Memo should have been handed over earlier

News For You  

• The Duke of York - Prince Andrew - visits downtown Vancouver
• Horsefly takes silver
• Victoria chocked with century-old homes after 1913 building boom
• Victoria motorbike unit welcoming international police in Langford
• Night firing Saturday at Heals Range

Share this story

Tweet

I’d be lying if I said I was shocked to learn last week that the governing party was using cynical ploys and tax dollars to woo the votes of ethnic communities.

This was obvious to me when I attended the Lunar New Year celebrations in Burnaby. City councillors, MLAs and MPs handed out candy-filled red envelopes, embossed with gold lettering reminding shoppers who they were and the office they held. Admittedly, I was there too, armed with my green candy hoping to remind voters that the Green Party wants to represent British Columbians in the Legislature. With such low voter turnout in Burnaby (48 per cent in Burnaby-Deer Lake), a few hundred votes makes a difference.

Of course I’m disgusted by the memo and the use of tax dollars for self promotion, but what I find equally disturbing is that this is the second time in recent months that people’s personal e-mail correspondences have been leaked publicly by a government in waiting.

I wonder if and when my personal e-mails will be compromised. Further, as far as I am aware, the opposition sat on this information for more than a year without passing it on to the RCMP or Auditor General to be investigated. If there was any hint of illegality, this information should have been passed on immediately.

Rick McGowan

Green Party Candidate for Burnaby-Deer Lake