Conservative MP: I have "grave concerns with these troubling actions"

Kevin Sorenson is the Conservative Member of Parliament from Crowfoot, Alberta.

What's Crowfoot like? Well, in the 2004 election, Sorenson received 80% of the vote in his riding. In 2006, that moved up to 82.5% when that NDP family up and left. Without checking Elections Canada, I'm guessing the remaining 17.5% of votes were write-ins for an Alberta independence party of some stripe.

I remember speaking at a Reform Party BBQ there, back in 1998, at Big Knife Provincial Park. I can testify that there were no tofu hotdogs on the grill.

I have received an exchange of correspondence between Sean McCormick, a constituent of Crowfoot, and Sorenson. Sean's letter is a good, old-fashioned broadside. He told me he's a little sheepish about the tone he used but, if I know Crowfoot, Sean's letter is probably the most liberal and wishy-washy thing that Sorenson's office has received in years.

I was going to just excerpt from the exchange (which was also copied to Rob Nicholson and Stephen Harper) but I really don't want to leave out a single word of Sean's missive:

Dear Sirs,

As a voter living in the Crowfoot riding in Alberta, I am writing to express my dismay over the revelations of wrongdoing and corruption by Human Rights Commissions both at the provincial and federal levels that Canadians have been witness to these past few months. I am disgusted and angered by what I have seen. This fiasco runs contrary to my values and spits in the face of my grandfather, a war veteran who served this country in WWII.

We've seen dishonest and flagrantly illegal behavior on the part of Human Rights Commissions and their employees. That Richard Warman continues to be allowed to make Section 13 his own personal plaything destroys any notion of our country having a working justice system (Mr. Nicholson, I'm speaking to you if you can hear anything from that cave you've been hiding in).

This is the ONLY issue I'm voting on come the next election. My vote goes to the candidate/party that is doing the most to shut down these HRC boondoggles, or at the very least, repeal Section 13 of the human rights act. I am also willing to volunteer my time and put my money (the maximum contribution allowed by law) behind the candidate that best represents my values on this issue. I normally vote along conservative lines, but I'm willing to cross the floor on this issue, even if that means voting for one of those granola-crunching Green Party freaks.

So far the Liberals are in the lead for getting my vote thanks to the efforts of Dr. Keith Martin. If you want my vote and support back, you know what you have to do.

Sincerely,

Sean McCormick

The bulk of Sorenson's reply is the form letter authored by Rob Nicholson's office back in February -- a big dose of blandness designed to lull and numb. But buried amongst that politically correct hay was Sorenson's own sharp little needle:

I want you to know that I also have grave concerns with these troubling actions of the Commission, and look forward to receiving a copy of the response you receive from Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson.

Nice. I know that response will not satisfy most red-blooded Crowfoot voters. But it's good enough for me, for now. Sorenson is the chair of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee; that's not quite a cabinet position, but it's a high enough rank that he knows he has to be careful about mowing the Justice Minister's lawn.

I'd put Sorenson down pretty firmly on our side of the ledger. He doesn't just have concerns, he has "grave concerns"; he calls the CHRC's actions "troubling"; and he claims he's "looking forward" to Nicholson's reply. I'm sure he is, actually -- he's obviously not satisfied with Nicholson's three-month-old talking points that are obsolete to the point of being insulting.

I'm not sure that Sorenson has gone far enough to win Sean's vote -- and donation. I'd say Keith Martin's private member's motion puts the Liberals in the lead. I'm pretty sure Sorenson isn't going to lose Crowfoot over this issue. But I'm equally sure that Sean speaks for about 82.5% of his neighbours. Probably more.

P.S. Gentle reader, why don't you take literally 30 seconds out of your busy day to write an encouraging letter to Sorenson? Just click here for his e-mail address.

P.P.S. If you haven't yet written an e-mail to your MP, why not? It's pretty easy, as Sean shows. You can find your MP's e-mail address very quickly: here, if you know your riding's name or MP's name, or here, if you just know your postal code. Send me the exchange, and I'll post it. If you get a snail-mail letter, please send it to me in .pdf format, or e-mail me a note and I'll tell you how to fax it to me.