UPDATE: Great news for the continued push for more open Gov't - The Premier now has a working email address dalton@ontario.ca as well as a twitter account @Dalton_MCguinty
I tried to email the Premier. I cc:d Mayor Miller because I had gotten on the Mayor's case about the real estate taxes and a number of concerns I have about over at city hall. One thing I couldn't disagree with any of our local councilors about however, is their commentary at the lack of funding from both the Federal and Provincial levels of government.
Now I don't usually blog about politics. Not my thing. But the lack of understanding about network culture just amazes me over there at the Liberal party.
Not only doesn't Dalton McGuinty not have a facebook profile (like John Tory does) but as well, you can't email him. That seems pretty basic to me. You know, EMAIL. Clearly at one time you must have been able to as he has an email address (Dalton.McGuinty@premier.gov.on.ca) that has been disabled. When you send him an email there you get this:
"To send your thoughts and suggestions to Premier McGuinty, please visit http://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/ and resend your message through the secure online form. Note this e-mail account is no longer monitored."
Ok, so you go to that site, you can cut and paste a message into a Web form with the caveat that:
"If my message back to you contains personal information, the government's privacy rules require that I send you my reply by regular mail. In this case, you'll be asked to provide your postal address or you can provide it now."
Wow time to change those rules. But that's not all. Dalton's site while very designy doesn't have a blog or even a way to send a message. If you want to contact him, it tells you to go to the Liberal Party Site. That's where they pretend to have a blog
except that it doesn't have an archive, it doesn't allow comments and pretty much just looks like a regular static designed webpage to me (unless they built it using wordpress or something?).
So i can email (and get a response) from almost any CEO of any company here or in the US (i am assuming excepting Steve Jobs) and I can't email Dalton? What kinda democracy is this anyway. What kind of conversation is he really trying to have? Looks like a one way broadcasted carefully edited PR type conversation if you ask me.
Not good enough Dalton. Try again.
Thursday 13 September 2007
Dalton McGuinty Doesn't Have An Email Address
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3 comments:
Hello,
I recently sent a commentand question about an issue by filling the form out on the Premiers' website www.premier.gov.on.ca. I got snet back a two page letter addressing my concerns. I was amazed. So much so this RedTory is now voting liberal this provincial election.
Hi Carlita,
Firstly, thanks for stopping by.
While I do find it encouraging to know that they do answer those feedback forms, and I applaud the effort, I still find myself asking questions.
You might have asked about issues that matter to me. Why not utilize technology to have more open debates? Rather than having a PR person, paid for by our tax dollars, individual answering feedback forms, wouldn't it be more open and a better use of collective efforts for citizens concerns to be visible to everyone? Maybe I have the same question. Maybe I would decide my vote based on the two page response...and maybe more importantly, it would begin a larger conversation where more voters could participate.
Thanks for finding Dalton McGuinty's e-mail address! Your page, and NOT the government's own pages, actually showed me the address when I searched "Dalton McGuinty e-mail address" in Google.
This is a problem with a lot of politicians. It should be illegal NOT to publicly post your e-mail address. But then again, the government of Canada likes to pretend that e-mail doesn't exist.
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