doing enough to fight crime?
- Do you support homosexual sex marriage?
- Do you think more should be spent on the military?
Perhaps the weirdest thing about the whole story, though: despite all efforts to oust him, unless they start having snowball fights in hell, this buffoon is going to be reelected.
[Edited to add: There is apparently not a *single* person on livejournal who lists homosexual sex marriage as an interest! TRAGEDY!!!]