Re: Annual report to the people
I read with some bemusement the letter from Abbotsford News reader Harry Vogt, and having been a reporter on municipal politics including school board, a school trustee and an election campaign specialist for a range of clients in the municipal, provincial and federal levels here in B.C. and the U.K., I wonder just what reader Vogt means by a stewardship report to the people who vote for these politicians.
First of all, without the benefit of a political party election machine, a politician would not know all the people who voted for him or her, but only some – those identified by that politician’s campaign team’s voter identification team.
Second, what with the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, politicians of all stripes are getting their message out to thousands of people day in and day out.
At the provincial level, we used to have MLA reports on the local cablevision system but that method is now a thing of the past, superseded by the three that I have mentioned.
As for telling people in detail how the politician was involved in his or her work, well, that is taken care of by the politician’s website or the website of the political body to which the politician is involved.
Readers such as Mr. Vogt need to carry out a responsible voter’s inquiry into the actions of the politician of their concern.
As for MLA John van Dongen becoming an independent politician, that is probably the smartest move that he could make after finding out how anachronistic thinking rules supreme in John Cummins’ party.
As for Abbotsford-Mission MLA Randy Hawes, he will probably go back into real estate / development or local politics, seeking what we have at the municipal level in Mission.
Definitely not the big bucks that reader Vogt may have in mind!
G.E. MacDonell