Please return to sender

Returning the favour to politicians and their smear campaigns

Jacques Marcoux, Volunteer Staff

Last week, after a long day of work, I was standing by my mailbox, trying to sort out the mess of flyers, banks statements and bills that the mailman left behind. It wasn’t long until I came across one of the most revolting political smear ads I had ever seen. The ad, sponsored by the Conservative Party of Canada, “Compliments of Steven Fletcher, MP,” as it read near the bottom, essentially amounted to brazen propaganda.

The flyer had a bold heading that read, “Your $1,200 child care benefit,” and beneath it was a side-by-side picture of a confident and cheery Steven Harper with “Keep it” printed over his head, and adjacent to him was a goofy looking and confused Stéphane Dion with the words “Lose it” floating above.

I flip the page and I was shocked to read the following:

“With Conservatives, you will keep your $1,200 per year child care benefit. Guaranteed.

“Dion voted against the $1,200 child care benefit and will take it away.”

The flyer then instructed me to either check the box “Keep my child care benefit” or “Lose my child care benefit” and mail it in to the Conservative party headquarters in Ottawa — There’s a loaded question!

This mailout, which presumably has gone out to most Winnipeggers, is quite visibly (and shamelessly) a smear campaign endorsed by the current federal Conservative government and Steven Fletcher. While there is no false information provided in the flyer, it is, however, incredibly misleading to the general public, who otherwise may not follow Canadian politics closely.

Yes, Stéphane Dion did vote against the Conservative’s $1,200-child-care benefit, which, by the way, is fully taxable as income, something his flyer forgot to mention. What it fails to say, however, is that Stéphane Dion and the Liberals voted against the proposed benefits because they chose to support a national day-care program instead. Dion certainly was not planning on leaving families behind, as the flyer would have you believe. In fact, the Liberals were in the initial phase of implementing their proposed universal day-care program, which was abandoned following their defeat in the 2006 federal election. The Liberal plan hardly seems likes the actions of a party that hates the children of Canadians families and wants to take away their hard-earned dollars, as the message this flyer implies.

My intention here is not to play partisan games. Other political parties are just a guilty of high-handed political games. I recall a televised smear campaign sponsored by the federal Liberal party a few years back, depicting Steven Harper as essentially a demonic warmonger, with the narration of a one-sided story about the proliferation of military presence in Canadian cities. It was blatant fear-mongering on the part of the liberals.

The point is that incomplete information is just as dishonest and malicious as misinformation; it’s simply another form deceit that is arguably far more harmful to the public than outright lying. Unfortunately, the flyer I received — compliments of the Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia federal MP Steven Fletcher — is doing nothing more than perpetuating the kind of bullshit that Canadians are so fed up with. Instead of persuading me to support the Conservative party, the flyer actually had the reverse effect of confirming that Canadian political parties continue to endorse the use of political propaganda and dishonesty with the general public.

After the Liberal ad scandal, I think most Canadians felt it was time for a change in Ottawa. All this talk about transparency and accountability from the Conservative government actually gave Canadians a sense of much needed hope and trust. Unfortunately, the Conservatives decided to continue with the same old schoolyard games we are accustomed to and have come to expect. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I will be mailing a copy of this article to Steven Fletcher, Conservative party MP, and I urge all of you who expect strong and honest leadership from your elected representatives to do the same. His contact information can be found on his website: Stevenfletcher.ca.

Jacques Marcoux is a commerce graduate.