The chickens have spoken Peter Mansbridge, the jovial senior journalist of CBC, held three interviews with Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau. Google has revealed the results of searches on google of the three men, during each such interview. Here’s the graph: Two things about the number of searches. First, more people
Continue readingTag: 2015 election
CuriosityCat: Desperate Harper calls in the Wizard of Oz to save his failing campaign
The Wizard of Oz – Harper’s last hope? Having sent his top campaign advisor back to Ottawa, to join his chief of staff, Novak (the one who doesn’t read all his emails), Harper is flailing around, trying to find the magic bullet to rescue his campaign. With the latest Nanos
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Vox Populi: Now 70% of Canadians want change from Harper governance
The trend towards change on October 19 election day is becoming well-nigh irrestible. The latest NANOS tracking poll of voters has this startling statistic (my underlining): A new poll suggests most Canadians (79 per cent) agree the country feels like it’s in recession, nearly seven in 10 (69 per cent)
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Source: Harper is in a bunker
Will order go out from Harper’s bunker for heads to roll? Everybody knows the wheels are coming off the Harper ‘new’ Conservatives bus. And this article in The Hamilton Spectator has interviews with senior Tories about what is happening behind the scenes: One source said cabinet ministers are being encouraged
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Justin Trudeau answers Peter Mansbridge on why he wishes to be prime minister
And gives a succinct answer that answers the question very well. Peter Mansbridge interviews Justin Trudeau And a good answer it is (even though Mansbridge seems to interrupt an awful lot): PM: But why, why do you think you’re that fresh approach? Not on your beliefs on policy, but on
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Coalition or no coalition? What will happen on October 20
Qualified support? OK Polls show the Conservatives slipping, and the NDP and LPC in a dead heat for the role of replacement government, but neither of those two parties expected to gain a majority of seats in the House (170 seats). And this has given rise to intense debate about
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Both Trudeau and Mulcair should keep the other man on a short leash
The Mulcair or Trudeau Short Leash Polls show the Conservatives slipping, and the NDP and LPC in a dead heat for the role of replacement government, but neither of those two parties expected to gain a majority of seats in the House (170 seats). And this has given rise to
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Election October 19: The REAL ballot box question of Canadians
The Two Ballot Box Questions Much as the CPC, NDP and LPC try to frame the ballot box question for the October 19 election, voters have their own views of what the question is. This article from Huffington Post gives some idea of what the question will be: Coletto suggests
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Election 2015: X marks the spot
Here’s my current expectation of the possible seat wins around one week before the October 19 election. I’ve added an X – to mark the right hand border of my forecast – to the CBC/308 instructive Poll Tracker chart: X marks my spot for positions one week before the election
Continue readingCuriosityCat: THE critical numbers on October 19: 50%, 40% and 30% soft support
Switching time Ignore the fluctuations in daily polls leading up to Canada’s October 19 election. But keep your eyes firmly fixed on poll findings and anecdotal evidence regarding three numbers: 50%, 40%, and 30%. Those are the percentages of soft support for the NDP, LPC and CPC, according to the
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Election 2015: The Shift to the Liberal Party starts
The Second King of Austerity? With the dog days of summer ending, and only 6 or so weeks left in the interminable campaign, one of the most interesting sites to check on every now and then is the CBC Poll Tracker, run by Éric Grenier, the founder of ThreeHundredEight.com, a
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Harper’s ‘New’ Conservatives Slow-Motion Implosion
When even Conservative supporters in the media start musing with friends about the possibility of a collapse in the Harper Conservative Party vote on October 19, you know that the drip-drip-drip of wet deposits from chickens coming home to roost is attracting attention: Talking to a Liberal friend Wednesday evening,
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Strong voter registration campaign could mean the end for Harper
The primary objective of Stephen Harper’s absurdly-named Fair Elections Act is to prevent hundreds-of-thousands of Canadians from voting for the NDP, Liberals, Greens, etc.
The Conservatives are, in effect, “cheating” the electoral process again, just as blatantly as in the past. They know that a large number of people – students, marginalized people and First Nations – will have a hard time voting because of the changes. And they know those people would not likely vote Conservative.
Even though the Conservatives are trailing in the polls, it’s much too soon to say they will lose the election. Harper’s gang of strategists and pollsters have masterminded their way to victory three times, overcoming tough odds each time.
But efforts to help people to register to vote are not as strong as they could be. There needs to be close co-operation among groups to make sure that as many people as possible – particularly people in some 70 ridings where the Conservatives are vulnerable – have the identification they need to vote.
Alexie Stephens is one of Leadnow’s staff members working to defeat the Conservatives. |
The Council of Canadians contends that some 770,000 people may have a difficult time voting because of the changes to the Act. Included are 400,000 people who used the voter ID card in 2011 and believe that’s all they need this time; 250,000 people who will move during the election period; and 120,000 who used vouching in 2011.
Harper ‘scheme’ must be stopped
If many of those 770,000 people are unable to vote, the Conservatives could win a crucial number of closely contested seats. Vote splitting among New Democrats, Liberal and Greens – similar to what occurred in 2011 – could also result in another Harper government.
A second factor could prevent many people from voting. Voting was less complicated when Elections Canada enumerators went door-to-door registering voters and explaining where to vote, a process that was eliminated in 1997. Now voter information is compiled from tax records, which are less reliable.
