Dear Garth,

Thank you very much for your kind invitation, which I hope you don’t mind I’ll reproduce here:

You are invited to join MP Garth Turner and Liberal leader Stephane Dion, for a special evening, as our guest

Federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion is coming August 20th, to meet the people. Hosted by MP Garth Turner, Dion will be centre stage at an important Town hall meeting in which citizens can ask him about the big issues facing southern Ontario, and Canada.

“Now that Stephen Harper has threatened an election in a few months,” Turner says, “it’s key that people know where our leaders stand. Stephane Dion is the only one making this effort to get out and ask us all what kind of Canada we want, and how best to cope with the problems which need urgent solutions. I’m encouraging everyone – Liberal supporters or critics – to come and make up their own minds.”

Turner cites recent job losses in the manufacturing sector as a priority, along with rising energy costs, falling real estate values and mounting family financial stress. He also says Dion will be outlining his Green Shift proposal, which would see personal income taxes slashed, and taxes imposed instead on polluters responsible in part for climate change.

“Dion has won the admiration of people across the country for meeting real voters face-to-face,” Turner says. “He’s not afraid of the tough questions we should all be asking of our politicians, now that the economy’s turned sour and the federal government seems to be drifting. This is a chance for everyone in the region to get out and make their voices heard, so policy in Ottawa can better mirror public wishes.”

The Town Hall meeting takes place Wednesday, August 20th at 7:30 pm.

Location: SVCC Hall (St. Volodymyr). 1280 Dundas Street, Oakville (between Trafalgar Rd. and Bronte Rd.).

Admission is free, and seating is on a first come-first served basis. Seats may be reserved by calling (905) 693-0166, or emailing garth@garth.ca

I will admit, I was a bit puzzled as to why you’d want to invite a Blogging Tory from Ottawa to attend your Oakville event. I mean, as much as I’m a big advocate of road trips, I’m not actually sure that the draw of your fearless leader is enough to make me want to gas up the tank and reserve a room at the local Delta, in anticipation of a four-plus-hour drive in the middle of the week. I suppose I should chalk this up to a lapse of management over your e-mail list, but instead I think I’ll be generous and assume that you’d love some of your leader’s critics to see the “real” Dion in action.

And I do appreciate the opportunity, I really do. Unfortunately I’m out of town at the moment and don’t expect to be back in the province until the end of the month at the earliest. However, since your invitation indicated that it’s free admission and places can be reserved, I’m sure that some of my fellow Blogging Tories (particularly those nearer to Oakville) will be more than happy the fill the seat that you’ve so generously offered me.

Like, for example, Steve Janke. I’m sure he’d love to come to your event, since it allows him to indulge in his hobby of spot-the-secret-Liberal. And since he lives in Mark Holland’s riding it’d be no trouble for him to make the trip, so you don’t even need to rent a bus to pick him up.

But by no means should you regard this as a request to take me off your e-mail list. Oh heavens no; I really do appreciate this, and in fact would encourage you to invite even more Blogging Tories to these events with your leader. After all, it’s a practical guarantee that someone is going to pay attention to what Dion wants to say — even if it’s only to mock.

Regards,

Victor Wong
phantomobserver.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 13:17 and is filed under Libranos, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.