Editor:
I have serious doubts that our current member of Parliament can respond to us without a filter.
I’d like to bring up the exception to that belief. A few years ago I sent an email to NDP Peter Stoffer when the new Sen. Mike Duffy called him a “faker.”
What totally surprised me was Mr. Stoffer phoned me and we discussed the very public “what was that?” I told Mr. Stoffer I never vote NDP but I was concerned about a smear against his good name. He assured me not to worry, this is politics.
Mr. Weston could discuss C-23, the Fair Elections Act, with a constituent, and I had that promise with his office. It didn’t happen.
The amendment to C-23 (Government 5) on vouching an address for an electorate is complicated. There is a requirement for ID always and if the electorate cannot prove current address there is a process. But you must have ID to proceed, so Mr. Weston’s assertion is not accurate. He also fails to mention the second person voucher on the voters’ list must produce two pieces of ID to the deputy returning officer and swear that he/she knows the person “personally” without any definition of what that means.
It’s always a disaster when the government bullies legislation through and our member of Parliament nods his approval without reading the actual text of legislation and trusts mandarins to give us his “view.”
Is Mr. Weston serious? Well, he can start by correcting his response to the Fair Elections Act letter in Coast Reporter and not make inaccurate statements that people can vote without identification.
Bonnie Nicol, Gibsons
