Conservative 'Robocalls' tricked voters in last election

Goober

Goober

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Colpy said:
The simple fact is.....the situation has been blown completely out of proportion.
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Well as I have mentioned this story has legs - And why - Because Harper and his crew are just plain FFN dumb at times. Recall this is the Party leader that promised ethics, morals, a chicken whoops, 2 chickens in every pot.

If you work for a company and have an expense account - they want receipts.

If CCRA comes a calling as you E Filed - They want paperwork to match.

Well when it comes to the CPC, things get a tad different. They are all so honest, loyal, why they invented Canadian apple pie.

Now read this link and tell me why the CPC is so FFn dumb.


Elections Canada denied new powers by Tories, MPs say - Politics - CBC News

The Conservatives last week denied a request by Elections Canada for the power to demand receipts for political parties' election spending, raising questions about why, opposition MPs said Tuesday.

In his report on the 2008 federal election, Canada’s chief electoral officer asked MPs to give him the power to request supporting documents from political parties for their expenses. Individual candidates are already required to provide their receipts, as are leadership contestants, Marc Mayrand told the procedure and House affairs committee.

But opposition MPs say the Conservatives on the committee looking at the report overruled them last week, refusing to support Mayrand’s recommendation.

NDP MP David Christopherson says he wants to know why Conservative MPs wouldn't give the chief electoral officer the ability to demand receipts.

"He's the honest referee that's going to decide the election and whether the rules are complied with," he said. "Why are they so afraid to give the CEO the power to demand documents, especially in the context of this robo-scandal?

"The first thing that comes to mind to a reasonable person is they’ve got something to hide and if they give this power to the CEO they’re going to get found out. That’s what it looks like to me," Christopherson said.



Elections Canada denied new powers by Tories, MPs say - Politics - CBC News
 
DaSleeper

DaSleeper

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May 27, 2007
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Tonington said:
Scientists don't predict next years temperature let alone next year's man-made global warming.... they project, and use things like uncertainty because no scientist worth their salt would ever claim to be even 10% successful with a specific prediction for time, place, and amount of some quantity so far in the future.... The Almanac on the other hand says that March 15-18th, storms will roll in and bring 25 centimeters of snow. That is a prediction.
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"Predict" or "Project" ........"Prevaricate" or "Lie"......words....bah
 
Dexter Sinister

Dexter Sinister

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Oct 1, 2004
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Colpy said:
The simple fact is.....the situation has been blown completely out of proportion
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Yeah, in one sense I'm sure that's true, it made no difference in the outcome in any constituency, according to the data I've seen. But I don't think that's the point either. The point is that it appears somebody was doing some pretty rotten things, their success or failure isn't really relevant. What's relevant is that they happened at all.
 
Vanni Fucci

Vanni Fucci

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A blood feud beyond ballots - The Globe and Mail

“The jackasses at Elections Canada are out of control.”
In 2001, Stephen Harper was president of the National Citizens Coalition. That was his opening line in a fundraising letter.
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This article nicely demonstrates our PM's contempt for EC and democracy...

Mr. Harper was taking up the cause of a B.C. man, Paul Bryan, who had been charged with violating the law after posting Atlantic Canada results on his website in the 2000 election before the polls closed in other parts of the country. Mr. Harper argued that, in the age of the Internet, the Elections Canada ban made no sense. Mr. Bryan’s only offence, he wrote, was to believe in freedom of speech at election time.


But Mr. Harper’s words have a rather peculiar ring today. Elections Canada bureaucrats went after Mr. Bryan, he said in his letter, “to establish the precedent of government control of the Internet. … The implications are very ominous, very scary.” And yet, his own government recently tried to introduce Internet surveillance legislation, only to be thwarted by a public backlash.

“Iron-fisted bully tactics have no place in a free and democratic society,” Mr. Harper wrote, in reference to Mr. Kingsley. “Information is power. The less control the government has over the flow of information, the less control it can exert over its citizens. … We cannot allow the government to dictate what information we can and cannot publish.”
Ironically, on information flows, the Harper government is widely viewed as one of Canada’s most restrictive. Just last week, the journal Nature accused the government of muzzling the science community.
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Thanks all cons for putting this clown in the captain's chair...
 
