Ontario Liberal Party wooing teachers?
Posted by Sandy on May 14th, 2008
It somehow doesn’t seem appropriate that the Ontario Liberal Party is sending a type of recruitment letter to Ontario teachers, addressed to them personally, not at their home address, but at their school. I know this to be true because my husband received one today. It was titled “Moving Forward Together” and was linked to this website – clearly the official site of the Liberal Party of Ontario. Note also the anti-John Tory messaging.
On the top of page two the letter states:
“That’s why I’m writing you today. You can join your friends and neighbours and help us keep Ontario moving forward by making a donation to the Ontario Liberal Fund. Your tax-creditable contribution of $100, $150, $250 or an amount of your choice will be a sound investment in our province.”
And, then the letter goes on to spin the supposed Liberal accomplishments: “A Healthier Ontario,” “A Stronger Economy,” “Better Education and Training,” “Greener Communities” and “Improved Quality of Life.” It was signed by Bobby Walman, President, Ontario Liberal Fund.
What is going on here? The last time I checked there was freedom of political affiliation in this country. Yet, this type of letter would certainly have a chilling effect. For instance, how free would a teacher feel to talk about John Tory? While one might be tempted to say, “well, no Ontario teacher is going to talk about John Tory.” That would be wrong because my husband works for a “private” school – a school that receives not a penny of taxpayers money and where many people are openly conservative.
So, as far as I am concerned, this type of solicitation and wooing of teachers at their place of employment, is totally inappropriate. However, decisions as to whether it is more than that is for other people to decide.
But, what a double standard! Can you just imagine the reaction by teachers and the media if PC leader John Tory sent out a similar letter?
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
It’s surprising that this type of thing is even legal. Are political parties allowed to send such partisan messages to doctors’ offices too?
And who exactly is funding this advertising scheme? Just the party itself, or is it being in any way subsidized by the taxpayers?
May 14th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
The teachers’ unions have purchased the Liberals lock stock and barrel during the last two elecitons. They used union dues to purchase anti-PC pro-Liberal adds before and during the past election. They stood by and even encouraged teachers to vacate their classrooms on election day so they could perform get out the vote duties for Liberal candidates — The Liberals are simply fishing for funds from their gene pool - tens of millions have flowed from the taxpayers into the pockets of teachers over the last 5 years and the Liberals are reminding the teachers they owe them a kickback — pony up teachers — time to reward Dalton and his crew for allowing the destruction of education for the betterment of your union.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:05 am
How did the Ont Liberals get the names of the teachers and where they taught? Is this information not under the information of privacy act. I can’t get info on my wife from any gov’t agency!!! How did they do it??
May 15th, 2008 at 12:36 am
It’s the Liberals…it’s OK
May 15th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Ron — The only problem in this incident is that my husband “retired” from a public board a number of years ago and now teaches (half-time) in a private school — and there are no teachers’ unions involved there at any level — and no public money either.
As far as Cal’s questions — My guess is the Liberal Party of Ontario got the faculty list from the school’s website. Because this private school (JK-12) has international students at the high school level, they list each staff member’s name and specialty. However, that does not give the Liberal Party of Ontario the right to solicit for donations at this place of employment. Like I said, can you imagine the reaction if John Tory (or Stephen Harper) ever did that?
May 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am
My husband is going to speak to the school administration about the personal information on their website — which has obviously been misused by The Liberal Party of Ontario.
And I have news for the Ontario Liberal Party. Teachers in the public and separate system may be in their pockets, but teachers in private schools are, for the most part, simply NOT interested — particularly given Liberal comments on the public funding of faith-based schools during the last Ontario election campaign!
May 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Joanne asks a very pertinent question. Are taxpayers on the hook for these mailouts?
Also Cal’s questions are good ones also and no, teachers home address can’t(or shouldn’t) be given out to anyone without their permission. Who did it? Someone needs to get to the bottom of this?
May 15th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Ann — I too would like to know who is paying for this mailout. And, what about Ontario’s privacy laws? Does the fact that there is a faculty list on the school’s website give the Liberal Party of Ontario the right to solicit funds? Personally I don’t think the school should have that information on their website. We didn’t realize it until we went looking this morning. But, that said, the Liberal Party should know better.
In fact, this letter may be breaking Ontario’s own privacy laws. But, that would be up to the Privacy Commissioner to find out of course.
In the meantime, I may scan this letter and post it here if I can figure out how to do it.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:35 am
All I know is that when I was a member of a committee at my board I started to receive information and pamphlets from the NDP ed. critic. What was odd about this was that the board was the only place where my address could be found and/or handed out. What we found out was that someone “mistakenly” posted the home addresses of all committee members on the board site. They shouldn’t have been there and it was raised at a committee meeting, because many others on the committee didn’t feel that agreeing to be on the committee gave any political party access to personal or home information. The NDP stuff interestingly enough had a return address of the ed. critic’s office at Queen’s Park - so guess who paid for these?
This kind of silent lobbying of teachers is pure strategy. The latest rumour circulating is that the province is quietly negotiating with the teacher unions and that they’ll get everything that they ask for. Would anyone be surprised? School boards might, especially if they are forced to close more schools to pay for gov’t promises.