Does anyone out there know Earl Dreeshen? Because he bewilders me.
Recently, the Red Deer MP has been blanketing the area with requests for voters’ opinions. His latest poll tackles the problem of identification theft.
In the poll’s preface, Dreeshen describes, in a simplistic and flattering manner, what his party is doing on this issue. But he neglects to detail the other parties’ positions for comparison.
He then asks us to check off which of the four national leaders is doing the best job to fight ID theft. And in case we can’t decide for ourselves, he’s helpfully inserted an arrow pointing directly at Stephen Harper’s name.
It’s pretty obvious that such an imbalanced poll is an absolutely unreliable measure of public opinion. And as a means to sway public opinion, it’s crudely and clumsily manipulative.
Dreeshen should know all this. I know that at least one academic sternly rebuked him for an almost identical poll a few months back.
My question is: Is Dreeshen’s moral compass so askew that he simply doesn’t care how unethical this poll is? Or is he merely intellectually incapable of realizing how useless it is?
Because it baffles me how a man who is both honest and intelligent could spend taxpayers’ money to mail out such a transparently biased and futile poll.
So, please, if you know Dreeshen, kindly offer me an alternative explanation for his baffling actions. I would like to retain some faith in my representative to Parliament.
Guillermo Barron
Red Deer