JLM

JLM

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Vanni Fucci said:
I disagree...the rules are there to prevent voters in the west from being influenced by the results of polls in the east...seems pretty straightforward and logical to me...
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Rules that were enacted about 1922 when radio first came on the scene............definitely not realistic today. How many serious voters are going to wait until the end of the and then run down to the polling station to vote in accordance to what people back east are doing or not doing? Let's suppose there's half a dozen who do, the votes will likely balance out among 3 corrupt parties anyway! :lol:
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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Read this yesterday, but not sure if it was mentioned in the thread. Apparently, the CPC have dropped their appeal in the in-and-out scandal. They were pretty adamant about fighting Elections Canada right to the very Supreme Court before this "clearly overblown" robocall thing happened.

I wonder what changed their mind.

Scandal appeal is dropped
 
Vanni Fucci

Vanni Fucci

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JLM said:
Rules that were enacted about 1922 when radio first came on the scene............definitely not realistic today. How many serious voters are going to wait until the end of the and then run down to the polling station to vote in accordance to what people back east are doing or not doing? Let's suppose there's half a dozen who do, the votes will likely balance out among 3 corrupt parties anyway! :lol:
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Whether you agree with it or not, the rule is there so that the election can be run with a level playing field for all parties...even in the days of radio by your argument that rule would have been irrelevant...at any rate, Paul Bryan broke those rules and was spanked for it...

Which reminds me of some murmurs after last election that Harper might have been cited for a similar infraction for holding an interview and urging people to vote Conservative while the polls were still open...also a big no-no!
 
JLM

JLM

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Vanni Fucci said:
Whether you agree with it or not, the rule is there so that the election can be run with a level playing field for all parties...even in the days of radio by your argument that rule would have been irrelevant...at any rate, Paul Bryan broke those rules and was spanked for it...

Which reminds me of some murmurs after last election that Harper might have been cited for a similar infraction for holding an interview and urging people to vote Conservative while the polls were still open...also a big no-no!
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I think rules/laws that can't be enforced are silly. So I phone my brother in Montreal and then go down and vote. Is there anything wrong with that?
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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Elections Canada denied power to delve deeper

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is refusing to explain why Conservative MPs rejected a request by Elections Canada for more power to verify campaign financial returns.

Harper’s evasions Tuesday in the House of Commons were held up by Opposition MPs as evidence the Conservatives have something to hide in the growing investigation of fraudulent election-day robocalls.

Left unanswered by Harper was why the government majority on the Procedure and House Affairs Committee balked at giving Mayrand the same investigative powers as his provincial counterparts.

A committee report, adopted Feb. 9 and publicly posted just last week, states that the Conservative majority voted against giving Mayrand the power to compel parties to back up their financial statements with receipts and details.

The committee report says the compliance audit option will indeed cost the parties. But it suggests the Conservatives were also worried about "compliance burdens" of giving Mayrand more power.

"A majority of the members were concerned about the additional compliance burdens that would be placed on political parties, as well as the possible additional costs to Elections Canada in conducting these audits."

In fact, the report says Mayrand would use his increased powers sparingly, such as to "identify a particular expense that may require further explanation and perhaps documentation."

NDP critic David Christopherson was angry and puzzled by the Conservative stance.

"Why would the government of the day deny the chief electoral officer, an agent of Parliament, the power to do their jobs? They’re big on law and order everywhere else. Why aren’t they when it comes to the chief electoral officer?" he demanded.

Elections Canada denied power to delve deeper | The Chronicle Herald
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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Angus Reid did a poll of over 1,100 people about the robocall issue.

Here are some of the results of that poll:

Canadians were asked which of the five major federal parties are likely to provide false and misleading information to voters through telephone calls with pre-recorded messages during a political campaign. Only a third of respondents in Canada think the Green Party (32%) and the New Democratic Party (NDP) (33%) are “very likely” or “moderately likely” to rely on this tactic. In Quebec, 32 per cent of respondents think the Bloc Québécois is likely to use robocalls with misleading information.

A majority of Canadians believe the Liberal Party (55%) and the Conservative Party (63%) are likely to provide false and misleading information to voters through telephone calls with pre-recorded messages during a political campaign. In fact, two-in-five Canadians (39%) think the Tories are “very likely” to rely on this tactic.

Half of Canadians (50%)—including 61 per cent of Quebecers—believe that every riding that was the subject of misleading robocalls should have a by-election as soon as possible, and four-in-five respondents (81%) want to hold an independent investigation to find out exactly who was behind any misleading robocalls that may have been made in the May 2011 federal election.

Some fancy tables:










http://www.angus-reid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2012.03.06_Robocalls_CAN.pdf
 
TenPenny

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Anyone found to be involved in the Robocalls should not be allowed to be elected or employed by the government, or work or volunteer for any political party for 10 years.
 
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