Junk Mail
This blog post shares the name with a Garth Turner blog post on the same subject. Garth Turner poses some very good questions that deserve some answers.
From Garth Turner's post entitled Junk Mail:
It was in my Campbellville mailbox a few days ago. It was in Esther’s Oakville mail slot, too. And my mother-in-law’s Mississauga post office. In fact, just about everybody I ask recalls having seen the latest piece of Conservative “information” on how the Harper Party is saving the environment, as opposed to the Liberals, who destroyed it.
Fine. Whatever. Blah, blah, smear, blah, blah, smear.
Note that the flyer was in the mailbox, and that it was broadly distributed. That makes it a 10 percenter, a form of political mailing that an MP can send. It is a generic flyer that can be delivered to a maximum of 10% of the households in a riding. It cannot be directly addressed, so it is treated as bulk mail, like a grocery flyer, and Canada Post charges bulk rates (easily a tenth what you would pay to send the same piece of paper in an envelope with a stamp as first class mail). The charges are covered not by the MP or the party but by the House of Commons (that is, you and me, the taxpayers).
Now consider this against Garth Turner's mailing:
See how the Harper government is destroying the economy, as opposed to the Liberals, who will save it.
Fine. Whatever. Blah, blah, smear, blah, blah, smear.
They're both 10-percenters, and probably just as likely to sway opinions.
But the Conservatives spent mere pennies, like maybe a nickel, on each flyer.
We know that Garth Turner, with over a dozen other Liberal MPs helping out, charged the taxpayers the cost of the printing, the cost of envelopes, the cost of stuffing the envelopes and individually addressing them, and the cost charged by Canada Post to sort, transport, resort, and individually deliver each flyer to a specific residence.
I'm thinking that weird code was scanned in before the envelopes were give to House of Commons staff to put in the mail, and then any returned envelopes will be rescanned so that Liberal Party mailing lists can be updated. That's just a supposition, but if it's true, add it to the cost of just sending out a flyer. Remember that all these actions are performed either by MP staffers or House of Commons personnel.
But back to Garth Turner on junk mail:
It is not the first time this has happened and, actually, the House of Commons right now is investigating several other instances of the Conservative info machine having strayed far into the integrity ditch. And one might ask: If this is a CPC spin document, then why isn’t the party paying for it? Why are you paying?
Good questions, Garth. Why isn't the Liberal Party paying for this mail campaign. The envelopes being used to deliver these anonymous flyers have no stamps and so are franked mail, meaning the House of Commons pays Canada Post for the delivery charges. Full charges, not bulk rates. Why am I paying for this?
But then maybe I'm not paying for this after all?
From the backgrounder for the Lost Tory Tour:
Is the Liberal Party behind this?
No, but the office of the party president and the leader have assisted with some details, such as coordinating local meeting notices.
Who is paying for this?
MP Turner and his wife Dorothy are using flights allocated in his existing office budget. Local volunteers are providing ground transportation. Most hotel rooms have been donated. Other costs will be paid personally by Turner. The goal is zero public cost.
Other costs will be paid personally by Turner.
So the cost of the franked mail campaign, which has yet to be revealed by Garth Turner, but was extensive enough to require the help of 15 Liberal MPs, will be picked up by Garth Turner personally? Will there be a scanned image of a cancelled cheque made out to the House of Commons appearing on Garth Turner's blog sometime in the future?
But we know that's not going to happen. From Garth Turner, another rider to the "other costs to be paid personally by Turner" promise:
John McCalum was one of 15 MPs from across the country who diverted local riding communications to support my tour effort. This was done so costs would be contained within existing MP budgets, with no new money spent letting people in these four provinces know of the Town Halls.
Now wait a second. Local riding communications support? The envelopes bear the House of Commons stamp on the back:
Why does Garth Turner say this comes out of individual MP budgets? My understanding is that the cost of franked mail is covered by the Board of Internal Economy, a committee chaired by the Speaker of the House. This committee administers a budget for services provided by Parliament:
The Parliament of Canada Act authorizes the Board of Internal Economy to make by-laws with regard to the use of funds, goods, services and premises provided to Members. The Members’ Manual of Allowances and Services, produced in accordance with the By-laws of the Board of Internal Economy, contains administrative guidelines on the availability and use of all the funds, goods, services and premises to which Members are entitled.
