If there is one thing that the Conservative Party is thoroughly competent at doing, it is providing precise tactical spin to every move it makes and to every reply flung back to the Opposition.
For that purpose alone, it has assembled hundreds and hundreds of communications specialists that work for the party. Under the leadership of Stephen Harper, the propaganda machine has become well oiled and brutally efficient.
Last week, there was a slight lurch as a momentary lapse of lubrication caused a Minister to “mis-speak”.
But it was the National Post’s exemplary investigative journalism, an ongoing exposé of robo-calls campaign during the 2011 election that produced a spectacular grinding of gears.
Like the tragic accident near Burlington yesterday, the shiny, speeding communications vehicle has derailed. But its influence persists.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the cascade of revelations with this headline:
“Canada’s Opposition Steps Up Attacks on Conservatives”
It now reads “Canada’s Opposition Accuses Conservatives” and the first line unequivocally states the issue: “Opposition politicians in Canada accused the ruling Conservative Party of wide-scale voter fraud over alleged voter suppression in last May’s national polls.”
The evidence that Stephen Harper’s party engineered a deliberate and calibrated campaign of voter suppression in order to fraudulously win their putative majority is mounting.
As bloggers, we can and must support a public inquiry into these shameful and illegal actions by using the term “election fraud” and not whatever ambiguous and mushy words the PMO determines should be deployed to frame the discussion to the advantage of the CPC.