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Use both left and right labels

In the interests of journalistic fairness, it is best to label all parties or none at all.

RE: The Leader’s coverage of “Surrey council’s unelected opposition” described the party as “left-leaning.”

The Surrey Civic Coalition has never described itself as such, but the label keeps being applied year after year.

On the other hand, Dianne Watts’ governing party, which takes close to $1 million from developers and the firefighters’ union at election time, is never described as “right-leaning.”

In the interests of journalistic fairness, it is best to label all parties or none at all.

The SCC certainly has left-leaning members, but it also has right-leaning members who question why mayor and council do not pay taxes on their full salary, why they are borrowing so much money to build a palatial city hall, why large utility fee increases go unreported, and why they ignore their own by-laws, such as on secondary suites.

 

Jim McMurtry