The House covers the cost of printing newsletters, commonly known as “householders”, sent by the Member to all constituents. Members have free mailing privileges to send out householders and other materials. These mailing privileges are often referred to as “franking” privileges. “Franking” is the process by which Members of the House of Commons, by affixing their signatures to an addressed piece of mail, may have that mail delivered postage-free anywhere in the country. It is available only for mail that is addressed to places in Canada and may not be used for parcels, special delivery or other special services offered by Canada Post. Mail addressed to Members of the House is also delivered free of charge if sent to a Parliamentary Hill address.
So the Board of Internal Economy foots the bill for mailing these things, not individual MPs. Notice that other costs, such as certain travel costs, are not covered, and those costs if initially covered by the Board of Internal Economy are then deducted from a Member's office budget. Franked mail is not one of those charges passed back to the MP's office according to the material I've studied.
So no MP's office budget was drawn down, if I understand how this works, by offering to help Garth Turner.
Right. So these dozens or hundreds or thousands of envelopes are being paid for by me after all. And through the general parliamentary budget, not by individual MP office budgets.
No MP's budget was harmed in the production of this tour.
Full first-class postage cost to deliver an anonymous cheap bulk flyer.
Just because the House of Commons will pay for something doesn't mean the money has to actually be spent. Just because the House of Commons will pay for something doesn't mean it is of no cost to me. If the cost of materials, labour, and postage comes out to $75,000 to send these flyers via franked mail, instead of $5,000 as a 10-percenter, then that is a $70,000 cost to the taxpayer being anonymously carried by the Board of Internal Economy, and not coming shared out by multiple MPs and their office budgets.
I'm asking the same question Garth Turner has asked. Why am I paying?
Addendum: Are we ever going to get a list of the 15 MPs who used their franking privileges to send out Garth's free flyer by first class mail?
Footnote: Lorraine asks about Garth Turner's readership:
I was just readiong on a Liberal Blog about Garth's me me me and I'm smarter than any "con" presentation in Victoria last night.
He claimed that he gets approximately 2 MILLION READERS PER MONTH on his blog!! Is this true?
Of course it's true because he said so, and he's not a liar. He might be confusing his terms, though.
First, Garth Turner keeps his metrics private. Garth Turner uses Google Analytics, as I do, and you need to log in with an account to see the data. I also run Sitemeter in public mode so people can look at the metrics if they like, imperfect as Sitemeter is. He does not. I also use AWStats which checks the actual server logs -- those numbers are rock solid.
Now consider this:
That is the data from compete.com. It shows that the entire website garth.ca (blog, old columns, everything) gets about the same traffic as I do. I know I served 994,000 pageviews to 26,000 unique visitors who came 76,000 times to my site in June (numbers from AWStats). According to compete.com, garth.ca got just about the same traffic as I did in June.
Clearly that's not right.
Note that compete.com does not report the correct number for either of our sites because it depends on the user having a browser plugin to track the visit. So let's some small unknown fraction of the visitors have that compete.com plugin. I don't need to know that fraction because given that our subject matter is the same, I'm going to assume that are readership is relatively identical when it comes to how loaded up their browsers are with plugins. That means same fraction of readership visiting each of our sites has that plugin. Since compete.com is showing the same traffic, I just read off my traffic from my visitor tracking tool and apply the same number to garth.ca.
And that does not give me two million visitors.
I'm not sure what I did wrong, because randomized testing (the technique I'm using the drive these assumptions) is a well proven methodology.
Maybe he gets more page views than I do, and so he offers more pages to the same number of visitors. If I doubled my pageviews by getting people to click twice as often, I could get two million. Perhaps Garth Turner is confusing pageviews with visitors. It's an easy mistake to make. Or maybe my comparison is fundamentally broken, and he really does get two million visitors.
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Comments
Because of his self professed "magnificence" he will probably feel that this type of scrutiny is beneath him...and his staff. Again, he cries foul when others do it, but its ok for him to do it.
This really isnt the same situation. The other items sent were 10%'ers. Bulk mail, non addressed. Garth has taken that excuse but hes incorrect since HIS stuff was personally addressed mail.
Now Garth has been accused of being many things over his years in politics, but STUPID isnt one of them. This is stupid.
