Not thinking about who sent franked mail for Garth Turner
Since I can't figure out who the 15 Liberal MPs who helped Garth Turner with his franked mail campaign, I'll have to think about something else. Something completely unrelated.
In my last several posts, I've been considering the mail sent ahead of Garth Turner's speaking tour. Here's what we know.
- The mail cames from 16 different MPs, including Garth Turner.
- These MPs sent mail, in envelopes, directly to specific addresses, addressed by family name.
- The envelope contained information about where Garth Turner would be speaking.
What is interesting is that enclosed in these envelopes are flyers. Flyers being delivered at full cost, like first class mail, with the cost being borne by the House of Commons, and by that, I mean by you and me.
Mail that has an MP's name on it and is delivered for free to and from the Parliament Hill is called franked mail.
These MPs have taken the time and trouble to send this franked mail to specific households, the contents consist of a single anonymous flyer. It announces when and where Garth Turner would be speaking after denouncing Jim Flaherty.
Flyers like these can be delivered under a different category. As a "10 percenter", Canada Post will deliver them at one-tenth the cost of franked mail, treating it as bulk mail. Now Garth Turner was very insistent that this tour would not cost the taxpayer anything. In the face of that promise, however, he and his fellow Liberal MPs have used the most expensive option open to them to deliver these flyers.
Well, most expensive to the taxpayer. Sending franked mail costs the Liberal Party nothing, nor are the costs deducted from the individual MPs' budgets.
So who are these MPs? We know the identity of two of them: John McCallum and Massimo Pacetti.
But Garth Turner has declined to identify the others.
So I'm going to table that question for now. Not thinking about. Nope.
Instead, I'm going to consider something completely different.
Did you know that Massimo Pacetti is the Vice Chair of the Standing Committee of Finance?
Did you know that John McCallum is a full member of the Standing Committee of Finance?
Did you know that there are exactly fifteen additional Liberal Party members and associate members of the Standing Committee of Finance?
- John McKay
- Robert Thibault
- Ruby Dhalla
- Michael Ignatieff
- Yasmin Ratansi
- Anthony Rota
- Judy Sgro
- Mario Silva
- Belinda Stronach
- Paul Szabo
- Maurizio Bevilacqua
- Roy Cullen
- Brent St Denis
- Lui Temelkovski
- Joe Volpe
Garth Turner is not a member nor an associate member of the Standing Committee of Finance. But before he was kicked out of the Conservative Party, Garth Turner was a full member of the Finance Committee. He served on that committee along with Massimo Pacetti and John McCallum. All three started serving on the committee in April 2006 (Turner as a Conservative and Pacetti and McCallum as Liberals). Garth Turner lost his spot on the Finance Committee when he was ejected from the Conservative caucus and sat as an independent, but after Turner joined the Liberal Party, Stephane Dion assigned Garth Turner to the Government Operations and Estimates Committee. Pacetti sits as an associate member on that committee.
Did you know the Finance Committee deals with questions such as income trusts? Did you know that when the Finance Committee delivered a report on the taxation announcement, the Liberal Party members, as a group, delivered a dissenting opinion?
I found that very interesting.
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Comments
Steve - someone asked Garth on his blog to name the Liberal MPs who helped fund his mailers and Garth response was :
HE DID NOT KNOW!!!!
So Garth claims there are 15 Liberal MPs helping him with this tour but he does not know WHO they are????
Just anonymously helping out the poor Lost Tory promote himself across the country out of the goodness of their anonymous little hearts.
Until, I guess, the bills start coming in for the taxpayer to cover the costs.
Too funny.
Posted by: Lorraine at September 7, 2007 09:32 PM
Thanks for being on this story, Angry. I'm from Regina and just today received one of the franked fliers, this one bearing the name of Brent St Denis, MP (Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing). Interesting, no? SO I get full-cost, franked from an MP two time zones away for another MP, from still farther away. To add insult to injury--or irony--the event happened two days ago.... Hope Garth had a good turn-out.;) Incidentally, my local MP is a Tory. THis seems to me a story we should get someone in the MSM on to...
All the best.
Posted by: D M DeCoste at September 7, 2007 09:41 PM
Who is sponsoring this tour?
