Angry in the Great White North

Jon C Coates is very concerned.  He is a senior living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he says he would get hurt badly by Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion's carbon tax:

When a politician’s lips move, I know he’s probably lying. Mr. Dion says his carbon tax will be revenue neutral. So, I went online and found a carbon calculator and keyed in the annual energy consumption for our household and learned we produce 17 toms of greenhouse gas. Fully 60% of this usage is for electricity which we use to heat our home.

I have already improved insulation in my walls and replaced my windows and doors; use the new “twirley” lights and ensured that my appliances are all Energy Star products. In the past 20 years, these measures reduced my electricity usage from 24,000 KW hours per year to 16,000 KW hours per year last year. What is my reward for this improved efficiency? My power bill is unchanged from what it was 20 years ago. But, my power bill would attract a carbon tax of $104 in year one of Mr. Dion’s plan and $416 in year four. My power bill would rise from $166 per month to $210 per month in year four.

Since I live on a fixed income consisting of CCP and Old Age Security, my income tax bill runs at less than $200 per year. So, for my household, Mr. Dion’s revenue neutral carbon tax will cost me $416 per year, less income tax reductions of about $10 per year.

Revenue neutral? In a pig’s eye! This is a tax on seniors living on fixed incomes. Well, Mr. Dion, you haven’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of ever getting my vote. I hope everyone else takes five minutes to run the same calculations I did and vote to send this joker to the political bone yard.

Jon C. Coates

Well, Garth Turner leaps to Stephane Dion's defense.

First off, Jon C Coates lives in a mansion, or in the shadow of mansions:

In the south end of Halifax, just up from the rotary where poor drivers from Ontario get befuddled, the Herring Cove Road peels off on its way to Peggy’s Cove. Two streets in, is Jon Coates’ house. Maybe.

It’s a decent neighbourhood, just blocks away from Halifax’s millionaires row, on the high ground overlooking the water and the basin where yachts bob at their moorings.

Furthermore, Jon C Coates is rich:

We have the thousands and thousands of dollars in improvements to a single family home on the income of a man making, what?, $12,000 a year in government benefits. There’s the issue of his wife, presumably adding to the household income by way of pension, but not recorded in the letter. There are the all-new, energy-saving appliances. Where did they come from?

Jon C Coates is probably a Conservative Party fiction, a lie manufactured to embarrass Stephane Dion:

I’d like to tell him that. But I don’t think Mr. Coates exists. If he does, he doesn’t realize he has a wife living with him, and wonders who the hell bought those shiny appliances, cracked his walls to install installation, put in the snazzy windows and slapped on the snug doors.

Jon C Coates is a lie, or a liar.  And we've all been lied to:

Welcome to the new politics, folks. You’ve been had.

The new politics seems to be to call people liars before speaking to them.  Garth Turner tried to get in touch with Jon Coates but only spoke to his wife.  Then Garth Turner went ahead and posted his piece in which he states that he doesn't believe Jon C Coates is a real person. 

Even after talking to Jon Coates' wife!

Perhaps Garth Turner thought he was talking to a Conservative Party secretary somewhere in Halifax, who is on orders to pretend to be the wife of the fictional "Jon C Coates".

I called Jon C Coates this morning.  He answered immediately, and we had a long chat.  Here is what I learned:

• Jon is very annoyed at Garth Turner for painting Jon to be a liar without waiting for Jon to return Turner's first call.
• Jon's house was built as part of a low-cost housing project.  Garth Turner seems to have his Halifax geography mixed up.  Jon's modest house in Cowie Hill borders on Spryfield, in an economically depressed area of Halifax.  My wife's grandmother lives not too far away.  I know the area because I visited her just two weeks ago when I was in Halifax on business.  No mansions that I noticed.  This riding, Halifax, is currently represented by Alexa McDonough of the NDP.  No Liberal candidate has been named as far as I know.
• Jon's house, in which he has lived for over twenty years, is paid for, and is worth $150k.  It is a sign of a family who managed their affairs responsibly despite a lot of hardship.
• Hardship?  Jon is on long term disability.  He's had several heart attacks over the years, and has been living on a pension for quite some time.
• Jon is not rich.  He and his wife found a way to save money by scrimping and economizing.  That is how they afforded home improvements.  And for all that effort, they stand to be penalized by a carbon tax.
• His wife contributes about $700 a month to the household income from CPP.  Another $500 comes from OAS.  Jon's contribution is about the same.  Hardly filthy rich.
• Jon is not a member of the Conservative Party.  Ages ago, he gave all of $100 to the Progressive Conservatives, but tore up his card over an asylum controversy during the Mulroney years.
• Garth Turner asked about the size of Jon's investment portfolio.  There isn't one.
• Garth Turner asserted that Nova Scotia Power is not going to be allowed to pass the cost of the carbon tax to consumers.  This is news to both of us.  Perhaps Garth Turner plans to update the Liberal pamphlet, or announce a Liberal Party promise to regulate billing by power utilities from Ottawa.
  • From Jon: "The only thing standing between Nova Scotia Power and a rate increase is the Utilities and Review Board.  This is protection in name only because the game gets played like this.  NS Power wants a 7% increase so they apply for a 15% increase.  The UARB 'protects' the public by granting a 7% increase.  If the cost of carbon goes up by $10 per ton per year over the first four years, there will probably be four annual rate hike requests -- much inflated -- having the effect of passing all of this cost on to the consumer."
• Though Jon is married and his wife does get a very modest pension, he maintains that his calculations are quite correct for a man or woman in his situation living alone.  At this stage in his life, there are plenty of people living alone, their spouses having passed on.  His concern is for them as well as for himself.