Posted by: Garth will never answer these questions at September 7, 2007 10:02 AM
Because of his self professed "magnificence" he will probably feel that this type of scrutiny is beneath him...and his staff. Again, he cries foul when others do it, but its ok for him to do it.
This really isnt the same situation. The other items sent were 10%'ers. Bulk mail, non addressed. Garth has taken that excuse but hes incorrect since HIS stuff was personally addressed mail.
Now Garth has been accused of being many things over his years in politics, but STUPID isnt one of them. This is stupid.
Posted by: at September 7, 2007 10:04 AM
Garth bitched and whined about 10%'ers being used in HIS riding, but hes taken that a step further and using House of Commons staff and letters with "15 liberal MP's" who "helped" him promote his western tour.
Way back when Garth was a candidate in Halton for the CPC party he complained that Gary Carr, former Halton MP was using HOC budgets to send out "partisan" information to voters, and now hes done the same thing but on a higher scale and involved other MP's. When he was a candidate he chastised Gary Carr calling him a hypocritical floor crosser regarding his switch (he didnt switch parties while elected) saying it was wrong, and went ahead and did the same thing. Garth lives by the moto, dont do the wrong thing...let ME do it, and it will be alright then.
Garths claims of no additional cost to taxpayers is looking about as good as Bre-Ex stocks making a comeback finding gold near the escarpment in Halton.
Posted by: Even more at September 7, 2007 10:14 AM
A little tidbit I've learned about Mr.Turner's constituency operations is that not only have they perfected the art of pushing his franking mail to the maximum they can (and beyond) but they even have a pile of returned by sender franked mail that they refer to as "Franks to be Spanked".
Posted by: Paul M at September 7, 2007 10:33 AM
NAMES ... I WANT MP NAMES ... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Observer at September 7, 2007 10:49 AM
I was just readiong on a Liberal Blog about Garth's me me me and I'm smarter than any "con" presentation in Victoria last night.
He claimed that he gets approximately 2 MILLION READERS PER MONTH on his blog!! Is this true?
He went on to say that his millions of fans from the Blog are the reason he did the tour. They pleaded for his exalted in person presence I guess.
Gosh - if all 308 MPs pilfered $100,000 or more from taxpayers in expences to cross Canada into OTHER PEOPLE'S RIDINGS just imagine how democratic that could be!!!
Posted by: Lorraine at September 7, 2007 10:56 AM
Garth bitched and whined about 10%'ers being used in HIS riding, but hes taken that a step further and using House of Commons staff and letters with "15 liberal MP's" who "helped" him promote his western tour.
Sigh! Garth "Do as I say and not as I do" Turner strikes again.
Posted by: Brian in Calgary at September 7, 2007 12:17 PM
I’ve speaking on these issues since May and I know there may be some income trust investors here and I want you to know there are no rules to this meeting, it is an open meeting. I want to hear about the issues that have brought you here, have a dialogue and listen to you.
As you know the Conservative government has suspended resumption of parliament and they are clearly not ready to face us yet. The upcoming Con throne speech will be followed by a confidence vote and if the government falls on the vote, we could be into an election by the end of November.
This tour actually started on the Internet. I am a blogger and I get about 2 million readers a month and many invites from across Canada to talk about issues. I want you to know I am a high tech guy that’s about to give a low- tech presentation (overheads and a mike).
Lots of issues are surfacing around the Globe right now. Afghanistan is blowing up and our soldiers are dying. The environment is a huge issue right now and the arctic is melting rapidly . Only just this week, 2 hurricanes hit land on the same day. Lots of people are worried about the Security Prosperity Partnership and deeper integration with the US. We live in a world where it is OK to give 12 million dollars to a dog.
Sure I ran as a Con and when the Con alliance merged with the PC I thought we had a great new mainstream party. Then Harper did something many people didn’t like. He put Emerson into cabinet. Not a good idea. In the end, the Cons didn’t like my blog much or my suggestions and the party whip lowered the boom and I was kicked out of caucus. The official story was I was kicked out because I breached confidentiality, which wasn’t true at all. Now I was a guy without a caucus and an independent member of parliament. I tried the independent route, but it is difficult to participate as an independent, our government system is really a party system based on party politics.
The Green Party wanted me to be their first Green MP and I truly believe Elizabeth should be in parliament. I plan to go to Nova Scotia to campaign for her during the next election. However, in the end, the Green Party was not right for me or my constituents. I met with Stephane Dion and came to believe in his desire for social justice, and economic growth.
