rabble.ca - elections

Council of Canadians support for legal challenges 'stirring up strife' according to Conservatives

Council-of-Canadians — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:52:51 -0400

The Conservative Party of Canada’s lawyers yesterday filed a second motion to dismiss the legal challenges of individual citizens seeking to overturn federal election results in seven ridings -- this time because it alleges the Council of Canadians’ support for the cases is “improper.”

The more than 750-page “omnibus” motion is nearly twice the size of the “budget” implementation act, Bill C-38, which seems concise by comparison at only 420 pages.

Understanding the crisis in Greece

Brian Topp — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:44:42 -0400

This weekend, the runner-up party in the recent Greek election, Syriza, seemed to rule out joining with New Democracy and PASOK to give them a majority in parliament. Instead, Syriza cheekily invited a smaller rival left-wing party, Democratic Left, to drink from that poisoned chalice in their place.

At least in the short term, this looks like excellent political hardball on the part of Syriza. They either get to go into opposition in the new parliament while their opponents further discredit themselves. Or there will be another election in June, in which Syriza seems positioned to make further gains -- perhaps enough to form a government.

Syriza then proposes to apply the same hardball approach to the European Union and to the International Monetary Fund.

François Hollande's Socialist France

rabble staff — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:55:13 -0400

Masses of people thronged Place de la Bastille -- symbolically representative of the French revolution -- to cheer the electoral victory May 6 of French Socialist Party candidate François Hollande, over conservative incumbent President of the Republic Nicholas Sarkozy.

The joyful celebratory mood was a welcome change. Over a decade of grim employment news had brought a measure of despondency to the nation once noted for its "joie de vivre." On the campaign trail, Hollande was called the only happy person in a morose country.

J. S. Woodsworth and the CCF's tribute to democracy

gerry caplan — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:27:42 -0400

Stephen Harper has celebrated the first anniversary of his majority by reminding Canadians of the moral tone he offers his country.

A week ago, Mr. Harper announced Canada would examine "all options" as the 2014 deadline for pulling our troops out of Afghanistan approached. Since Parliament had voted unanimously for that deadline and for no other options, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair asked the Prime Minister when Canadian troops would actually be brought home.

France elects a 'normal' president in Francois Hollande

Brian Topp — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:52:15 -0400

On election day in Paris, Place de la Bastille (home of the left) was full and Place de la Concorde (home of the right) was empty. As sure a sign as any that the Socialist Party was about to win the presidency, as it went on to do. Francois Hollande is the new president of France.

Why did Nicolas Sarkozy lose? He started remarkably well only five short years ago. Sarkozy's 2007 campaign captured a mood in France for a "rupture" from its own economic and social model. France was bored with itself, worried about its economy, tired of riots and debates about accommodating immigrants, and wanted to get on board the global economic bubble then roaring. Sarkozy offered a "hyper-presidency" that would deal with all of those issues and many more.

Tracking the financing of U.S. election ads

rabble staff — Thu, 03 May 2012 07:38:49 -0400

May Day, Murdoch and the murder of Milly Dowler. What do they have to do with the 2012 U.S. general election? This year's election will undoubtedly be the most expensive in U.S. history, with some projections topping $5 billion. Not only has the amount of spending increased, but its nature has as well, following the 2010 U.S.

Liberals and the 'strategic voting' political drug

Brian Topp — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:09:44 -0400

"For 'tis the sport to have the enginer hoist with his owne petar, an't shall go hard. But I will delve one yard below their mines, and blow them to the moon." -- Hamlet, Act 3

"Hoist with your own petard." Meaning: "Injured by the device that you intended to use to injure others." -- The Phrase Finder

For many years, Liberals have been eager advocates of "strategic voting" -- the idea that it makes sense to vote for a party you don't support in order to avoid the election of a party you don't support even more.

A pitch to this effect has been part of the closing argument of every federal Liberal campaign since at least 1993.

Lessons about Canada's political system from the Alberta election

Brian Topp — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:56:14 -0400

Thunder Bay MP Bruce Hyer resigned from the NDP caucus this week for an interesting mix of reasons. He was disappointed he didn't get appointed to the NDP shadow cabinet. He is concerned the party will reintroduce a long-gun registry. And he rejects, in principle, the idea that the political party whose colours he carried in the last election can tell him what to think, what to say, or how to vote.

Now let's look at the Alberta election -- a true "Dewey beats Truman" fiasco for Canada's political commentariat, which predicted victory for Wildrose on the basis of the latest crop of junk polls, and then got to cover an impressive (as measured by seats) landslide for the Alberta Progressive Conservatives.

Why did Wildrose lose so convincingly?

More evidence misleading calls really did affect election

karl nerenberg — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:11:07 -0400

The Council of Canadians is doing a heroic job of turning a complex, statistical process into news.

The process involves determining whether or not so-called robocalls in seven ridings which falsely told voters that polling stations had been changed had an impact on the election results.

The news is that there is plausible and credible evidence that such calls took place, that they targeted voters whose support for opposition parties had been identified and that some of the calls did, in essence, tell lies. They told voters that polling places had been changed, when that was not true.

There are seven ridings involved in the court case the Council is spearheading and there was only a single polling station change in all of them combined.

Europe counts in French elections

M.Gregus — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:34:15 -0400

The biggest smile, the night of the first round of the French presidential elections, belonged to Marine Le Pen, candidate of the extreme right Front National (FN) who obtained 17.9 per cent of the vote, a record for the party formerly led by her father.

