There appears to be a lack of clarity about what defines an act that violates our basic right to participate in an election under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and what is a dirty political trick. This is a VERY important distinction, as the latter is a type of politics that people should be ashamed of (as practiced by the last campaign for Frank Valeriotte) and the former is illegal.
The Mercury does a good job of explaining something MP Valeriotte's campaign did that was legal but something I would say is wrong in our system in this article. Essentially, his campaign sent out a voice message to thousands of people in Guelph informing them that Marty Burke (the Conservative candidate) opposed abortions. Nowhere in this message did his campaign choose to identify that the message was coming from the Liberal candidate. This type of negative attack designed to prey on emotions of voters with personal statements turns many people off of politics and acts as a barrier to participation from community members who would make strong community leaders, but is only a minor violation of the Elections Act (the Elections Act requires all campaign advertisements to have a statement saying who paid for it).
I can't find an article from the local paper outlining the severity of what the Conservative Party (allegedly) has done, so I'll refer back to previous blog posts: The voice messages (robocalls) sent out to thousands of people on election day sending them to the wrong polling station, purporting to be from Elections Canada, were a blatant attempt to keep people from voting. This is one of the few things in life we can count on as being blatantly illegal.
Elections Canada is investigating, aided by the RCMP. The Government of Canada needs to be urged to set up their own independent investigative body, much like the Gomery commission. This should not be done because it is easy, but because it is right.
Full disclosure: As the manager for the Green Party campaign for John Lawson in this election, we used a telecommunications company for polling, a telephone townhall and robocalls. Our robocalls were used to invite people to events, remind them to vote and then one was sent in response to the suppression call to let our supporters know that the voting locations had not changed. The company we used was Solusone, I believe they are based out of Vaughan, Ontario.
Conservative MP gives key Robo Call information away
http://www.hilltimes.com/news/politics/2012/03/06/voter-identification-massive-job-central-conservative-campaign-gives-voter/29964
For those who don't know the ins and outs of national campaigns in Canada: There is a nationally coordinated campaign run by the 'central' party, this is supplemented with local campaigns. Big expenses, such as: advertising, leaders tours, etc. tend to be paid for by the central campaign as they have a much larger budget and spending allowance. In the case of at least the NDP and the Green Party, all supporter identification is handled locally and is one of the goals of all the phone calls and door knocking that occurs during an election.
In this article, MP Velacott is stating that the Conservative Party centrally coordinates and pays for all of the supporter identification done over the phone, to the point where local campaigns are not given the phone lists of their ridings (made available by Elections Canada to each Party and campaign).
If what he says is accurate, then any phone calls made to Guelph (and any other riding) were coordinated by the Central campaign and not a 23 year old recent University Graduate who is so far the only person to have any kind of accountability for the voter suppression that took place.
We need Elections Canada, our elected representatives and our friends in the media to get to the bottom of who organized and paid for these calls. Attempting to suppress fundamental Canadian rights needs to result in consequences that will deter any politician from taking these actions again.
For those who don't know the ins and outs of national campaigns in Canada: There is a nationally coordinated campaign run by the 'central' party, this is supplemented with local campaigns. Big expenses, such as: advertising, leaders tours, etc. tend to be paid for by the central campaign as they have a much larger budget and spending allowance. In the case of at least the NDP and the Green Party, all supporter identification is handled locally and is one of the goals of all the phone calls and door knocking that occurs during an election.
In this article, MP Velacott is stating that the Conservative Party centrally coordinates and pays for all of the supporter identification done over the phone, to the point where local campaigns are not given the phone lists of their ridings (made available by Elections Canada to each Party and campaign).
If what he says is accurate, then any phone calls made to Guelph (and any other riding) were coordinated by the Central campaign and not a 23 year old recent University Graduate who is so far the only person to have any kind of accountability for the voter suppression that took place.
We need Elections Canada, our elected representatives and our friends in the media to get to the bottom of who organized and paid for these calls. Attempting to suppress fundamental Canadian rights needs to result in consequences that will deter any politician from taking these actions again.
Thank you Guelph Mercury!
I think the title of this Guelph Mercury editorial misses the mark, but otherwise am appreciative that they posted! Encouraging people to write letters to media and providing a template for those who are not confident or for those who want to have a starting position doesn't strike me as inherently evil and I'm proud to be a member of a group encouraging our community to take action! Our email list also differs from a robocall in that anybody can opt out of it at any time.
So let's not lose focus: the Conservative Party has been caught suppressing the vote and violating our rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Let's encourage Elections Canada to quickly get to the bottom of this and help our media ensure that the process is fair, equitable, and doesn't let the Conservative Party spin machine turn this into a story about dirty tricks. If you feel strongly about this, I continue to urge you to write to the media outlets or elected officials listed in my previous post (using the template provided or not).
Update: It's worth noting that they attribute the letter to the Green Party of Canada, while in fact it was from the local Guelph Green Association.
So let's not lose focus: the Conservative Party has been caught suppressing the vote and violating our rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Let's encourage Elections Canada to quickly get to the bottom of this and help our media ensure that the process is fair, equitable, and doesn't let the Conservative Party spin machine turn this into a story about dirty tricks. If you feel strongly about this, I continue to urge you to write to the media outlets or elected officials listed in my previous post (using the template provided or not).
Update: It's worth noting that they attribute the letter to the Green Party of Canada, while in fact it was from the local Guelph Green Association.
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