Integrity is like sweet water cupped in your hands. Open your fingers, and it’s gone forever.
Sadly, people don’t seem to expect much from their politicians these days. But that doesn’t give our elected officials licence to stoop to that low standard.
The Surrey Safe Coalition has unfortunately done just that with its social media attack on Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis, for having the temerity to disagree with the city’s draft budget.
The slate, which dominates city council business with five of nine votes in chambers, ran an attack ad on its Twitter account and Facebook page that contains a doctored photo of her holding up a written message she never held, and a partial quote attributed to her that’s both out of date and out of context (See story page 13).
Well, politics is a dirty business, you might say. While it is indeed a high-stakes game, it need not be marred with subterfuge and outright dishonesty.
The intellectual authors of that attack ad should be ashamed of themselves.
The slate that allowed it to run should also be ashamed of itself.
Is it too much to ask that conflict related to the city’s business be met on the battleground of fact?
That’s clearly not what’s occurred here, and Surrey voters should rightly seek a reckoning. After all, we elect politicians to conduct our public business with truthfulness, transparency and integrity.
Attack ads like this only serve to invite derision upon those who produce them, rather than on those they target.
Surrey deserves better.
– Now-Leader
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