Here's a letter I wrote to CBC Radio's "The Current" last week.

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I was disappointed to hear Deborah Grey take a partisan approach to hosting "The Current" on December 16. I usually enjoy her media appearances, but I don't think she should have used this venue to promote a political party during an election campaign. She referred to the West as being "the conservative conscience of the country". Whether she meant small "c" or capital "C" conservative, Grey ignored the facts that all Canadians have consciences and that many people in the West vote for parties that are socially progressive. In Canada's first-past-the-post system, people tend to forget the percentages of the popular vote that the Liberals, NDP and Green Party receive in Western Canada. Grey also failed to mention that Saskatchewan and Manitoba have NDP provincial governments. In a comment that would be funny if we weren't in the middle of a federal election campaign, Grey said that she doesn't presume to speak for Jack Layton and then added, "Lord knows he has enough trouble doing that for himself." Deborah Grey obviously has no trouble speaking for the Conservative Party, even when it's inappropriate.