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When Solicitor General Mike Farnworth unveiled the government’s promised intersection speed cameras last week, he was asked an obvious question he had no intention of answering.

But he came prepared with a sound bite that led every newscast anyway.

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The question: What exact vehicle speed over the posted speed limit will trigger the intersection cameras and automatically send a ticket in the mail to the vehicle owner? Will you get a ticket for driving through the intersection at just 10 kilometres over the speed limit? What if you blow through at 20, 25 or 30 clicks over?

Farnworth refused to say, answering with a potential political quote of the year.

“If you drive like a normal person, you’re not going to get a ticket,” Farnworth said. “Drive like a self-entitled jerk, you’ll get a ticket.”

A clever response, but a non-answer all the same.

Now critics are jumping all over the government’s refusal to reveal the speed-camera ticketing threshold.