I feel upset at the changes happening over the last 15-20 years in provincial and national political ethics. Here’s the latest example:

I live in New Westminster and just received some PR and questionnaires from John Weston, MP for West Van-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, extolling the virtues of all that’s been done for business. It then provides a return questionnaire.

What alarms me about this, other than the paper waste (two sheets of paper in an envelope, sent twice), and that these seem to come from people I’ve never heard of and that don’t represent me; is that each return questionnaire comes with individual bar codes that just happen to match the barcode across from my name and address.

The reason I know that the bar codes trace my name and address is that I received two: one for me, and one for my family.

The return address portion is left blank on the return form giving the illusion of potential for privacy. However, logic dictates that personal, seemingly anonymous opinions people may wish to express, can be traced back to the name/address of the recipient and possibly compiled for later use. Do they really want honest opinions? I suppose they can state any number of reasons for marking the potential ‘test ballots’. But do we really want to trust them to do the right thing with something unofficial, when even official promises get ignored nowadays?

If anyone wishes to give completely honest feedback without fear of possible future consequences, they should know this, and make an effort to cut out the barcode before folding and posting. But first, they need to know about the bar code.

L. Redmond

New Westminster