Political fur flies over Tories' taxpayer-financed 'hate-mail'

NDP and Liberals call Tories' political flyers 'bold-faced lies.' And the Tories say the Grits are hypocrites as the House Affairs Committee digs into the issue.

Attack flyers sent to opposition ridings under the names of Conservative backbenchers and Cabinet ministers are leading to a bitter confrontation over the hardball tactics of Tory backroomers.

NDP MP Peter Stoffer (Sackville-Eastern Shore, N.S.) will find out this week whether government aides who drafted false claims over his stand on the federal gun registry and circulated them in his riding will be summoned to the Procedure and...

By Gabby in QC

As noted by Hollinm, these flyers would save the government some money if they were eliminated. I agree with eliminating them. MPs should communicate with their own constituents only, solely about constituency events or issues. However, regarding the flyer sent to Mr. Cotler's riding, the part that was considered most offensive is "willingly participated." That phrase is open to two different interpretations. It can be interpreted as the Liberals agreeing to attend the Durban conference despite the fact it was likely to degenerate into an anti-Semitic event, OR the phrase can be read as the Liberals espousing the same views as were expressed at Durban. Obviously, the former is what the flyer said, although it was poorly phrased. Even though I find the wording questionable, IMO the Liberals' outrage is equally questionable, since their rhetorical excesses are in evidence daily during QP. Aren't accusations of the PM "sabotaging" climate change talks equally outrageous? Aren't accusations that the PM considers women as "a fringe group" just as outrageous? Aren't claims that Canadians are now ashamed to wear their flag on their backpacks reprehensible? And what about the flyer about body bags instead of vaccines sent to isolated communities? Aren't all those smears just as reprehensible? Perhaps there should be a system of heavy fines imposed whenever an individual MP or a party oversteps the boundaries of rhetorical flourishes, paid for by the guilty individual or the party - definitely not the taxpayer. That may help everyone on the Hill mind his/her Ps and Qs.

By hollinm

I receive these "flyers" from the opposition parties all the time where they misrepresent the facts and the record of the government. I simply throw them out. However, by drawing attention to them the opposition parties are hurting their own cause. As far as I am concerned eliminate them entirely. However, it is the opposition parties that need to get out their messeage. By eliminating them it removes what I would think is a valuable tool in getting their message out to the public. However, it would save taxpayers $10 million a year and that is a good thing.