Paul Calandra is Another Conservative Abusing Tax Dollars

The abuse of the franking system by the Conservatives has reached almost epidemic proportions. What is known as 'ten percenters' are supposed to be used to keep constituents informed, but instead are being misused to launch partisan attack ads, that are being billed to taxpayers.

At Least Mr. Calandra sent his to his own riding, but many MPs are now using them to distribute attack ads to ridings of the opposition, so that simply being a candidate gives you 'free' use of tax dollars. Free to them, but not to us.

I recently complained because despite the fact that I live in Kingston, a Liberal riding; I recently received an attack ad against Michael Ignatieff, that was sent to me from Burlington MP Mike Wallace (Apparently he also distributed 29,000 of these things to help Lisa Raitt before she got elected).

Our local 'also ran', Brian Abrams, apparently has no qualms about stealing tax dollars before the election, so what hope do we have of his being honest, if he's elected? Slim to none.

However, I'm not the only one annoyed with this abuse, so I'm collecting stories from across the country, and exposing the guilty parties. Following is a letter sent to the editor, by one voter frustrated with this tax funded junk mail.

Your Community

On returning from a brief holiday, it was no surprise to find one of the pieces of accumulated mail was from our MP, Paul Calandra, last week. This latest one was an attack on Michael Ignatieff. I have been receiving these regular mailings from Mr. Calandra approximately every two weeks for the last several months.

At one point, I received two in one week. I assume everyone else in our riding receives them as well. Generally, the theme is, "Who is on the right track for Canada? I have responded to each one, making comments or asking a question when there was room to do so, always giving my name and address, e-mail address and phone number.

As yet, I have never received a reply, and am left wondering if anybody reads them and if any real purpose is being served. Obviously Mr. Calandra is making use of the free mail service, which we provide for our MPs. In his case, it seems to me that use is being abused. As a Taxpayer I'd like to see it stop.

R. Blake Tufford
Whitchurch-Stouffville

IS THIS REALLY CONSERVATIVE? IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?