With the latest meme from the PMO in hand, Conservatives under hostile fire in Question Period, uniformly downplay the “robocall scandal” as nothing but an “unsubstantiated smear campaign”…
Well, at this point in time, the Conservatives are right – at least, technically speaking. Opposition critics don’t presently have the necessary facts to back up their suggestive allegations of organized electoral fraud by the CPC. As passionately eager as they are to jump all over this issue for political advantage, maybe it would be best if they just waited for the investigations of Elections Canada to play out…
Yeah, I know, that’s kind of a boring approach to the matter and definitely not the way the game is played, but without any factual basis, there’s not a whole lot of cause for all the steam in the heated allegations currently being made by the Liberals and NDP.
The Conservatives, however, are completely missing the boat by playing the “indignant victim” card here. What they should be doing instead is directing their outrage to the malfeasant operatives within their own party and proclaiming their commitment to ferret them out. Of course, that presupposes the notion that the CPC organization wasn’t actually involved in any fraudulent electoral shenanigans…
Red Tory v.3.0.3 
The problem that people are missing here is that even if one cannot prove that actual members of the Party committed these crimes, if it was not the party itself, it was someone acting on the Party’s behalf. And even if it were only supporters, this means that the pattern of abuse that the Party has set has rubbed off on their supporters and that the election process has been tarnished. Thus, even the best case scenario for the PCP is a terrible, terrible scenario.
Losers wait for evidence, pile it on I say! What a show by all partys.
That collective sigh you may have heard is “average person” thinking to themselves, “idiots”. Hey, did ya hear Ontario is in a world of hurt financially and that Harper is meeting with Israel’s PM before the US Prez meets with him…that was on page 19 next to the story on Lindsay Lohan’s comeback.
just saw an interview that was on cbc from bc. Call traced to Conservative party, live voice saying polling station moved…..her neighbor saying he received call from “Electoins Canada” that polling station was moved. It seems a national pattern is unfolding……..
I know a sports therapist Kirby who can fix that shoulder for you, cuz, your going to hurt something with that stretch.
To follow up on Jack’s post, here’s the story:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/misleading-b-c-election-call-traced-conservative-party-011626435.html
Astrid Dimond said she had been called six times for Conservative donations during the last election. After a seventh call, she said she did an internet search on the caller’s phone number, which had shown up on her call display.
“It came up as the Conservative Party in Victoria,” Dimond said.
The next time she received a call from the same number, she told the caller she was supporting the NDP in the election in the hopes the calls would stop.
Two days before the election, Dimond said she got another call from the same number.
“[The caller] just said, ‘Did you know the polling station had changed,’ and basically, I said, ‘No it hasn’t,’ and that was the end of the conversation.
If this claim can be substantiated, this proves it was not just the work of 3rd party operatives. Her call came from a live person at the Victoria CPC office. By the way, there are numerous similarly serious allegations coming out of Guelph. If EC can confirm any of these, then the Conservatives are in serious trouble.
Nothing to see here folks, just move along
[IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/33jhlxf.png[/I
Reality Check: Complaints to Elections Canada
Here are statistics regarding complaints received by Elections Canada in the past five federal general elections:
2000 Federal Election: 382 complaints (Source: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada on the 37th General Election Held on November 27, 2000)
2004 Federal Election: 398 complaints (Source: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada on the 38th General Election Held on June 28, 2004)
2006 Federal Election: 329 complaints (Source: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada on the 39th General Election of January 23, 2006)
2008 Federal Election: 1,392 complaints (Source: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada on the 40th General Election of October 14, 2008)
2011 Federal Election: 31,000 complaints and counting (Source: Statement by Elections Canada, March 2, 2012)
[IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/33jhlxf.png[/IMG]
Brent: Stats don’t lie! 😉
Billg: Losers wait for evidence, pile it on I say!
Not sure WTF that means. If one seeks factual evidence, that makes you a “loser”…? Maybe that makes sense in “conservative” circles, but the logic is lost on me.
What a show by all partys [sic].
Ah, yes… the “ordinary man is fed up with political hijinks” meme that is oft repeated by Sun News in the editorial pages of their shabby rags. At least, whenever it suits their convenience. Of course, if any wrong-doing is detected on the “liberal” side of things then Sun News goes after it guns-ablazing with rabid fervour… For some reason in those instances, they’re not so casually dismissive of political hijinks. All part of their “fair and balanced” news coverage, I guess.
Well billg, if you think it is a stretch to say that the basic principle of que bono is easily applied in this situation then you understand very little about the most basic elements of human behaviour.
Hi Red Tory.
I agree that the opposition parties are using this and getting all excited when they really need to wait for Elections Canada.
But I also think their efforts are forcing the media to cover the issue and prompting citizens to come forward with their own experiences. Without the opposition pushing for this, we might not have known anything about it for years.
Those stats on numbers of complaints are revealing –
382 in 2000
398 in 2004
329 in 2006
1,392 in 2008
31,000 in 2011
No wonder the Harper government wants to eliminate Statistics.
Numbers do tell stories!
Thanks.
TF: True enough. It’s a good thing that attention is being paid to the matter, I just think now it’s time to dial back the hysteria a little and see what emerges from the investigations that are currently underway.
The various Cons have previously plead guilty to election fraud with nary a bump in their approval numbers. I say take what looks like the truth and amplify it a million times.
What I do know is that “hysteria” works and becomes part of the “truth” – adscam anyone?
When Dean Del Mastro implies that the Liberals are behind the Robo-calls then it should be pointed that he’s batshit crazy and not be given any airtime.
Is he seriously saying that a party trailing in the polls would call annoyingly it’s own supporters in the hopes that they get annoyed and not vote? Or would a party that has been guilty (repeatedly) of elections fraud and received nothing more than a little tap on the fingers be ready to be slightly bolder to see if they can get away with it again….
CWTF: You’ve certainly got a point there. Adscam was a bullshit scandal that got blown wildly out of proportion to the scale of the “wrongdoing” involved, but the incessant moaning and wailing by the Bloc and the Cons for YEARS over what was essentially a pretty trivial affair certainly took a damaging toll on the Liberals.
As for Del Mastro’s insane hypothesis that the Liberals are behind the robo-calls, it beggars belief. That someone could trot out such an incredulous notion with a straight face says a lot about the intellectual dishonesty and unscrupulous nature of the individual in question.
I’m not typing this. You are not reading this. But if you are then it’s a smear campaign. And I challenge you to prove otherwise.
Craig: Conservative “logic” in action! Gotta love it…