The main difference between the Libs and the Cons was the Libs wanted me. The Cons compare me with Emerson and if that’s how desperate they are they can go ahead and make it up. Now I am convinced I am in the right place.
Nove Scotia MP Bill Casey was also thrown out of the Conservative caucus when he would not agree to vote for the budget bill on the Atlantic Accord. He stood up for what’s right for his constituents and he got kicked out for it.
Harper doesn’t even trust his MP’s to be in the same room with reporters. The PM now has an image problem and he is seen as a politician of negativity. The Cons spent a multi-million dollar ad campaign on attacking Dion and then his dog Kyoto. I know that many people don’t like it when you attack their dog. In the end, Kyoto has turned out to be a giant monster for Harper and Baird.
Have you ever noticed when comparing pictures of a smiling John Baird and attack dog John Baird they look remarkably the same? Then there is Flaherty. I’ve been disappointed in Flaherty. He has used your money to buy votes. Moreover, he did something you would never expect from a Conservative, when he actually raised our income taxes. It’s true, we are all paying 3 billion more now in income taxes than before the Cons took office. Flaherty even tried to implement a new tax on corporate expansion but in the end he was forced to back down. The federal surplus is going down to 0% with no contingency at all and according to the Vancouver Board of Trade this earns the Cons a big fat D on spending.
Interest rates are rising, Bay Street economists are not happy and the dollar has gone up exponentially. The economy is at risk. We are starting to see erosion in real estate markets across the country. We are concerned about high dollar policy, export losses and a tide of takeovers, including the last remaining Canadian steal maker, Stelco. Income Tax betrayal has made me very disappointed with Flaherty. In the spring, Flaherty asked people to vote on his website on how they would benefit from his budget. When 90% responded by voting that it wouldn’t benefit them, instead of changing the budget he just took the poll down.
For those who may have been Income Trust investors, there are 2 million seniors affected by the Con’s deception. You don’t want to hit seniors because when seniors are affected financially there is not as much time for catch-up. We have a serious problem with the demographics and the problem erased the savings of seniors who will soon retire.
32% or 9 million of the current Canadian population are my age 50+. We are living longer and we use more resources. According to Statistics Canada, in only a few years ½ of all Canadians will be over the age of 40. Our current savings rate is 0%. The average RRSP owner has about $40,0000 saved. If you’re 46 years old and only have $46,000 in an RRSP….well you’re in real trouble Real estate is where 83% of our assets are. We see the shiny freedom 65, but it’s more like freedom 95. Our new “never pay them off mortgages” can be as long as 50 years.
We all have been affected by the Cons inability to understand income trust tax. Markets took a dive. Initial public offerings have gone down 80% with negative consequences. Jim Flaherty used Bell and they were not able convert to an income trust. Instead Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) became private and taken over by pension plans. Guess how much tax pension plans pay? 0%. Today BCE will not pay 820 million in taxes to Canadians instead we now get zero dollars in tax revenue from BCE.
Fortunately the Liberals have announced through this news release, a plan that would help restore some of these losses. We believe about 2/3 of the lost value would be restored by this measure and this is a policy of Stephane Dion.
Our global markets are in turmoil. A big time credit crunch has appeared in the US. The US had a real estate market like ours, rising as much as 30% a year, and they lent out money like crazy to finance it all. Who cared if you didn’t have the money to borrow? You borrowed money and still made money. Unfortunately, today it’s all falling like a stone. Our banks are implicated too and the housing slump is not over. President Bush had to agree to provide 11.5 billion dollars in loans to help the market survive for one week. That puts US taxpayers on the hook. The real estate marked is taking a dive and foreclosures are going up and prices go down. Home depot, Walmart, etc are hit as the problem moves over into the consumer economy. Interest rates are up and home equity is down.
What about Canada? Will we be affected? Here in Victoria we seem insulated. We have some of the highest priced real estate in Canada. It really seems like we are not affected so we keep buying at a frenetic pace. But we need to consider that when we are looking at a much slower economy, it affects the job market. I think there will be a recession in the US. Last Friday the US president pleaded with 1.4 millions Americans not to give the keys back to their homes stating the US government will help you. When you see a US president pleading like that you know there is a big problem.
