A Barrie city councillor, Michael Prowes, ran out of money in his communications budget but still wanted to reach out to his constituents. There was, after all, an election coming up in a few months and he wanted to be seen to be proactive on a particular development issue.
So he called his Con MP, Patrick Brown, who agreed to mail out the councillor’s literature using his (Brown’s) House of Commons free mailing privileges. (News flash to Brown: It may be referred to as “free”, but it really isn’t you know. The taxpayer (remember us?) is paying for it.)
Brown said he saw no issue with this but, ever the ethical Con MP, he claims he would have refused to mail out Prowes’ information had it been closer to the municipal election date to avoid the perception that he was getting involved in the municipal election.
Well Patrick Brown, to state the blindingly obvious, as soon as that flyer arrived under your letterhead you became involved whether you intended to or not. And just what in hell ever gave you the idea that you were entitled to use federal taxpayer dollars to publicly support a municipal councillor running for re-election in the first place?
This shit drives me crazy, and one can only hope the good residents of Barrie feel the same way come the next federal election.
Here for more: http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/11/14/16137916.html
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