Politician tried to cheat volunteer

This is a letter sent to a politician who chose to hold back the pay of one of his volunteers on a technicality. He never told the volunteer that she would have to wait a year for the money before she offered her services to him.


David Senater 1745 Bathurst Street
Toronto, ON
M5P 3K5


Dear Mr. Senater:


All it takes is for one article in a newspaper to be published to destroy any hopes a would-be politician ever has of getting elected.


Years ago, a friend of mine was chosen to be the PC choice for his ward. He won the nomination in a landslide. The premier told him that if he were elected, he would be the province’s next attorney general. Two days later, a very small article was published in the Toronto Star in which he was accused of ripping off a customer. Within a day, his party withdrew his name and he never ever ran for office again.


Many years ago, another man who had successfully run for office for years on end was running again and an article was published about him taking money from an old woman’s bank account, a woman who subsequently died. His political career was finished permanently.

The alderman in my ward has just been convicted of taking a bribe. Do you really think that he will ever be elected in office again? Not in his lifetime.


Tom Jakobeck received bad press about alleged wrongdoings with respect to taking bribes. Do you really believe that he is going to win a seat on council?


We have all waited with baited breath to see whom the next clumsy oaf is that will stumble in the race and fall from grace.


The Toronto Sun wrote an interesting article about you in which it is alleged that you tricked a young university student into doing some canvassing for you on the promise that she would be paid $460 as soon as she was finished. She didn’t discover until it was too late that her payment wasn’t going to be coming to her for at least a year. Alas, the poor young woman didn’t realize that when you are dealing with most politicians, trust them not.


Your actions were bad enough but then you made three more colossal errors. First you said that you were a man of means and that was an outright lie. The second error was that you said that if the young woman’s mother hadn’t been rude to you, you would have paid off the young woman. That’s another lie. If you were going to pay the young woman for her services, you would have done it in the first place without being pressured into doing it. Third, you denied knowing that there was something on the form that said that she would have to wait a year before being paid. Another lie unless you are so stupid, you don’t even know what you are reading in your documents.


Never, ever lie to the press because when you do, you are lying to the public and the public doesn’t forgive liars.


Many years ago, before you were born, a encyclopedia company erroneously sold me a complete set for $99 instead of $999. When they were asked by a newspaper columnist why they wouldn’t honour the contract, they said that because they made a mistake, they didn’t have to honour the contract. I sued and the day before the trial, they settled and delivered to my home a new set of their encyclopedias. But what really cost them was their public statement that they didn’t have to honour their contract. I learned later that that remark by itself cost them $5 million dollars in sales.


You are quoted in the article as saying and I quote;


“If (Pinto’s mother) wrote me an apology for the way she treated me, I still might make the arrangement.” unquote


The young woman’s mother may have been abusive but your decision to use the word ‘might’ instead of ‘will’ is typical of politicians---they never really commit themselves to anyone. That statement alone will cost you your election to office.


It was Aristotle who said that Man is by nature, a politician. I think that the converse is more apt. A politician is by nature, an animal.”


It appears that one of your planks on your platform is, and I quote;


“Restore integrity to city hall.”


Your plank is rotting and when the main plank that is used to support the platform of a would-be-politician is rotten, the entire platform collapses.


I do owe you however. I have been working on a book called, “Stupidity and other Blunders” and in it I have an entire section dedicated to politicians who made stupid and clumsy mistakes. When writing about you, it will be under the heading, “Political wanabees who were finished before the finish”


If it wasn’t for your stupidity and others like you, I would never be able to write this book. Incidentally, I have written about some of the stupid things that I too have done in my life in this book. We all do stupid things in our lives but when politicians and wanabee politicians do stupid things, their careers come to an abrupt end. Didn’t your mother ever tell you that?


Don’t even think of suing me. You are a public figure and anyone can write their opinions about public figures as long as they don’t defame them. Writing about your stupidity is hardly defamatory especially when you act in a stupid manner. Truth is a defence to a suit for defamation.


Do the right thing. Apologize to the young woman, see that she gets her money forthwith and maybe, just maybe, the public may forgive you. Generally the public is willing to forgive someone who repents especially when they admit that they were wrong and then do what they can to correct the wrong. You could use your gaffe to shore up your rotting plank. It’s those who won’t bend that invariably end up as damn fools and no-one wants to elect another damn fool into office. We have enough of them in office already.


Yours truly



Dahn Batchelor