Government Propaganda/Have I Finally Made The 'Big Time'?!?

Parksville-Qualicum MLA, Ron Cantelon, caused to be published a very political sounding advertisement in the Parksville-Qualicum News last November. It was 'short and sweet', basically saying: increase in B.C. K-12 education budget since 2001 - 23%; decrease in student enrolment since 2001 - 13%. Feeling that such a use of statistics without any elaboration was not being very forthright, I wrote the following 'Letter to the Editor' to the Parksville-Qualicum newspaper, as well as the three Nanaimo newspapers - none of them chose to publish my letter:

Dear Editor,
Following the format of a recent pre-election advertisement surrounding student enrolment and government funding for public education in B.C. placed by Nanaimo-Parksville MLA Ron Cantelon in local newspapers: Increase in MLA's salaries since 2001 - 38%; Decrease in number of sitting days since 2001 - 26%.

Then, in the middle of December, Shirley Bond, B. C.'s Education Minister, caused to have published a 'Letter to the Editor' in the Nanaimo Daily News and Harbour City Star newspapers in response to two submitted by readers, parts of which she took issue with. Part of the message in that letter was virtually identical to what Mr. Cantelon had written in his advertisement (who says the government doesn't make good use of their large media and communications team?!). Therefore, just after Christmas, I submitted the following letter to those same two newspapers:

Dear Editor,
Having become somewhat of a cynic when it comes to matters political, I have to admit that I never would have expected that someone like B.C. Education Minister, Shirley Bond, would have the time to peruse local papers like the Nanaimo Daily News/Harbour City Star for items to respond to (B.C. government funding schools at historic levels/B.C. government funding of schools is at historic levels, Dec. 18/26/08). Given the myriad challenges in public education, I would have thought that she would have many, far more weighty matters to deal with in order to earn her $150,000/yr. salary. As it is, she has taken a large, complex issue and tried to placate us with a few, simplistic statistics.
She writes that "this government fundamentally believes that local boards of education are in the very best position to make decisions for the students in their communities". I think it has become obvious to anyone paying attention over the past number of years that, since the government controls the funding, there are only 'painful' decisions to be made. Another way to look at this is that it leaves the 'dirty work' for the local school boards. The government also reserves the right to fire the entire duly elected school board if they don't like their community-minded decisions (I see this as the main reason why school boards timidly accept unacceptable learning conditions in many of their classrooms).
In closing, and in the same spirit as the Minister's letter (where she basically says: increase in B.C. K-12 education budget since 2001 - 23%; decrease in Nanaimo-Ladysmith student enrolment since 2001 - 13%; ), let me offer my own set of 'coupled' statistics: increase in MLA's salaries since 2001 - 38%; decrease in number of legislature sitting days since 2001 - 26%.

What is especially interesting is how these two papers chose to use my letter. The Daily News ran it (Education Minister's letter far too simplistic, Jan 10/09, the bolded text indicates that part of my letter which was not published) and then Walter Cordery wrote an editorial piece using my letter as 'the hook'. The Harbour City Star only ran the editorial piece (Thin skins fill letters pages, Jan. 13/09), making reference to my letter printed in the Daily News.