Thursday, April 22, 2010

On concerned citizens

I'm not a huge fan of the all-negative, all-the-time concept behind the Sask Party Watch and NDP Watch blogs. But on the balance, a couple more sources of information and discussion on the province's political scene figure to be a plus.

That is, to the extent they actually focus on anything of relevance to the parties involved. But NDP Watch looks to be going much further in trying to pretend that any letter to the editor originating with a worker in Saskatchewan must be part of some grand commie conspiracy, rather than reflecting the viewpoint of an "average citizen" worth listening to.

So let's set the record straight.

The fact that somebody writing a letter is involved in a union or business, or has been a candidate at some time in the past, doesn't mean that they lose their right to express their personal opinion. And the more the Sask Party's backers try to portray community involvement as somehow disqualifying one as an "average citizen", the more important it'll be for people to buck that trend to build a system where their participation isn't seen as an unwelcome intrusion.

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