General Motors just laid off 1200 last Friday in Ontario. These are high paying manufacturing jobs that won’t come back again. We should all be aware of what’s going on, but its hard to understand when a major bridge, in a major US city falls into the water in the richest country in the world. How can a bridge fall down? Maybe the US has this problem because they are spending 200 billion a year on the Iraq war. They have serious problems. Should Canada be trying to get closer to this? No. We should not be putting all our economic eggs into one basket. We need to develop closer ties to China, Germany, etc. A cooling economy dampens demand and energy prices will drop. This is happening already.
What is the Harper doing about all of these problems? Nothing. He responds by shuffling cabinet ministers over here from over there. Don’t expect changes in current policy, nothing is going to change. Shuffling cabinet ministers around is not going to change anything.
I am pleased to be part of Stephane Dion’s team because we plan to help retirees instead of stealing their retirement savings. We don’t want young people to have to choose between buying a home and having a family. We need a government that speaks to us. That is why I am proud to be a Liberal.
Posted by: Transcript of Garths Opening In Victoria at September 7, 2007 01:11 PM
We should not be putting all our economic eggs into one basket. We need to develop closer ties to China, Germany, etc. A cooling economy dampens demand and energy prices will drop. This is happening already. - Garth
Excuse me? Did he just SAY we should not be putting all our economic eggs into one basket??? Do you think all those people who lost "everything" in Income Trusts shouldve been thinking that before they DID put all their economic eggs into one basket?
We should get closer to China? Um, Garth, HUMAN RIGHTS???? LEAD IN PAINT???? WORST ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD OF ALL NATIONS??? and we should get CLOSER to them?
Oh ya, this is coming from the dude who said investors should hold onto Nortel stock then berated them when they did listen to his advice and lost millions by telling them they shouldve got investment advice.
Well they should have, but not from this english major or whatever degree he got...surely wasnt a finance oriented degree, which of course is no precursor to good investment advice (tounge in cheek)
Posted by: Want to know whats funny about that? at September 7, 2007 01:16 PM
Garth's University degrees are in ENGLISH LITERATURE.
Surely that should qualify him to be the self professed investment guru.
Et tu Brutus?
Posted by: Lorraine at September 7, 2007 01:28 PM
Well I certainly would not call my post on his presentation a transcript. I don't record it and then transcribe it exactly. I write notes as fast as I can when politicians speak but some is always lost and some is interpretation and perspective. What stands out for me might not stand out for someone else. I used the economic eggs reference because I lost his exact words on it. I did get "should be be trying to get closer to this? No" and then their was a reference to the other countries and diversification. Perhaps I should have used diversification instead of eggs in baskets. But please I am not an economist either I am just a blogger who likes politics who was up until 2 this morning trying to get it out in a reasonable time period. I will change it anyways. The 2 million readers he did say. I can't comment on the accuracy of it.
Posted by: Woman at Mile 0 at September 7, 2007 03:26 PM
Now I'm convinced that Garthicle is more full of BS than his adopted political cabal. Not only Is Turner, NOT a financial "expert", ( I think he got a BA in English lit or something) but there is about as much chance of a confidence vote as there is of gold bullion dropping from Garths butt to pay back the Adscam cash stolen by the LPC.
A fall election would decimate the LPC and at the best put them back as opposition....and their spinners know it....besides they're broke.
Turner...looking forward to your "open form" in Calgary...while you whine to the ignorant about trust fund tax, maybe you can explain all the offshore investment taxes the LPC levied and why many of their commissars and patrons escape these taxes...or the incremental capital gains creep under LPC. The Liberals have a lot to hide when it comes to taxing private investment...anyone who has managed their own portfolio knows where the LPC skeletons are hidden.
Posted by: WL Mackenzie Redux at September 9, 2007 09:04 AM
I read the so called "information: in Garty-poos we rant and that which isn't manipulative hysteria and fear mongering are Librano talking points...same LPC fearmongering repackaged as "information"....the one item that is starkly Librano crime family (Powecor) policy is the urging to get closer trade/economic ties to China...this is the core directive of the Desmarais/Powercor/LPC racketeering cabal.
Garth: every penny sent to China kills a job here!...get bent you Liberal racketeering skank...what are they promising you to push the China agenda? Hope to get on the Powercor board?...you skank!
Posted by: Bill in Calgary at September 9, 2007 09:16 AM
 
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