Bad Focus, A Leading Question and Wedge Politics

Whooee! Well, friends an' foes, today's the day our gummint goes back to work after another 13 week vacation. While the MPs were away from the House, "a total of $14 billion (has) been added to our national debt." Every poll in the past year or more has indicated that the biggest concern for Canadians is the economy. Yet, our spendthrift Conservative government is in full drunken sailor mode. $16 billion for new, unneeded F-35 stealth fighter jets. $6 billion for new prison cells to house unconvicted criminals who have committed unreported crimes. More than a billion on security for a few hours of face time with fellow promise breakers at the G8/G20. $35 billion for new ships.

Not only is our government preaching austerity while spending money at an unprecedented rate, it is spending most of its time and energy dealing with an issue that's barely a blip on the radar of public concern. The long gun registry is a pet issue for a few NRA types who make loud noises (like their guns) and have hijacked -- with the help of Harper's MPs -- the public agenda. While all hands need to be on the economy deck, the fight being waged is one of wedge politics where the ruling party is attempting to divide Canadians along rural-urban boundaries.

Here's the way my own MP, Diane Finley, is wasting her time and money. Remember, we the people are Diane's employers. When she wastes her time and money, she's actually wasting our time and money. Here's what Diane sent out to her constituents last week.

Notice how Diane says she has her mind made up and she will vote to repeal the registry. Then, she says she needs my support and help and I should get in touch. What help can I give? I can't vote in the Commons. She's the only one from Haldimand-Norfolk who can vote and she's already decided how.

She wants people to answer her question and send back their Yes or No response to her question: "Do you support getting rid of the wasteful and ineffective gun registry?" No need to worry about postage, registry opponents. Diane, or rather the taxpayer, has that covered.

Nothing leading about that question, is there? Who would answer "No, I don't support getting rid of something that's wasteful and ineffective"?

When a handful registry opponents take the time to respond with their meaningless Yes answers, Diane can then tell the media or anyone who asks that the bulk of the mail she's received supports killing the registry.

The big problem with trying to create a rural-urban rift is that so-called rural ridings are not entirely rural. Haldimand-Norfolk is comprised a several small towns, ranging in population from about 15,000 to a couple thousand. The residents of those towns are hardly all farmers or hunters. The farmers in the rural riding are, in reality, a small minority. Most voters in my rural riding live in town. I suspect there may be proportionally a few more hunters in small towns than in Toronto but most small town residents are neither hunters nor gun owners.

The tactic of dividing Canadians into Toronto and Montreal versus rural Canada will fail simply because politicians like Diane Finley do not really know what their constituents want. They will never know as long as they ask leading questions for which there is only one acceptable answer.

Were NDP MPs Listening to Ol' JimBobby?

Whooee! Well, friends an' foes, a coupla days ago, I posted up a blog story on how I'd written to a buncha NDP MPs an' to Jack Layton, too, tellin' 'em they need to vote to keep the gun registry if they want a hope in hell of fixin' it. The comments section on the blog got pretty heated with the Dipper Leftdog sayin' my position showed I'd been hoodwinked by the GrittyBoys. Well, I was watchin' Mansbridge last night and I seen the NDP leader come out and say the selfsame thing I said:

Layton said. "I am very confident that the votes that are needed to continue the registry so that it can be fixed will indeed be there, and I'm feeling very optimistic about what lies ahead as a result."

It ain't really that complicated. If you scrap it, you can't fix it. When I asked Leftdog several times how you could fix something if it was scrapped, he refused to answer. Jack Layton answered, though. What I'm really wonderin' about now is: does Leftdog think that Jack Layton was hoodwinked by the Liberals? After all, Jack's sayin' the exact same thing I said in my letter to the NDP MPs.

Dear NDP Member of Parliament,

Whooee! Well, friend an' foes, I just sent an email to a few NDP MPs via an online thingamajig that lets you send it automagically. The online tool has a pre-written letter that you can sign but you can change it or write yer own letter in the space provided. Here's what I sent.

Dear NDP Member of Parliament,

Once the gun registry is scrapped, it cannot be fixed. The Harper government will never resurrect the registry. If it is killed, it will not rise, zombie-like, to be tweaked by well-meaning MPs. The only way it can be fixed is if it still exists.

First, you must prevent it from being eliminated forever. Then and only then, can it be improved upon.

When you send an old car to the junkyard and they squash it into a 1 metre x 1 metre x 1 metre cube, it's a little too late to start talking about doing a tune-up.

If you want the registry dead and gone forever, then go ahead and vote to kill it. If, however, you want to improve it -- as Jack Layton says -- then you must allow it to survive long enough to be improved.

By the way, I am a rural dweller. Some rural Canadians are quite outspoken in favour of killing the gun registry. They speak loudly but I do not think they speak for the majority of rural people. We register our cars, our boats and even our dogs. Why would we not agree to registering our deadly weapons?

I signed it with my real name and postal code. I got a CPC MP so maybe them Dippers'll just toss my email in the scrap pile along with the gun registry but I figgered it was at least worth a try.

If I coulda sent a picture, this'd be the one:

Hey, Mr. Goodwrench, how about a tune-up?

JimBobby