… how to commit fraud? Interesting piece in the Vancouver Observer that is making the rounds on Facebook describing a course given through the conservative think-tank Manning Institute. Again, no smoking gun and I’m not drawing any conclusions about the CPC involvement, but give it a read and come to
Continue readingTag: robocalls
Politics and its Discontents: While The Globe and Mail Is Busy Doing PR for The PM …
…it appears that The Vancouver Observer is actually doing some journalism as it unearths the details of the campaign school that John Fryer wrote about last week in his letter to the Globe and Mail. As far as I know, the Globe did no followup of Fryer’s explosive allegations. Hardly
Continue readingWord to Peggy Wente And Comic Relief: A Cheesy Cartoon And Latest From Montreal Icons, Bowser and Blue
Keep thinking you live in a democracy, dear. What’s happened to my country? I went away for a couple of weeks and all hell broke loose. I came back to find that someone named Poutine stole the last election. At first I thought this was a typo, that they meant
Continue readingBlunt Objects: Nanos, Robocalls, and Super Tuesday
Sorry for my lack of posting the past three days – but I haven’t missed much anyways. The big thing I did miss was the recent Nanos Research poll, showing for the second time in a row, the Liberals in second place. The topline numbers (and changes from the last
Continue readingFar and Wide: Robopoll
The first robocall specific poll is out from Angus Reid and it provides little comfort for the Conservatives. The poll also reveals the opposition will find much support in pushing for further inquiry. As well, on a couple key questions, there is some consensus across party lines. The opposition should
Continue readingFar and Wide: Robocall Reset
It’s important to keep some perspective here, as the Conservatives play the “contain” game with robocalls. The frame emerging seems to be that if the Conservatives can isolate electoral fraud to Guelph, they’ve effectively killed this scandal. On the other hand, the opposition is entirely focused on finding the smoking
Continue readingSaskboy and Jymn rub The Globe’s nose in #RoboCon | #cdnpoli
RoboCon: Journalism Failure at the Globe – UPDATED | Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: “And what’s the reason that John Ibbitson, a professional journalist for a national newspaper, treats Giorno with so much respect and kid-gloves that he talks him up as some sort of non-lying politician, while a nobody blogger in
Continue reading"Robo-calls? Get a grip. We’re Canadian"
So says Globe & Mail scold Margaret Wente. We expect our elections to be squeaky clean, and that’s a good thing. Obviously, there were election irregularities in Guelph, and maybe elsewhere, and Elections Canada needs to find out what happened and who did it. But it’s ridiculous to think there
Continue readingImpolitical: The plausible deniability angle
That is what John Ivison is tackling in his latest column where he opines that the Conservatives’ voter identification database system, CIMS, is a key to unravelling the robocall scandal. In the wake of Guy Giorno’s very strong push back against the notion that the Conservative party’s national campaign had
Continue readingImpolitical: Rae on robocalls, the budget
From Monday’s scrum…on wanting to make amendments to the Elections Act to require greater accountability, the need to retain documentation such as scripts, etc., in light of the ongoing scandal. The kinds of things we should be hearing from the government. Plus a bit on the Cotler calls and Flaherty
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
If you’re a Conservative, there’s not much to be laughing about tonight. (h/t)
Continue readingImpolitical: Conservative MP blames Elections Canada
Today, straight out of the mouth of a Conservative MP: “Tory MP says Elections Canada to blame for robocalls.” “I suspect that at the end of the day, if Elections Canada has the resources to do a proper investigation, they’ll find they’re themselves significantly responsible,” Saskatchewan MP Maurice Vellacott said
Continue readingJohn Ibbitson shames himself in the Conservative daily Globe & Mail
Itchy and Scratchy The Globe & Mail is a terrible newspaper. It was once highly regarded but has fallen into disrepute. Only if you are a Conservative or a right-wing operative would you even consider the Globe to be the ‘newspaper of record’. In fact, the newspaper has become the
Continue readingTrashy's World: Huh?
The robocall blame falls at the feet of Elections Canada? Seriously? What has this guy been smoking? “I suspect that at the end of the day, if Elections Canada has the resources to do a proper investigation, they’ll find they’re themselves significantly responsible, that tech issues with marrying EC lists
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Canada’s ‘Newspaper of Record" Continues Its Defense Of Harper
The Globe’s John Ibbitson says the Harper regime wasn’t behind the voter suppression crimes because, well, because Guy Giorno and Stephen Harper say they didn’t do it. Seems like it isn’t just the Conservative Party that has contempt for the intelligence of Canadians. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A New Tory Fantasy Excuse For Robocalls
He may not have anything else going for him, but at least Conservative backbencher Maurice Vellacott has a rich imagination. Recommend this Post
Continue readingConservatives play Whack-A-Mole with Robogate blame game. First it was the Liberals. Now it’s Elections Canada.
“Take my wife. Please.” I hope comedians around Canada are paying attention. The jokes from the Conservatives during the Robogate scandal keep on coming. Only thing is, these jokers don’t realize how funny they really are. I can only hope that Maurice Vellacott was auditioning for the Just for Laughs
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More On Voter Suppression
The Globe has some interesting letters today on the voter suppression crimes of the last election. Of particular note is the first one, by an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, who attended a campaign school presentation in which instructors “made it clear that robo-calling and voter suppression were
Continue readingHey Rob Anders, it’s your party which is the party of Putin
Peas in a pod Like the Conservatives’ voter suppression tactics during the last federal election in Canada, it looks like Russia’s governing party also rigged the vote. No surprise there, seeing the inherent similarities in the two parties and its two leaders.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Voter Suppression – March 11 Toronto Protest
As I suspect is the case with most political bloggers, I offer commentary and provide links to important stories because I love my country and am very concerned about the direction in which it is heading. As well, I am deeply offended when abuse of political power occurs. And, like
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