Learn about your MP, follow social media

Dear Editor:

Citizens can measure the performance of politicians by following their social media accounts.

The posts they make are testimonials to what they’re doing to work for you. The opposition’s primary role is to hold the government to account.

Penticton’s member of Parliament, Richard Cannings, has two Facebook accounts so I compared his activity to Michelle Rempel Garner, a Conservative MP in Calgary. People could also look at

Dan Albas’s too if they want.

Rempel Garner had at least 16 posts on issues such as the economy, federal regulations, potential election, lack of parliamentary oversight, Bill Morneau’s resignation in the WE scandal, etc. There were two when she went for a motorcycle ride to support veterans and another on someone critiquing her attire in Parliament.

Cannings had about the same number in both his accounts combined. About 80 to 90% were devoted to hiking, biking, birds and watching a caterpillar crawl up his wall. How does that hold the government to account?

In one, he met up with some old friends and wants to take their gardening project national.

Alarmingly, his post on Aug. 18 (about the same time Trudeau prorogued Parliament that was supported by the NDP) appears to support Trudeau’s great social and economic “reset” where he wants to dig even deeper into your wallets.

In terms of engagement, Rempel Garner regularly gets up to 1,000 comments or more. For Cannings, sometimes there are up to 20, but most are fewer than 10.

There’s not enough space to present a detailed account, but readers are encouraged to look up their MP’s social media activity so they can decide for themselves if they are really holding Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to account, or, if they’re just having fun propping them up.

Wayne Llewellyn

Penticton