Of course, I fell for it.  I believed the "Jon C Coates" who was speaking to me on the phone.  I don't have Garth Turner's ability to see through this maudlin pile of lies and half-truths...

Uh...wait a second...perhaps there is the smallest grain of truth to this whole "Jon C Coates" mirage cooked up by the PMO...

Apparently Garth Turner will be providing an update:

Update: Had a long conversation with Jon Coates Monday morning. As usual, things are not as they first appear. I will be updating the post below within a few hours, correcting some inaccuracies, filling in some blanks and bringing you an interesting tale. — Garth

Things are not as they first appear?  As usual?

Really?  If things usually aren't as they first appear, you might think Garth Turner would know to hold off on constructing elaborate conspiracy theories of fictional letter writers.  Since apparently this is usually not the case.

This should be interesting.  I wonder what Garth Turner can possibly say that will not only stand as a sufficient apology for calling Jon Coates a lie or a liar, but also sway him to vote for the Liberals.

Not just Jon Coates, of course, but all the people who are reading his letter (which is being reprinted nationally) and who might be learning now about how Stephane Dion's communications guru called him a liar for daring to criticize the carbon tax.

Yes, how to win friends and influence people...

Jon Coates Speaks: Jon submitted this comment on Garth Turner's blog, and sent me a copy.  To be sure it is seen, I'll post it here.

First, my name is Jon Coates. I do, in fact, exist and have a life independent of the PMO. I’m about as apolitical as it is possible for an average Canadian to be, having voted for almost every political party over the years.

I found it very interesting that Garth would write a whole column about me before he took the trouble to talk to me. Imagine my surprise when I spoke to the man this morning and then, using the web address he provided me, discovered that he had written a column about me in which he stated that he thought I might not exist. This is not what I would call fair or informed reporting - more like gossip.

It’ll be interesting to see what sort of spin gets put on Mr. Turner’s follow up column now that he’s taken the trouble to burden himself with some of the facts I provided him.
If fairness prevailed, the Liberal Green Shift site would include a carbon calculator so people might get an idea of how much in increased costs they could expect. That would be full disclosure.

By the way, Cowie Hill, the place where I live was originally built as a low cost housing project - it is not on millionaire’s row in south end Halifax.

I did my calculations based on myself alone and not on the three people living in my house. Later I found the Green Shift site and ran the calcs using the three people in our household and we still come out worse off than we would be without this tax.

Contrary to Garth’s calculations, when you plan for old age, you spend a few years getting your affairs in order - this includes buying appliances which will hopefully last the rest of your life, replacing defective windows and doors and using twirley lights. That is not an indication of wealth, that’s an indication of careful and fearful planning.

Oh, by the way, our good long distance telephone plan is called Wintel: costs $7.95 per month plus 25cents per call.

Who's been had?  Garth Turner ended his original post on this note:

But I don’t think Mr. Coates exists. If he does, he doesn’t realize he has a wife living with him, and wonders who the hell bought those shiny appliances, cracked his walls to install installation, put in the snazzy windows and slapped on the snug doors.

Welcome to the new politics, folks. You’ve been had.

While Garth Turner prepares his promised "update", I'd like to discuss who has been fooled by this.  Look at the comments from Garth Turner's readers.  All these people believed Garth Turner implicitly, and called Jon Coates a liar, and the accused the Conservatives of playing dirty tricks.  Thanks to Garth Turner, they're all wrong:

Sick the press on this guy, cameras, big lights, lots of sound equipment, coffees and doughnuts for everyone and open line to the Conservative Tree House (situation room) to ask what they know.

