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Big political scandal brewing in Canada
Topic Started: Feb 28 2012, 10:17 AM (694 Views)
Deleted User
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The Conservatives are in the cross hairs on this one. Its a huge dirty tricks expose, involving directing people to the wrong polling stations, etc. It first broke 3 days ago and as of tonight it involves 40s riding (districts). It could end up overturning some results in last years federal election in close races. Elections Canada, an apolitical organization is investigating.

LINK
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Chris
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"...robocalls...voter-suppression calls"???
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jackd
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More on the subject:
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As has been well documented in the media, Conservatives used automated, pre-recorded robocalls to contact voters in ridings across the country to provide them with false and misleading information about polling stations. Other voters were called late at night and, they say, harassed and intimidated.

The allegations even attracted the attention of the conservative Wall Street Journal, which reported the robocalls were a “scandal” in the making. At first, Conservative flaks denied the allegations. Then, late last week, a Conservative staffer who worked on the party’s election campaign in Guelph lost his job amid the growing scandal. Tories clearly hoped the matter would end there. But, on Monday, a Toronto newspaper reported that former employees of the right-wing Responsive Marketing Group (RMG) had admitted to making in-person calls to voters to send them to the wrong polling stations. RMG is a shadowy outfit and bills itself in this way: “RMG works exclusively with right-of-centre campaigns to design and execute integrated programs that use direct mail, the telephone and online tools to … deliver results for our clients.One ex-RMG employee, Annette Desgagne, even told the RCMP and Elections Canada about RMG Conservative Party scripts containing clearly false information. “We’re sending people to the wrong place,” Desgagne told her boss.

If that is the case, Stephen Harper and his party are facing much more than a scandal. They have been implicated in a conspiracy that, if true, will shake the Conservative Party — and our democracy — to its foundations. The Liberal Party deservedly paid a price for the Quebec sponsorship scandal. People went to jail, and the party has never really recovered.

This Conservative vote fraud scandal is arguably worse. It does not just involve the theft of tax dollars in one province. It involves the theft of an actual election, in ridings right across Canada. If the allegations are true, Harper’s party has debased our democracy, and made us look to the world like a banana republic.

Walkom: In Harper’s robo-call world, ends always justify means. Such behaviour is the logical consequence of the prime minister’s take-no-prisoners style of politics — a style that, even by Canada’s rough and tumble standards, stands out as extreme.
Many Canadians would find such actions abhorrent. But in Harper’s dualistic universe, where the forces of evil are a constant threat, all means are justified.
For Stephen Harper’s party, the penalties could be very, very significant. They range from fines and jail time to deregistration of Harper’s party and liquidation of its assets.


What can we do to get honest non-crooks politicians/political parties?
Edited by jackd, Feb 28 2012, 10:45 AM.
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Chris
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Thanks, that's not good.
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Deleted User
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Well lets be fair, it has not been determined if this was party policy or some folks working for them that took this upon themselves.

Unlike the US, we have a national elections watchdog that sets voting standards across the country & monitors elections for fairness & abuse. They have broad powers to investigate, overturn results, even call a new election, and they are free of political interference.

This could morph into the biggest political scandal in Canadian history if they determine it was orchestrated at a high level.
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Deleted User
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BTW, at last our politics are getting as interesting as yours. A dubious honor to be sure.
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Chris
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Right, sounds bad as Chicago politics.

We have FEC at fed level, and states have election boards.
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Deleted User
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What sort of powers do they have, Chris?
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Deleted User
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The Wiki page on Elections Canada is brief but it appears accurate: LINK

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Chris
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YOu can read about fec here: http://www.fec.gov/about.shtml

I think it's special. The state boards are more responsible.

Here's TX: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/index.shtml
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