Is anyone else tired of receiving yet another Blake Richards circular in their mailbox?
We just received the latest missive from our federal M.P. for Wild Rose. The front page of this four-page mini-newspaper features a picture of Blake Richards, framed in Tory Blue, immediately above a photograph of six Conservative M.P.s (all men, all white) giving a collective thumbs up to the Conservative’s 2015 federal budget. Immediately below that you find an article whose main point seems to be that Blake Richards has spoken out in praise of Stephen Harper’s budget.
The following pages take us through a set of “On the Road with Blake Richards” photographs, a puff-piece on Conservative Veteran Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole, and an article on repeat offenders (“’When it comes to tackling crime, our Prime Minister doesn’t mince words,’ Richards said”).
The circular also includes a truly moronic survey asking voters yes-or-no questions on whether or not they support “our government’s efforts to balance the federal budget without increasing taxes to Canadians,” and whether or not they’d be interested in receiving M.P. Blake Richards’ “weekly email updates.”
In 2012-13, this backbencher ranked third in spending among all Ottawa parliamentarians. Part of Richards’ explanation for why he spent so lavishly was that he works “very hard … to maintain frequent contact with constituents through … mailings and surveys.”
You have to wonder just how expensive mailouts like this one could ever be thought to give meaningful information to the citizens of the Wild Rose district, or get meaningful information from them. Isn’t it time this particular exercise in Blake Richards’ propaganda-spreading stop?
Stephen Slemon, Canmore
