O O Ø O O O O
Dear Ed
Since we're all socialists here, what's in it for me?
Ed Broadbent
c/o 520 Bronson Avenue, 1st Floor
Ottawa, ON
K1R 7Y9
Dear Ed(!)
I was wondering if you could explain a few of the issues that seem to be missing from your site, but concern me a great deal. I’m not going to waste my time with the candidate from the party with the identity crisis, because they change their stripes more often than our premier. Nor will I bother with the candidate whose leaders’ face adorns his sign, as I’m guessing the ad technique is really just saying up front it’ll be another ineffective, benevolent dictatorship. You’ve stayed true to your roots, and while I have never voted NDP because Bob Rae left some nasty scars, I’m willing to listen to your pitch.
You’ve asked me what I want Ottawa Centre to be, but to tell you the truth, I’m pretty happy with it. It’s the out-of-town folks who hang out in that pointy building with the copper-clad roof that I’d like to see kicked out of town, or at least cleaned up to the point of respectability. I think it’s funny how there are a number of groups fighting young voter apathy. Did anyone ever stop to think that maybe people aren’t apathetic, they’re just so disillusioned by the dismal choices they’re presented with that they choose not to be a part of electing yet another hack?
In any case, here’s my questions for you:
- I don’t watch the CBC’s television programming because, with the exception of HNIC and the News, it caters to the fringe, not the mass market. What was good is gone or stale, and doesn’t appear to ever be coming back. Ask the majority of Canadians if they’re interested in the programming developed, and overwhelmingly you’ll hear “no”. Why would you take even more of my money and pump it into the money-losing, audience-depleted, bureaucratic mess that is the CBC? Why wouldn’t you advocate a model like the Public Broadcasting Service down South? Doesn’t it make more sense to create an entity that stands on its own, instead of one that continually expects handouts to keep it alive?
- Canadians hate the media monopolies they are forced to deal with. The country has been sliced into chunks, and in each region there is one or two dominant players who control how and what we see, read, and hear. Foreign competition might actually slap these companies into catching up with the rest of the world, providing quality services and support, and maybe even caring about the customer base they were handed. The CRTC regulations aren’t working, and Canadians continue to pay for the monoliths inefficiencies. What other alternatives to open competition are there?
- When are folks on your end going to stop focusing on the end product (healthcare, education, etc.), and start focusing on the inefficiencies in the systems and processes that manage it. My services go down, my taxes go up, and everything gets blamed on the increasing costs. Might I remind you that taxes usually a percentage of the gross, and rising costs probably have a lot more to do with ballooning bureaucracy and inefficient process management than anything else. Are you interested in changing the status quo at every level, not just the upper echelons?
- I work hard for my money, like a lot of people, and am tired of seeing someone in government flush it down the toilet in March by buying stuff they don’t need to ensure they’ve blown their entire budget wad. I know the money goes to support local companies, but the majority of the spend is on material items that are manufactured outside of Canada and a very small margin goes back into the Canadian economy. What will you do to re-introduce responsible budgeting and spending, particularly during the final quarter in the fiscal year?
- Why should I trust you? Where have you been the last little while? Why come back? Why now? The NDP has a horrible record when it comes to spending, and when I read the list of issues you have, I see a whole lot of spend. Where are you going to cut back? Are you interested in making things leaner and meaner, or will you continue to allow the administration of the programs to bloat? In my market, we do more with less all the time through process standardization, productivity improvements, and automation. How will you accomplish the same thing, and does your party’s core values even take this into account (especially in a riding like Ottawa Centre)?
Those are my questions. Sorry I don’t have more around the great societal issues, but I think you have to fix the little things like government first, then worry about the stuff which seems to keep ticking year after year. My neighbourhood’s fine, it’s the clubhouse up the street from me I want cleaned out.
There’s not a lot of choices for me. The Pot Party’s out, because there’s no rep in my riding. The Green Party’s out, because I don’t think their happy, ecotarian values will stand up to the bulldozer of reality. We’ve already covered the other two parties, so I guess we’re in a Princess Leia/Obi-Wan kind of situation, and you’re Obi-Wan (believe me, I don’t look good in a dress and my hair as danishes isn't so hot, either).
I’m not afraid not to vote, and the Elections Canada ads that try to guilt me into voting don’t work. If I don’t think there’s a viable choice, I think it’s better to abstain, which is a form of choice in itself. I want to vote for someone, but not because they’re not the other guy. That might make them think I believe in them, which may not be the case. If I cast a ballot, I want to make sure I actually believe in that person. No one else matches up, do you?
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
PD DCLV
P.S. - What is the exclamation point for, anyways? It’s almost like you want us to be shocked you came back.