Well, it's not the 19th Century, Rotten Boroughs are supposed to be a thing of the past and ... stuffing ballot boxes, carousel voting and direct diddling of the sytem is so much more 21st Century.
What's new is that an influx of unregistered voters somehow got on the voters list in Eglinton-Lawrence without providing the address information that Elections Canada requires. At least 2,700 such applications were approved and signed by an elections official so that the applicant could vote. But an examination by CBC News shows most of them have address problems. Some give addresses of a bank or a UPS store, where nobody lives. Others have no address at all. And most have no previous address — which is required to ensure that voters aren't on the list at both old and new residences.And as for the MP representing the riding?
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is calling allegations that Elections Canada rules were violated in his riding during the last election "unsavoury," and says he will co-operate with any investigation into the matter.Oh yes. Joe Oliver is simply aghast! And he's hardly taken to exaggeration. He who suggests that anybody who speaks in opposition to his plans at a public hearing on moving tar are "hijacking" them.
"We conducted a completely clean campaign in Eglinton-Lawrence. I was very pleased that we won by over 4,000 votes," Oliver told reporters at an event in St. John's on Thursday. "I have no idea what this is about."
My BS detection meter just pinned.
Welcome to the World Stage of Harper. He now stands accused, possessing the reins of government, with those who engaged in cooping, caging, stuffing and smearing.
It is one thing, as repugnant to me as it is, to cavalierly treat my tax remittances as though they are some freely given gift for government inners to spend on themselves. It is quite another, and far beyond the realm of forgiveness, to perform a rape on the inaliable treasure that is the power of a single legitimate vote.
Regardless of the reforms in the electoral system myself and other may seek, there is no thing more sacred than that one guarantee that I, and every other voter possessed: The right to particpate in the determination of the direction of my government, undiminished.
Any REAL prime minister would defend that guarantee to the detriment of his/her own position, foresaking party politics, defending, to the death if necessary, the electoral foundations on which the democracy resides.
Not so, Stephen Harper.
If I were but the only one so angry. But I'm not.
And now, they're going to celebrate.
The Minister of Threatening Canadians?
ReplyDeleteI note that Preston Manning has had nothing to say on this subject. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI asked Manning once if he thought coalitions were undemocratic, in front of an old-people Moose Jaw audience. He sidesteped the question, as the old people heckled me.
ReplyDeleteWhere on earth, I wondered, would someone find almost three thousand fake voters and how would they get them to the polls, complete with memorized fake addresses, without any of them talking? Flashmob? My mind boggles at the logistics, if nothing else.
ReplyDeleteI forget where I read it now but someone said you need a riding with a close race next to a riding with a lopsided race (so presumably the lopsided voters could move over)
ReplyDeleteHolly : Vote moving
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but like Noni I can't fathom that no one would have blabbed , or maybe they just did.
You wouldn't need any 3000 fake voters.
ReplyDeleteYou'd need 3000/(number of polling stations in the riding). They'd just vote a bunch of times each under different names. Still quite a lot of people, but much more workable. And that's assuming you didn't have a couple of Con polling station volunteers who could let the same person vote lots of times in a row.
What's new is that an influx of unregistered voters somehow got on the voters list in Eglinton-Lawrence without providing the address information that Elections Canada requires. At least 2,700 such applications were approved and signed by an elections official so that the applicant could vote. But an examination by CBC News shows most of them have address problems. Some give addresses of a bank or a UPS store, where nobody lives. Others have no address at all. And most have no previous addresslink
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