Open letter to MP Ryan Leef:
As a friend of yours, I am asking you to please stop with the political propaganda I am receiving in my mailbox. I have now received from you my third one-page questionnaire asking me “What do you think?” This one is in reference to taxes.
Personally I feel that your questions are leading, your information misleading, and that you don’t actually care what we think, but rather you are using this as a tool to brainwash us with false information to gain votes.
First of all, your information is misleading in the sense that you state that the average family now is saving $3,400 each year and Canadians have saved over $30 billion since 2006. These numbers do not reflect the indexed inflation rate, and if they had then you would know that we are actually receiving less than what we were getting in 2006.
Your government has cut the GST by two per cent, but since 2006 it has increased Canada’s national debt by about $147.7 billion. If we factor in the average inflation rate that would be a net increase of about $72.45 billion. That’s about $2,038 more per person, or about $8,000 per family, owing since 2006.
Secondly, your question to me and the rest of your constituents was “Do hard working Canadians deserve tax breaks?” and then you give us two choices to answer. They are as follows: “Yes, we should be able to keep more of our hard earned money,” or “No, I’m happy paying more in taxes.”
Are you seriously asking us if we are “happy paying more in taxes”? If this isn’t a leading question to get the answer, you want I don’t know what is!
Thirdly, if you were sincerely interested in comments and concerns from the people in your constituency, you would have given us more than three square inches for comments compared to your 119 square inches of propaganda and misleading information. Your one question “What do you think?” takes up eight square inches alone.
I think you underestimate the sense of reason and level of intelligence amongst your constituents, and personally I feel insulted and somewhat betrayed. I am not partial to any particular political party. However, I am sure that this time you will not get my vote as a result of this propaganda and the way I feel because of it.
As your friend, Ryan, I know you have a higher level of integrity than what is associated with the propaganda being sent in the mail. This is not you. I hope you can make it stop.
Mike Martin
Whitehorse