Dear Editor,
Re: “Communication let Chiu down” News, Oct. 23.
It was with astonishment that I read of failed Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu’s complaint of a lack of communication for one reason for his defeat.
Most candidate’s attempts at getting their message out would firstly consist of attending all-candidates meetings, facing the public, answering their questions and explaining their party’s platform. Chiu, along with MP Alice Wong and other Tory candidates in the Lower Mainland, made a concerted effort to avoid these meetings and raised the ire of voters who had taken the time to attend the meetings expecting the candidates to be there.
If Chiu and other Conservative hopefuls failed to get elected, or in Wong’s case, get elected with a huge decrease in votes, it was because of their lack of exposure and accountability to the voters.
In addition to this complaint, Chiu doubled down by complaining about the attack ads by the Liberals, which were mild, compared to the Conservative attack ads in the Chinese media only, and contained nothing but untruths about Justin Trudeau putting marijuana into the hands of young people and having brothels on every corner.
Because Chiu, Wong and other Conservative hopefuls did not speak up about these ads, we can believe they endorsed them, and therefore Chiu is in fact a hypocrite in blaming the Liberal ads for his demise, when their own ads disgusted the voters.
One of the virtues of politicians who lose an election is their graceful accepting of defeat and congratulating the successful winner, a virtue that Chiu has yet to learn.
Alan Halliday
Richmond