By AToryNoMore on 08.10.08 10:01 pm

I love it.

By Straighttohell on 08.10.08 10:07 pm

I defer entirely to Charles Oxley on this one.

“Nothing, I just lie there.”

By PYOTR PETROBITCH on 08.10.08 10:18 pm

Well done. I saw his letter and a couple of others too.

New politics? In this country maybe but don’t we have a great example of lies from our friends just below the belt, sorry, border?

It’s time to call this nonsense out and pick it apart.

By knb on 08.10.08 10:25 pm

Another fine example of the Harpo Clown Parties’ bag of lies and schemes to smear or kill the political messenger that dares to expose their CRAPPY nastiness!

The CON Carbon plan will break those on fixed income and drive even more people to the streets-just COMPARE them?

By Calberta on 08.10.08 10:34 pm

Bingo! Another case of CRAP royally shooting itself in the foot. I’m surprised they’re still shooting, as it should be a clear-cut case of Death By Stupidity.

If at all possible, Esther + volunteers can collect all these gems of wisdom from CRAP screw-ups, have copies made for all Lib. MPs so when the election is called, show voters what CRAP has done and then tell them what the Libs. offer.

By Charles Oxley on 08.10.08 10:59 pm

What a crock! I hope the press go knocking on his door and make the public aware.A typical example of the bumbling tories trying to make a point thru lies and corruption.A new national holiday should be declared the day we get rid of this bunch of incompetent,bumbling,corrupt idiots!

By john on 08.10.08 11:10 pm

Perhaps Mr. Coates is on a “fixed” monthly incomes from government pensions. Perhaps what he neglects to mention are the sizeable investments that he can use to augment his “fixed” income.

Seniors who are truly on a fixed CPP and OAS have probably sold their home and moved into an affordable rental.

And they are lauding Mr. Dion’s $600. supplement.

By Judy on 08.10.08 11:34 pm

Thanks for the sleuthing Garth. Much appreciated.

By Molly on 08.10.08 11:51 pm

Alright. MSM should park on this guys doorstep.

Ask him to take a lie detector test.

Have someone use the ‘Greenshift’ calculator using his numbers.

This is such a crock of shit I am almost speechless.

Come on Coates be a man.

Paid shill.

By Men With Hats on 08.11.08 12:07 am

This is a really interesting post.

Advertisers/marketers have been doing this sort of thing for a while. Quoting lines from a letter that a consumer never wrote in order to extol the virtues of a particular product.

Letter to editor? Haven’t print media been caught fabricating letters?

Ignoring the ‘math’ for a moment, I would like to know if he really did write the letter or if his name was used?? You have piqued my curiosity Sir.

By Dee on 08.11.08 12:25 am

Really how dumb do CONS think the voter is? Can’t they at least come up with credible lies for once?

By Emilie on 08.11.08 1:01 am

Sounds like one of those “not illegal, who cares about ethics” schemes the children at conservative.ca likes to come up with. Write a fake letter, get it chain mailed and blogged about, and let the word spread. A fitting tactic for this ‘win at any cost’(to the environment, to the budget, …etc) government Harper is running.

By Joe T on 08.11.08 4:42 am

Well that’s embarrassing.

By Liz on 08.11.08 5:28 am

Well done again Garth! Stick the facts and call out these lies and inaccuracies. As the election looms closer we can expect more of this kind of action from neoCon bobbleheads… spreading misinformation and outright lies.

Why not start a web site where each of these things can be challenged and documented on a factual basis. And, let’s take it one step further - why not trace individual addresses down etc. take some pictures and reveal the ‘truth’. Chances are your little rodent friend may be behind some of this nonsense.

By TS on 08.11.08 5:58 am

Each of these people bought Garth Turner's line that Jon C Coates was a fiction (or at the very least, a liar).  Garth Turner will have to answer to each of them.

There was one more comment of interest:

Hmmmm…..I wonder if sleuth Janke will get on this one - don’t hold your breath.

Perhaps this guy is a financially comfortable friend of the MacKay family…well, you never know.

By TS on 08.11.08 5:58 am

Yes, TS, Janke got on this one.  You can start breathing now.  Why don't you demand more reliable information from Stephane Dion's communications guru?

The bottom line is that if anyone has been fooled, it's been those Liberals who spend so much time on Garth Turner's blog, telling him how great he is.  I can only imagine the disappointment.