Power of incumbency

One of the advantages of incumbency is the ability to get your message across. MPs can mail a letter every month to 10% of the households in their riding, which means in the course of the year all homes receive letters. They are printed free of charge by the House of Commons. They’re mailed free by the House.

By way of comparison, our campaign is planning to send correspondence to all the homes in Halton in a few weeks, and for that we have to budget at least $15,000. If the writ is dropped before the mailing, then this amount of money comes out of the global budget we are able to spend in a campaign, which is roughly $75,000, seriously reducing our ability to fund signs, a campaign office, phones, computers, canvass materials and cover all other expenses.

So, by using his free “ten-percenter,” plus the “householders” he can send to every home several times a year, plus his government-funded web site, and his free personal mailings, upon which there are no limits, the Liberal MP can become a communications machine, without spending a single dime of his campaign funds.

It is called the power of incumbency. It skews the entire political system to maintaining the status quo. And any MP who does not use every resource at his or her disposal is a fool.

But, this power does not mean squat when a sitting member can’t tell the difference between effectively communicating, and trying to trick and deceive the voters. Fortunately for Conservatives in many Liberal-held ridings, this is exactly what’s happening, as recent media scrutiny has uncovered. Increasingly, desperate Liberal MPs are resorting to propaganda, half-truths and lies, which is why many of them will lose their precious seats.

One of them is the Liberal in Halton. He seems to be an ambitionless man. His habit it to write a short press release (or have a staffer do it), which is then posted on his web site once a month. The same release is mailed out as a ten-percenter, and then it is sent to the local papers, some of whom run it as his “column.”

As the days before the next election shorten, and as the Liberal contemplates that I will convincingly defeat him, his one-size-fits-all, government-funded communications strategy grows increasingly partisan. While this is against House of Commons guidelines, it is common Liberal practice – using taxpayers’ money to tell the taxpayers what to think.

Here is part of his latest piece:

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the Paul Martin economic record.

Eliminated the deficit of $52 billion dollars left by the Brian Mulroney Conservatives. This made Canada debt free for the first time in three decades

Actually, the federal deficit in 1993 was left by the Kim Campbell Conservatives, since Brian Mulroney had resigned. Second, the deficit in that year of recession was $42 billion, not $52 billion. Then, as finance minister, Paul Martin’s first budget the next year had a deficit of $37.5 billion.

And all Canadians should know that the Canadian federal debt has increased from $390 billion in 1990 to $570 billion in 2005. Over the 15-year period, the Liberals have been in government for 12 years. Some record. Some “truly impressive” record.

But enough of history. Let’s look at what’s happening right now. As prime minister, Paul Martin threw out his February budget to cut a deal with the NDP, increasing spending by $4.6 billion and putting the government back on the path to deficits. Federal government spending is now increasing faster than three times the annual rate of inflation. Government overspending will lead in a few weeks to higher interest rates, according to the Bank of Canada. The federal government is once again on a course to economic disaster, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. It is a re-run of the behaviour of the Trudeau years that started Canada on its descent into debt hell.

And, finally, a note to the local Liberal. Canada is not “debt-free for the first time in three decades.” Canada has never been debt free. Liberals have seen to that.