Like Andy Marshall (letters, January 9, 2020), I have had a long frustration with the waste of taxpayer dollars that go into the vacuous, chest-beating broadsheets from MP Blake Richards that end up in our mail boxes, along with their biased surveys that have no options for alternative thinking. Although since the Conservatives lost power, the broadsheets have become smaller and less frequent, they remain irritatingly uninformative and right-wing biased.
While Harper was in power, Blake’s broadsheets focused on crime, even though statistics showed Canadian crime rates were in decline. The surveys sought more convictions and longer jail times, never prison reform or finding crime’s root causes. And these larger, more frequent broadsheets were demeaning - printed in large font for the geriatrics or to fill in space, and aimed at a Grade 4 reading level.
Blake Richards has been auto-elected four times into the Wild Rose or Banff-Airdrie riding even though his tenure has been boringly lacklustre. Certainly this long-standing Conservative has never been suggested as leadership material.
I feel I have had no federal representation since 2008. Whenever I’ve contacted my MP about something of critical concern, like climate issues or changes in voting procedures, I get a vacuous, standard response like “Thank you for contacting me regarding your concern. I always appreciate hearing from my constituents.”
At least when we were represented for so many years by Tory Myron Thompson, he understood that he represented all his constituents and his replies were thoughtful, and on occasion he’d act on your concern.
- Vivian Pharis
