Canadian Politics

How are things going for the upcoming War on Crime?

Its still going through the Senate so its probably being toned down a bit. I doubt it will lead to anything more than the courts being overburdened and a ton of money being wasted.

And I'm not sure this robocall scandal will hurt Harper. He doesn't have to call an election for another 4 years or so and the general public has a really short memory. Plus the Liberals and NDP couldn't run a hard hitting attack ad if their lives depended on it.

and the general public has a really short memory

That's why they need a small reminder.

If the Opposition does to the Robocall scandal what Harper did to the past two Liberal leaders (namely run election style attack ads in interelection years, expect this time it wouldn't be blatant libel) than it might work. But I don't think they have the stones for it.

The NDP play very clean and I don't see Bob Rae being anything but clean. So basically Harper can just cheat his way to victory and next time, he can just straight rig the elections and really who is going to stop him?

So unless the NDP and the Liberals realize they have to play hardball we're screwed. It wouldn't even be mudslinging, they just need to keep the scandal in the public's eye and demand the investigation goes forward without hindrance. You can't fight like gentlemen when dealing with someone like Harper.

Let's not conflate moral cleanliness with politeness. Good Is Not Nice.

^ True enough.

Updates on Robocall scandal. Tories are now blaming Elections Canada for the robocalls. Liberals are going to release all their campaign calls to Elections Canada in the hopes of pressuring the Tories to do the same. The Tories have so far refused to do so and stated that there is no reason to do so.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/05/pol-robocalls-monday.html

In other news of Tory wtf-ery, they're going to cancel automatic citizenship for being born in Canada. I'm not entirely sure what that means of people, in Canada, when the only reason they would be Canadian is that they were born in Canada. I'm sure the anti-immigrant folks choke eating bread when they hear you can be Canadian (and thus get the magical welfare) simply by being born on Canadian soil. Except... you don't get welfare at all without residency and paying taxes (or healthcare, or pension or income supplement or whatever... no residency no service and even if you're not resident there are some taxes that Canadians have to pay). This on top of the fact that birth tourism is done by rich people trying to give their children a leg up by allowing them a door into Canada. I suppose the evil flood of Chinese millionaires is such a damper on our economy as they eat up our welfare.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/03/02/birth-immigration-citizenship.html

Do they have a list of who to blame for the robocalls scandal?

If so, who's next?

Santa Claus?

What we need in Canada is for Canadians to stand up for their rights. We need widespread protests across Canada over the invalid election. We need a Canadian Spring. I don't think any of us should stand for an illegitimate government. Even if the Tories successfully weasel their way out of this election fraud they committed, it still happened and the results are still wrong.

The governor general needs to dissolve parliament (after a public inquiry) and at the very least refuse to give royal assent to any bills until this is resolved.

The Tories blatantly disobeyed Elections Canada when they called their supporters about polling stations; your supposed to tell them to check with Elections Canada to make sure the info is correct. Its pretty much clear that the Conservatives believe that the rules just don't apply to them.

http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/canada/article/1116574--elections-canada-told-parties-do-not-call

To me, the only thing scarier than directly ignoring democracy is the possibility that voters themselves just won't care. I'm glad to see a few pissed off Canadians here, and would like to see quite a few more as time goes on and people become more aware.

Really, I wasn't expecting this. It's like Canada suddenly turned into Wisconsin or something, when I always thought of Canada as the chillaxed Jamaica of the north.

You just highlighted the biggest issue in this whole; the Canadian public doesn't give a damn what Harper does. His last government fell on several ethical violations and contempt votes and we turned around and gave him a majority. Unless this robocall scandal was big enough to sway the election severely I think we deserved this; we put these ideologically driven crooks in power no matter what they do.

We need widespread protests across Canada over the invalid election. We need a Canadian Spring

Chill with hyperbole.

I'd argue that the former is pretty proportionate if its found that the robocall scandal is as bad as it sounds.

Then they'll lose the next election.

Uh. Isn't the whole point of the scandal how basically illegitimate it might make the elections?

^ Exactly my point. I can't have faith in elections if the entire process is rigged anyway.

Tories dropped their appeal over the "in and out" scandal. They will repay $230 000 owed to taxpayers over election campaign financing fraud. In a separate regulatory charge, four Tory individuals specifically charged with writing fraudulent expenses have plead guilty and a fine of $52 000 was levied against them.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/06/pol-supreme-court-conservatives.html

In other news, Harper has refused to give over national call data and also denied Elections Canada the power to request receipts for their spending.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/06/pol-robocalls-chief-electoral-officer-powers.html

So, when does the weather become warm enough for an Occupy Parliament Hill Operation? A Canadian Spring sounds good to me.

It's 10 degrees out tomorrow.

After April, most likely.

edited 6th Mar '12 6:07:58 PM by czhang

Yeah, the cold weather is going to leave a damper on any sort of protests over election fraud.

Oh, in other news, the omnibus crime bill is likely to be made into law by the end of this week. Rejoice as we blow 10 billion on new super-max jails and war on pot.

Yaaay, because being tough on crime has worked out so well down south.

In other other news,

I seriously hope the government does something about this.

edited 6th Mar '12 6:26:00 PM by czhang

It just keeps getting worse. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/08/pol-milewski-eglinton-lawrence.html

On the other hand the Tories are going to allow an NDP motion... to propose legislation to give Elections Canada more investigative power within 6 months. In other words, assuming the bill passes in a decent form, more than enough time for the public to forget and for evidence to be destroyed or doctored. Oh and the motion is non-binding...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/07/pol-elections-canada-power.html

edited 8th Mar '12 7:35:55 AM by Rationalinsanity

There is now reports of straight up ballot box stuffing. CBC has uncovered at least one riding had perhaps 2700 "voters" with fake addresses that voted very late in the election. Elections Canada is refusing to release any information about it until a judge removes the seal.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/08/pol-milewski-eglinton-lawrence.html

In other news, Baird manages to keep a straight face while listening to allegations of election irregularities in Burma.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/08/baird-burma.html

Best comment on that second story: