As a new MP, getting public feedback is part of Bob Zimmer's learning curve. He is using the old fashioned mail-out surveys to keep his finger on the pulse of his Prince George-Peace River riding but he is also using technology even veteran elected officials haven't embraced.
Smartphone codes, which look like a pixelated bar codes, are being stamped on his mailouts. People who scan these with their smartphones are directed to a corresponding website.
"We had seen it used in other ways, during the [Conservative Party's riding nomination] process, and we thought it was a good idea," he told The Citizen. "Involvement of the younger crowd and the paperless crowd was important to us ... so we wanted to include that."
The survey process is important to him, he said, since "I'm so new at this."
So far he has solicited feedback on the issue of the long-gun registry, the crime bill and how veterans are being treated by the federal government.
In the latter instance, the question was which federal party was doing a better job for veterans? He now regrets the phrasing.
"That question was too narrow," he said. "I'm learning. I want to get more specific about what we are doing well at, and what we can do better."
Such issues are too hard to encapsulate in a single multiple choice survey, he suspected, which is why he is exploring the possibilities of wording that "is more substantive, open-ended, that gets me more information from the constituents."
Politicians are rooted in partisanship, but Zimmer urged all constituents to send in their feedback.
"I don't know every issue out there in my riding, and when you're in Ottawa you don't always feel what's going on back home, so I think I need as many views as possible from the people of the riding," he said. "It gets issues onto my radar that I wouldn't necessarily see without people telling me directly."
He reads all the survey responses himself, he said, and tries to call back as many as possible who add comments to the form.
The next issue he intends to ask about is still not ready to be announced, he said, but it will pertain to the Queen's 60th anniversary on the throne. An announcement is expected sometime in the next few days.
