Dear Editor:
Re: Leave health and age out of it, Letters to the editor, The Record, Sept. 24.
Interesting that Mr. Vance McFadyen has weighed into the debate on "personal information."
Let's remember the 2011 election when McFadyen and Mayor Wayne Wright were the first to break the code of conduct on personal information.
Wright was first to "get personal" about candidates when he referred to James Crosty's "lifestyle" in an article. McFadyen followed in four more articles to "out" James Crosty as gay. I am quite certain the concerted efforts of these two politicos qualifies as divulging "personal information."
Now McFadyen is trying to stake a claim to the moral high ground by chastising Gavin Palmer? McFadyen sees no issue with his or Wright's personal comments about Crosty, but he does when referring to Palmer? How hypocritical.
Further, for Jonathan Cote to condone McFadyen's redress of Palmer ("Excellent response, Vance") without acknowledging that McFadyen and Wright were the first to publicly expose personal information, shows the type of administration he is likely to forge if elected mayor.
Put any of these three in the mayor's chair and the motto above it would read: "Say and do anything, to anyone, as long as you get elected."
McFadyen would have served the "personal information" debate better had he acknowledge his and Wright's part as the founding architects in making a candidates personal info an accepted part of New West politics.
The only way McFadyen could realistically claim any high ground on this debate is to issue an apology to Crosty for doing the very thing he is now berating Palmer for.
Sadly, that is not likely to happen in the delusional and selectively edited version of politics that is New West.
Paul R. Thompson, New Westminster
