We've been having quite an interesting time of it during the Canadian election campaign (we vote Jan 23). During the first week of December, both DH and my Mom got birthday cards from our MP (member of parliament=local representative). We wondered...how did she know when his birthday is? Then later the same week, I got the funniest thing...a 'dear constituent letter' with a warning on the address label. "Caution: Supports SSM--no mailouts". I once sent in my opinion on same sex marriage which is what I assume this refers too. Clearly, her staff is incompetent, and I think she's ethically challenged.
We finally figured out where she got the info. We had our passports done through her office (in Canada you can drop your application off at your MPs office and they make it go faster). Since then we've had all kinds of people tell us and the media that they've had the same experience: inexplicable birthday card (she claims they are sent by special request-we don't buy it) plus passport application.
This story should never have become "A Story" except that when we talked to her office, they made lame excuses and stone walled. Her staff said silly things like, "what makes you think we keep a data base?" We gave her two weeks to respond before we let the media in on it.
Since then, it's been in the media increasingly. My dad was interviewed by CBC TV last week, and a different TV station interviewed me this morning and we've both been interviewed for a variety of local & regional papers. The lasted gaff by her office is sending out a card to a veteran who's been dead 26 years and never lived in our riding. His son figures she harvested his name at a ceremony earlier this year where veterans were honoured and he represented his dad.
The issues that arise from this (not the birthday card really, because that's no big deal) are how she got the info (passport applications are supposed to be protected), how she's using it, and how she's protecting it (are her systems secure? Are we at risk for identity theft?) and how she represents constituents (apparently only those who agree with her since she intends that I not receive her mailings).
It's certainly made the whole election campaign a lot more fun and interesting!!!
We finally figured out where she got the info. We had our passports done through her office (in Canada you can drop your application off at your MPs office and they make it go faster). Since then we've had all kinds of people tell us and the media that they've had the same experience: inexplicable birthday card (she claims they are sent by special request-we don't buy it) plus passport application.
This story should never have become "A Story" except that when we talked to her office, they made lame excuses and stone walled. Her staff said silly things like, "what makes you think we keep a data base?" We gave her two weeks to respond before we let the media in on it.
Since then, it's been in the media increasingly. My dad was interviewed by CBC TV last week, and a different TV station interviewed me this morning and we've both been interviewed for a variety of local & regional papers. The lasted gaff by her office is sending out a card to a veteran who's been dead 26 years and never lived in our riding. His son figures she harvested his name at a ceremony earlier this year where veterans were honoured and he represented his dad.
The issues that arise from this (not the birthday card really, because that's no big deal) are how she got the info (passport applications are supposed to be protected), how she's using it, and how she's protecting it (are her systems secure? Are we at risk for identity theft?) and how she represents constituents (apparently only those who agree with her since she intends that I not receive her mailings).
It's certainly made the whole election campaign a lot more fun and interesting!!!