MP Turner is traveling to communities in response to local invitations, from local Liberal MPs, candidates, or readers of his blog. There is no sponsoring or umbrella group.
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.I guess we can ask Stephane Dion just how much was spent sending franked mail stuff with cheap anonymous flyers, using taxpayer cash to promote a private trip.
Posted by: Steve Janke at September 7, 2007 09:52 PM
Brent St Denis? Hey, he's on my list of MPs utterly unrelated to my consideration of who might be sending franked mail for Garth Turner.
What a coincidence.
Posted by: Steve Janke at September 7, 2007 10:10 PM
You're a genius Steve!
Posted by: Paul M at September 7, 2007 10:20 PM
Damn good job, Steve!
Thanks for that. I am gonna go to Ruby's office and ask her a question about it.
Posted by: zilla at September 7, 2007 10:40 PM
If I understand correctly, when Garth Turner says that his "Troubled Turner Tour" won't "cost" taxpayers anything, he means that the associated expenses won't exceed the MP budget limits set for himself and his Liberal MP cohorts?
Even Turner should know that money allocated in a budget is not actually spent until it's spent.
Since John McCallum is a renowned economist, as one apparent sponsor of the Garth's westward pilgrimage, perhaps he could explain this simple fact to Garth, who has apparently forgotten from his previous career as a financial advisor that budgets and actual expenses are two different things.
Posted by: aek at September 7, 2007 10:54 PM
Garth had also claimed that the Liberal Party was not in any way involved in this tour. It was his own initiative.
AND, that CAITI, the Income Trust investors groups were not involved except as interested members of the disgruntled public that he is seeking to save from the evil Conservatives.
However, members of this very vocal LOBBY group is working on the ground to make the arrangements for Garth's meeting halls, lodging etc. I don't think it is a stretch that Garth is a front for the IT lobby groups and taking "donations" of goods and services from them.
His claim that "local Liberal MPs" is also a stretch as he is going to NON LIBERAL ridings. If there was a Liberal in the riding why would they not hold their own open houses in their own ridings like my local Conservative MP does?
I get the feeling that Garth thinks just representing one little old riding (Halton) is sooo beneath him. He wants the whole country.
He ran for leadership of the old PC party and lost to Kim Campbell. He sees himself as a leader and that is why he is not a team player. However, it looks like the Liberal "team" is behind him on this one - at least their taxpayer allocated budgets are, whether they know it or not.
I wonder if those MPs whose name is on the franked mailings even know about this since these are paid for by the House of Commons,
Imagine, if a Conservative MP did any of this???? You would see front page headlines and have hysterical Liberals screeching about fraud and misuse of funds and the media giving them all the ink they wanted.
Good job Steve.
Posted by: Lorraine at September 7, 2007 11:17 PM
What the hell is this Western flit all about? Is it about IT's ? Is it about trying to sell Dion to the West in intelligible English? Is it to slag the Harper government? OR is it all about Garth feeding his insatiable ego?
Whatever, it's a total waste of somebody's money.
Bottom line, why should we even give a toss? He's no asset to any party, he's a loose cannon.
Posted by: Libby at September 8, 2007 06:46 PM
A reader in Winnipeg got a flyer delivered in an envelope from John McKay. Interesting that John McKay is on that list. Coincidences, eh?
Posted by: Steve Janke at September 8, 2007 10:58 PM
Hey,Garth doesn't like me.Damn. Mr.Honest Straight Shooter wants to know if it would be better if he responded in crayon. I would prefer if he answered,crayon or sanskrit.I can get childish insults without the bother of hunting and pecking.Garth,you weasel,we know that you are reading this,,so,how much?You can run but you can't hide,FRANKly because of the thousands and thousands of OUR money that you spent to tell us where you will be.Cheers,see you on the 12th on the 7th.
Posted by: GruntledPostie at September 8, 2007 11:22 PM
That's right, this has all the earmarks of a private trip with wife along making it a nice swing through the West while still satisfying his ego with a few meetings. If I lived in Halton and had a regular backbencher in a Party I didn't elect him under swanning off to places he doesn't represent with unknown funding, I'd be demanding he resign.
So far, no word from Halton.
Posted by: Libby at September 9, 2007 10:33 AM
 
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