Monday, July 23, 2007

Dear Alderman McIver:

No, slapping those obnoxious 'I support the troops' stickers all over city vehicles is NOT a good idea.

I don't know where you got that idea, but I'd suggest returning it to its owner and leaving it there.

Here's the problem I have with it. Fundamentally, it's a political statement. City vehicles have no business whatsoever bearing the latest in political slogans.

Stephen Harper and his band of ideologues have corrupted "supporting the troops" to mean "supporting occupation in Afghanistan". It's sort of like having a bumper sticker on there that reads "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?". Not all Calgarians agree with our current Federal government on the matter of Afghanistan, nor should they feel that they have to.

City of Calgary vehicles do not exist for you, or anyone else at City Hall to turn into rolling billboards for your latest in political campaign slogans. You might claim that those "support the troops" stickers are not political, but the reality is that Stephen Harper's own "talking-points only" approach to communication has made it a political statement.

Additionally, not only is it a political statement, the phrase itself is meaningless. How is slapping a cheezy little graphic on the back of a vehicle "supporting" the troops?

The issue is quite simple. All of Calgary taxpayers foot the bill here, regardless of our individual political stripe. What's next? I'm going to find myself denied service or sent to the back of the line at a city facility because I don't have the requisite "support the troops" sticker on my vehicle?

Even our lot of lunks in Ottawa are smart enough to leave political sloganeering off the official government vehicles.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

McIver comes out in favour of anything that will put him in a position where he can claim the 'moral high ground' and get into a fight with others on council.

If you look at what comes out of his mouth you will notice that the majority are newsbites of him slamming the City and Council, and proclaiming himself the only True Savior (TM). And when he does side with Council, he tries to make it sound as if they were being most unreasonable before they finally gave in and he won the 'fight'.

It frightens me that a man like McIver is on council - and that other members of his slate are trying to take over positions both in the City and Provincially. Yet, just wait for the fall election, and you will see the goon squad with their dirty election tactics attempting to gain more ground and forward the cause of the religious rightwing in civic politics. Yuck!

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