10 replies to this topic

[mat]

Wow - a great day for democracy Canada Post is classifying Municipal election brochures sent by candidates as 'junk mail' and refusing to mail to homes and businesses who opt out of advertising mail.

TC article -

Canada Post spokeswoman Lillian Au said the corporation's Consumer Choice program, in which customers can refuse unaddressed mail, has been in place since 1997. She said there's been no recent change in policy.
But Jensen, who was first elected to Oak Bay council in 1996 and has done four previous mailouts, says this is the first time he has had any of his pamphlets rejected.
Jensen discovered the change last week when he and other council and school-district candidates attempted to bulk mail about 8,000 pamphlets to Oak Bay households.
"Instead of accepting all of them, they said we're only accepting about 5,000 and the rest you can take back with you because now we're treating these pamphlets -- this envelope that has pamphlets in it -- like junk mail," he said.
Jensen said he was told by Canada Post the policy has been place for some time.
"Well it hasn't been. The fact of the matter is, this is new," Jensen said.

The article did state that mail from 'accredited political parties' would be accepted, but as most municipal candidates are independent the exemption does not apply. That is a ridiculous argument - there are Independent candidates in Federal and Provincial elections, are their mail outs rejected? How about in Vancouver - do Vision and NPA get an unfair advantage over non-affiliated candidates?

Any local candidate who has had Canada Post reject some addresses should immediately seek a court injunction - this is utterly ridiculous.

[Bernard]

I am 100% behind not being forced to accept junk mail from Canada Post.

If you want to have your brochures go out to people, hand them out in person. Oak Bay only has 16 000 people living in it, it is not a hard task to hand them out in person.

Victoria has 60 000 voters, not a hard task to hand them out to everyone if you have enough volunteers. If you can not find the volunteers to do this, you should not be running.

In any case, most people these seek their information online and I note the Nils Jensen has chosen not to make his information available online.

[mat]

I am 100% behind not being forced to accept junk mail from Canada Post.

If you want to have your brochures go out to people, hand them out in person. Oak Bay only has 16 000 people living in it, it is not a hard task to hand them out in person.

Victoria has 60 000 voters, not a hard task to hand them out to everyone if you have enough volunteers. If you can not find the volunteers to do this, you should not be running.

In any case, most people these seek their information online and I note the Nils Jensen has chosen not to make his information available online.

Bernard - obviously you have deep democratic principles. Is it fair that Federal, Provincial parties, and registered independent candidates can post election information, while municipal candidates cannot? All locals running for office have nomination papers, which should be enough to assure Canada Post the mailouts are legitimate.

The only point you make I agree with is that all candidates should have a decent web presence - too many fail in that regard. However, a website is only part of the campaign process, and I would imagine many potential voters either do not have a computer/internet access, or would not spend the time researching all candidates on the web.

As to volunteers handing out brochures, knocking on doors - again, one part of the process, and maybe that is easier in smaller communities like Oak Bay, but certainly not in Saanich.

[Bernard]

I want a ban on junk mail from other politicians as well.

Knocking on doors in Saanich is not impossible task, you need 40 to 50 committed volunteers to do it. If I were running for office in Victoria where I live I would make sure I had enough volunteers lined up the summer before the election. Running for office is not a vanity thing, it is hard task that way too many people do not take seriously enough.

Junk mail also does not work. The response rate is incredibly low, not enough to make any real difference in an election campaign. It works for businesses that only need a couple of responses to pay for the cost.

I am amazed that in 2008 any candidate would waste thousands of dollars filling recycling bins when that money could be much better used hiring someone to make a very good website, hiring someone to write well for the web and paying to get traffic directed to your site.

Junk mail is simply wrong and I want to see a national ban on it for everything, and I mean everything. No MP newsletters - I am on the voters list with my address, they can address it to me personally if they want to reach me.

We have a right to live without getting things brought to our house we did not ask for, it is part of our right to privacy. I have been trying to figure out a good angle for a class action lawsuit against anything unrequested brought onto residential private property.

Any candidate that honestly thinks that the junk mail route is in the top ten most important things to do to get elected honestly does not know how to campaign and is wasting resources and energy.

Yeah, this is one of those small things that really bugs me and pushes my buttons.

One more point, the people that go to the trouble of opting out of junk mail tend to be the most community minded. I think complaining about not being able to spam people's home mailboxes is not likely to be a positive thing in the minds of most people that opted out.

[Number Six]

Is it fair that Federal, Provincial parties, and registered independent candidates can post election information, while municipal candidates cannot?

No ... *all* unsolicited electoral information should be considered junk mail. Spam is spam, electronic or otherwise. I've had a 'no junk mail' sticker on my mailbox for years and I'm pleased that Canada Post has respected my wishes.

The conversion rates on political ad mail must be appallingly low and any candidate who truly believes the pros outweighs the cons (the resources consumed to manufacture, deliver and recycle their advertisement) certainly won't get my vote. They should devote their limited energy in getting their message across to voters looking for information (via websites, opt-in newsletters, all candidates meetings, street corners, etc.)

[Mike K.]

Thankfully Canada Post has junk mail opt out services.

Email spam legislation, on the other hand, remains off the radar at the federal level, making Canada one of the few western nations without a consumer protection policy in place.

[mat]

Bernard - Well, let me argue against your position (and we can both agree to be partisan on this issue). My household opts out of junk mail, but we did so with the understanding that Government news, election information and certain organizations would be able to post. Same with the do-not-call list, and I personally find 'junk' phones calls, and robo election calls far more annoying than mail.

Are you serious about 50 volunteers? I doubt even well funded and organized Federal parties get that many active canvassers in South Island ridings, and most municipal candidates have total budgets below average monthly salaries.

As a web marketer, for local and international clients, getting a website high up on keyword searches is only a small part of the exercise. It must be advertised, and one of the best methods locally is through the post. Search engines do not update on the time table of local elections, it often takes weeks, even months, to gain a proper index, and rank high enough to be found.

We are nowhere near the point in communication culture to rely solely on the web to push out the democratic message - most of my neighbours use their home computers simply for email (when they can kick their kids off updating their myspace/facebook chats) - and, as historically the most prolific voters are retired/seniors, that demographic has the lowest web usage. Those are also the potential voters who respond best to mailouts.

You might wish to opt out of 'election' mail - I bet the vast majority would have an opposite opinion.

[Bernard]

I can tell you that the typical serious campaign for MP or MLA in BC will have between 150 and 400 volunteers.

[mat]

I can tell you that the typical serious campaign for MP or MLA in BC will have between 150 and 400 volunteers.

Let's make that a question for candidates who post on VV - how many volunteers are active on local campaigns?

[Coreyburger]

I call bogus on this. I was speaking with another candidate in Oak Bay and they know a postal worker who said that Canada Post hasn't been delivering them for years, they have just been accepting and recycling them. And Canada Post is tired of paying recycling fees.

As for volunteers, I have about 10 that I have been able to call on, at various times, for various things. I have never had more than 3 on a canvass run. I know some of the other candidates here in OB have at at least that many on canvass duty, but mostly it is just you, the lonely candidate, mainstreeting and door-knocking.

[Sue Woods]

I had some of mine rejected as well. (I mailed them to all the apts/condo's because one cannot access those homes as a door knocker). But Can Post called me to say I had an excess as a result - and helped me to decide where to re-route them, so that was appreciated.
Sue