Suppose I have an opinion on some political matter, so I send an email to the Minister responsible for that portfolio. This Minister is not my elected representative - they represent another riding - but they are the elected official responsible for the issue in question. I am not a person directly affected by the political matter in question. I am writing in my capacity as a generally politically engaged concerned citizen, but I do not fall into any particular group that the government would have a legal or moral obligation to consult.
And suppose the Minister's political party does not consider me their target audience. Their party's leaked election strategy makes it clear that they are not interested in voters of my demographics, and outspoken members of the party have publicly stated that they consider my demographic to be a fringe group.
Would my email to the Minister actually be taken seriously? Or would they disregard me based on my demographics? Yes, I know that theoretically they're supposed to take concerns from every citizen seriously, but would they in reality?
Or what if they see that someone in my demographic opposes their widget policy, and then conclude that their widget policy must be on the right track?
1 comment:
Good question, one I have wondered about myself.
I have learned from looking at internal documents from a certain party that they do pay very close attention to every citizen communication they receive. They count every email or phone call and tally them all, for and against.
What they do with that information, though - how they use it - I don't know.
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