“ It’s all part of voter suppression, making it as complicated as possible so people will just throw up their hands and stay home,” says Stephanie Sydiaha, a Saskatoon activist working on registering voters.
Public interest organizations are responding to the challenge, hoping to play a leading role in defeating the Conservatives.
Dozens of groups want to “knock off” the Conservatives, including well-staffed NGOs, the Council of Canadians, Leadnow, and Dogwood Initiative; unions UNIFOR, the Public Service Alliance of Canada , the Professional Institute of Public Servants of Canada, the Quebec Federation of Labour and others; First Nations groups in many ridings; and avaaz, the international lobby group.
Some groups are urging people to vote strategically for either the NDP or Liberals in as many as 70 ridings, while others are campaigning for just the NDP.
So far, only a few groups are running campaigns that encourage people to vote.
Fairly similar campaigns
The Council of Canadians and Leadnow’s ‘Vote Together’ are the main groups encouraging people to vote. Their campaigns are quite similar. People who visit their websites are asked to pledge that they will vote. So far, the response has been limited.
Both groups are giving extra attention to young voters. The Council has hired high-profile activist Brigette DePape to run its campaign.
The Council and Leadnow are conducting door-to-door campaigns, talking with people and leaving information on what they need to do to vote. The Council has been working in 10 ridings and Leadnow 13. Both groups say they plan to conduct detailed work in more ridings.
Because the Act makes it more difficult for people to vote, groups should do more than just drop off literature and a voters’ guide.
Excellent project in Saskatoon
Interestingly, one small group is doing a more thorough job. In Saskatoon’s downtown generally low-income core, a group of about 15 volunteers have been trained to take people – many of whom have never voted before – through the entire process to get ready to cast their ballot.
The volunteers, equipped with laptop computers, printers and cell phones, go to locations in the city where people congregate. They show people the Elections Canada website and, if they’re not registered, they help them through the process. They make sure people have the right pieces of identification to make sure they will not be turned away at the polls.
“I started with one church I knew about that has a food market for core neighbour residents,” says Stephanie Sydiaha, who launched the volunteer campaign. “I called the Food Bank, they were very eager, so we go there one afternoon a week.”
“We’ve been going to a soup kitchen that feeds 1,000 people a day – yes, in booming Saskatoon, they feed 1,000 people a day,” says Sydiaha , a long-time activist. “These are people who are not reached by politicians, they don’t have TV, or computers, etc. But they want to vote, believe me.”
This kinds of hands-on facilitation should be used by other groups in many neighbourhoods.
Some 14-million-plus people are expected to want to vote. It’s difficult to say how many will not make it through Harper’s rabbit snare of a voting process. But if a million are stymied, it will have a significant impact on the outcome of the election.
I dread thinking of a situation where, two or three days before the election, the NDP is leading the Conservatives by, say, three points in opinion polls. But come the morning after the election, and Harper ends up with perhaps three more seats than the NDP because of his latest trickery.
Serious need for groups to get involved
There is still time – and a serious need – for more groups, particularly unions, to get involved in voter registration campaigning.
Groups involved in the registration campaign need to co-ordinate their efforts. The Canada Elections Act restricts groups (Third Parties) from colluding to provide more than the legal amount of advertising revenue in support of a candidate, but there’s nothing in the Act preventing groups from working together to help people to vote.
Even at this late date, the creation of a national co-ordinating committee could give the campaign the profile needed to warm people about the changes to the Act. There’s still time to publicize the issue and conduct fundraising through a series of national newspaper ads.
There’s plenty of work for individuals. People can contact the Council of Canadians, Leadnow’s Vote Together or their union and volunteer to help with door-to-door voter registration.
Or, if you’d rather work in your neighbourhood on your own, that’s great too. Post voter information in community centres, churches, and grocery stores.
Voting guidelines and, if you want to, you can vote now.
If the campaign works, it will be one of the main reasons why Canadians will wake up on October 20th to a new government.
A Different Point of View....: National voter support campaign could mean the end for Harper
The primary objective of Stephen Harper’s new absurdly-named Fair Elections Act is to prevent hundreds-of-thousands of Canadians from voting for the NDP, Liberals, Greens, etc. The Conservatives are, in effect, “cheating” the electoral process again, just as blatantly as in the past. They know that a large number of people
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Something For The Harper Base To Ponder
Unless they want to add complete hypocrisy to their many other shortcomings, members of the Harper base have much to consider these days, not least of which is their leader’s contemptuous behaviour of military veterans. The group Harper has been quite fond of using for propaganda purposes knows only too
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Trial: Not Unexpected Consequences
Can we expect this soon? For those Conservative spokespersons who don’t believe that the sorry tale of a Prime Minister’s Office scrambling to come up with the very best way to deceive the public, as told by witnesses at the Senator Duffy expenses trial, has had an effect on the
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Justin Trudeau, the King of Growth, leads with honesty
Mulcair took a dangerous step with his pledge not to go into deficit: Despite the low price of oil and Monday’s tumultuous day on the markets, Mulcair said he does not foresee having to go into the red. “We’re of course going to finish the fiscal year on Mr. Harper’s
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