Sometimes candidates, and their campaign teams, take action without putting much thought into the consequences. And we think Jane Pitfield’s team had a serious brain cramp last week.
It was rather surprising for us to read Ms. Pitfield’s blog entry on October 7th which, almost word-for-word, plagiarizes a column by Spacing Votes’ John Lorinc. The text below is Ms. Pitfield’s:
David Miller made a thin promise yesterday — $28 million to Toronto’s 13 distressed neighbourhoods, spread over four years. That works out to be just over $500,000 per neighbourhood per year — a bit less than what the city’s works department requested last winter to hire six new enforcement officers. In fact, the annual cost of Miller’s new program adds up to just 0.1% of the city’s total spending. This amounts to very little for at-risk youth. Municipal spending alone won’t solve the problems for young people growing up in distressed neighbourhoods. These steps won’t do much other than generate a few more summer jobs.
Now, read the following paragraph, taken from Lorinc’s October 6th column, the day before Pitfield’s blog entry. Similarities are in bold:
How else to explain the paper-thin promise he made yesterday — $28 million to Toronto’s 13 distressed neighbourhoods, spread over four years. Do the math, and that works out to be just over $500,000 per neighbourhood per year — a bit less than what the city’s works department requested last winter to hire six new enforcement officers. In fact, the annual cost of Miller’s new program adds up to a princely 0.1% of the city’s total spending. How’s that for commitment? All those low-income, at-risk, gang-involved youth we’ve been talking about so earnestly these part three years — let’s pitch them what amounts to a rounding error and hope for the best. (Oh yes, and cops, too, but that comes out of another budget.) Miller has been saying in his stump speeches lately that in his Toronto, “no one will be left behind.†But this line is not only eerily reminiscent of George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind†education reform slogan; it also has a distinctly hollow ring, given yesterday’s developments. Municipal spending alone won’t solve the problems for young people growing up in poor neighbourhoods, but it’s hard to imagine that what Miller plans to ante up will do much other than generate a few more summer jobs.
I honestly don’t expect Ms. Pitfield to write her own blog entries, but I would certainly hope her campaign team would understand the difference between quoting a media outlet and outright plagiarism.
Calls from Spacing to Pitfield’s campaign office today have yet to be returned.
UPDATE: Just after midnight, “(Source: John Lorinc Spacing.ca)” was added. Hmmmm….
UPDATE II: I talked with Ms. Pitfield on Saturday afternoon and she said a campaign volunteer was writing her blog entries. “There hasn’t always been a clear plan of what to do with my blog,” she said. “I have a young man looking after it. But I will talk to someone at our office right away.”
The entire entry was removed early Saturday evening.
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