Tory MP Phil McColeman's Taxpayer Funded April Fool's Joke

It's extremely fitting that this arrived in the mail on April Fool's Day, except unfortunately it seems the joke is on us in Brant and with OUR money. The picture you see is a REAL completely undoctored scan of what was included in the April Householder (like a 10%er but much larger, on nicer paper, and which gets sent out to an MP's riding up to 4x a year).

The householder (the rest of which unfortunately just reads exactly like a blown up typical Con 10%er) likely cost over $130,000 in taxpayer money to send out (Click here for reference, as a regular 10%er apparently costs $45,000 to go to a smaller amount of people).

So our new MP is spending that to inform us that we can have a short hello with him on ONE SPECIFIC DAY ONLY. And a free cup of coffee, probably also paid for with tax payer dollars. But, note how the coupon says "Not valid at any other time" - so if I want to chat with him "any other time" he's not available? I'm sorry, but as a constituent, I find that small print very arrogant and insulting.

I would advise you to go and print off as many of these "coupons" as possible to get your time and coffee's worth, but perhaps we should care more about where our tax dollars go and how they are spent than Phil McColeman seems to be doing.

Until now I never realized I needed a "one-day only" coupon to have a quick "chat" (not a debate/discussion, etc.,) with my MP between a 2 hour window, but I guess that's what can happen when you elect a Conservative.

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Better Know a District: Brant and the Victory Fund

An Open Letter to Calgary Grit

So I'm very glad to see the Victory Fund fully operational and up and running. It's a great initiative with great promise and I hope all Liberals who have been reading about it take part. Sign up to donate at least $10 a month ($5 to a riding association and $5 to the party) (which works out to about $2.50 after taxes) and help Stephane Dion and ridings across the country promote the Liberal cause! Let's do our part to ensure the next quarter's results shuts the pundits and Conservatives traps about our fundraising once and for all!

However, I couldn't help noticing in Calgary Grit's post about this initiative that he is on the market so to speak in terms of which riding his money will go to. Well because I support my riding of Brant and my local MP Lloyd St. Amand so strongly I want to lay out why he
should be supporting us (no pressure though Dan :) ).

Though most of this letter applies just as well to anyone else who can't decide which riding to commit your monthly donation to (though perhaps I might strike a different tone with someone else). For all of those to which this applies, Brant appreciates your generous support.

Dear Calgary Grit:

I see you have offered up your money to a lucky riding somewhere in Canada. As someone always looking to grab spare change, I thought why not take a stab at convincing you why my riding wants (and dare I say deserves) your money most.

First of all, we have an excellent, dedicated, hardworking MP, Lloyd St. Amand. Lloyd is an amazing parliamentarian, and is especially friendly and supportive to our youth in Brant. He's not just intensely focused on keeping his own seat and seeing Stephane Dion become the
next PM, but he's also got his eye on building the riding up for the future. The same can be said of our riding association (BFLA) that, since the Brant Young Liberals were founded over a year ago, has been extremely supportive of our club in terms of providing resources so that we can always grow our membership and promote the party and our policies to other youth in the region.

With this kind of support, we have been effective in promoting the Liberal cause in Ontario which has helped us to gain the Ontario Young Liberals South Central region policy parliament May 24. However, as our members graduate from high school and go onto university, we need to do a recruitment drive to maintain our greatness. Lloyd St. Amand is supportive, and we hope that, as you are a Liberal known for your youth involvement, you might also indirectly support us through opening your wallet to our riding.

But that's not all! The BFLA also does a lot of outreach efforts to get more of the Brant community involved. We have open houses, golf tournaments, community dinners, and we have recently done quite a few policy forums with prominent Liberals from the area leading the
discussion.

Finally, Brant could use the money because it is being heavily targeted in the past few months by the Conservatives because in the last election, the Liberals won by just over 500 votes. We continuously get those silly and misleading crappy postcards from Tory MPs out of touch
with our riding. So any money we could would be helpful for a future campaign to further get our message out.

Brant has been Liberal for 15 years and hasn't been Blue since 1958 and it'd be a shame to see it go to the Conservatives next time all because Calgary Grit wouldn't fork over at least $5 a month to the riding (yes it could just make all the difference :) ).

So I hope you (and others) heed the call! Help ensure Brant stays red for decades to come! With your support victory is assured!

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Tag: So what am "I" going to be doing for the Liberal party, you ask?

Another “meme” making its way around the blogosphere is “What are you going to do for your political party”. I didn’t think I had to address this, people should realize that I would do what I could, and even more if it was asked or needed of me. But I’ve been tagged and I don’t want to be disrespectful to my tagger (Quito Maggi) or be the odd one out, leaving people to wonder “what’s up with her?!” I do, after all, want to be kept in the good books of the coolness of what is the blogosphere.

So the Liberal party might not give me any money, but the pay is the enjoyment of serving my province and country, and the Liberal party membership. As a master’s student without wheels, I feel very proud of what I am able to do, and guilty that I am not able to do more and be everywhere. I make the odd trips to the ridings that I have ties to so I continue to show my support and dedication to: Hamilton, Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo. And I am almost always in the ridings of Brant and Guelph. And I am always doing what I can to bring new faces to the party and help build up the party for the future.

So what tangible things am I going to do? I guess that’s what the meme called for, well I’m going to keep doing what I am doing, and do it well.

1) The Women’s Issues Committee and Mentorship program. This is a great new program started last summer that I currently co-chair as the Ontario Women’s Liberal Commission VP Young Women (a position I’ve held since November). The Women’s Issues Committee is open to male and female young Liberals and will make youth aware of the barriers for females in politics, and hopefully diminish them by education and action through community involvement and policy development always working towards a Canada where gender equality can become a reality and women’s issues get heard loud and clear.

The mentorship program takes established women or senior Ontario Young Liberals who have established ties to the Liberal party and pairs them with new youth members to form bonds, discuss the barriers facing women in politics, diminish any fears of the youth, and expose the youth to networking events, and hopefully have this be a stepping ground for these youth to become more involved in the Liberal party etc… Over 50 women have so far agreed to be mentors for this great program. If you are a prominent female in the party (e.g., provincial or federal candidate, riding association President, Liberal commission executive board member, etc…) and are interested in being a mentor please contact me (danielle.takacs@utoronto.ca). If you are a female young Liberal and would like to have a mentor, please see the Facebook group “Ontario Young Women’s Liberal Association” for more info on how to apply (as well as find more info on the Women’s Issues Committee and other initiatives I am involved in as the OWLC VP Young Women).

2) The Brant Young Liberals which I founded. They’ve had a great first year. The biggest contingent at Summer Fling, North Bay, as well as being the authors of one of the official policies of the OYL for 2007-2008. We helped contribute to Brant winning riding of the year in Southwest region at the LPC(O) AGM. I might add as well that I have been in discussion with members of the LPC(O) Southwest region policy committee to bring the Brant Young Liberals policy to the next biennial. Unfortunately the BYL is at crossroads now, as many people leave Brant for university. We need some new members (14-25 years of age). This is a great opportunity for youth to get involved in their community, organize events, meet politicians, get some policy experience and partake in some really good and fun opportunities like Ontario Model Parliament. If you’re a Brantfordian and interested, please contact me!

3) Working hard to make sure Lloyd St. Amand returns to parliament as he rightly deserves it (and hopefully gets a cabinet position as he would be a dedicated and honourable minister) and helping to send Tyler Banham to Ottawa.

4) Attend as many Liberal events & fundraisers as is possible and manageable for me. They’re fun, and the money goes to some good causes.

5) Blogging? I hope that my words help encourage political discourse and create some good ‘food for thought’.

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