François Hollande's excellent start in the French election

Brian Topp — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:55:17 -0400

A party apparatchik, who spent most of his career toiling in obscurity, building his party. A tool of the labour movement and other suspect players who, some argue, must not be allowed near the public purse. A not-entirely-successful dieter and exerciser, as of yet. An instinctive consensus-builder and team-leader, who drew criticism for being too quick to compromise to keep his party united in its darkest moments. A relative unknown who sounds like his predecessor, who he served as a senior adviser.

Lethbridge could produce surprising results in Alberta's election

M.Gregus — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:28:11 -0400

Alberta's provincial election seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. When the Wildrose Party (formally Wildrose Alliance) began to see a rise in popularity and gained a few former Progressive Conservative backbenchers, media pundits were quick to point out that when an Alberta political dynasty falls, it falls hard. Across the province, polls are reporting anywhere from 30 to 74 seats for the Wildrose Party, and a fall from grace for the Progressive Conservatives. The Calgary and Edmonton battlegrounds are widely reported on but south, in the land of status quo, a very interesting thing is happening.

Vote-moving Canadian election fraud

Anita Krajnc — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:34:24 -0400

2700 reasons to investigate.

The following is taken from the cbc.ca website

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

"What's new is that an influx of unregistered voters somehow got on the voters list in Eglinton-Lawrence without providing the address information that Elections Canada requires. At least 2,700 such applications were approved and signed by an elections official so that the applicant could vote. But an examination by CBC News shows most of them have address problems. Some give addresses of a bank or a UPS store, where nobody lives. Others have no address at all. And most have no previous address -- which is required to ensure that voters aren't on the list at both old and new residences."

Judy Rebick: Technocrat tyranny?

rabble staff — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:58:26 -0400

The rule of the technocrats: Have democracies given too much control to bureaucrats and policy advisers? Judy Rebick joins Steve Paikin for more.

Empowering Elections Canada

M.Gregus — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:46:48 -0400

A lot has been written about the "robocall" scandal in the last few weeks. Topics have ranged from what sections of the Canada Elections Act may have been breached, to how electors can challenge an election.

Hill Dispatches: Chief Electoral Officer says robocalls are 'absolutely outrageous'

karl nerenberg — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:55:08 -0400

The Chief Electoral Officer could not have been clearer.

Automated calls telling voters that their polling stations had been changed never came from his agency.

Elections Canada does not keep or distribute phone numbers and never calls people, full stop.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Marc Mayrand, told the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee that he considers these fraudulent calls to be a very serious matter.

"It is absolutely outrageous to falsely represent oneself as Elections Canada," Mayrand told the committee. "That is unacceptable in a modern democracy."

In a way, say Conservatives, it is all Elections Canada's fault!

Divide and conquer: Indigenous peoples, the budget, and a chat with Romeo Saganash

David P Ball — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:16:02 -0400

When it comes to Indigenous communities, today's federal budget, unsurprisingly, smacks of the paternalism for which Canada is infamous.

Some Aboriginal leaders saw benefits. That's the nature of divide and conquer: there are bonuses.

The budget earmarked $275 million for education and training in Indigenous communities (over three years), and $331 million to improve reserve water systems (over two years). A First Nations anti-violence program got a $12 million boost, as well.

Finance minister Jim Flaherty said the Conservatives want to "unlock the potential of Canada's First Nations children."

Pro Bono: Empowering Elections Canada

M.Gregus — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:58:10 -0400

Possible autumn 2012 B.C. election?

Jim Quail — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:54:03 -0400

B.C.’s next non-binding "fixed" provincial election date isn’t scheduled until May 14 2013, but I think there is an increasing possibility that we’ll be going to the polls sooner than that. Not because the government is anxious to refresh its mandate, but because too many wheels are falling off the governing party.

Elections Canada keeps secret thousands of rulings, MPs fail to ask key questions

Democracy Watch — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:41:40 -0400

Elections Canada head Marc Mayrand took a small step towards much-needed transparency when he disclosed today at a parliamentary committee hearing that, in fact, a total of 800 complaints were filed by voters about false phone calls during the 2011 federal election.

However, in part because MPs failed to ask him key questions about Elections Canada's enforcement record, Mr. Mayrand continued to keep secret details about rulings on complaints from past elections, and details about 1,000 other complaints filed with Elections Canada by voters during the 2011 election.

Hill Dispatches: Robocall court cases could mean by-elections

karl nerenberg — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:41:58 -0400

Elections Canada may be investigating robocalls and other voter suppression tactics. But Elections Canada cannot overturn the results of an election in a given riding.

The only chance of overturning results of the 2011 election in any of the 308 ridings is the through the Federal Court.

That is why the Council of Canadians is supporting legal actions on the part of individual Canadians to overturn the 2011 results in seven ridings throughout Canada.

Canada rallies against election fraud

Anita Krajnc — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:33:14 -0400

Cities across Canada erupted in protest in response to recent revelations that deceptive phone calls, also known as robocalls, were deployed to influence the outcome of the 2011 Canadian election. The admission by Elections Canada that it received 31, 000 complaints, many from citizens who had received automated messages directing them to fictional polling stations, has many Canadians upset

Some have testified that the robocalls came from companies with ties to the Conservative party that won the election.

Robocalling: One way to produce an 'enemies' list

Gary Shaul — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:32:18 -0400

I've been working on some research into the voter suppression phone call scandal in which voters were misdirected to non-existent polling stations. I hope to have some of the detailed results published on the weekend. I've looked at the Elections Canada financial records of 96 Conservative candidates (including most of those listed by the Sixth Estate) with a particular eye on the "research and survey" lines. I also looked at the financial reports for all 55 Third Party campaigns.

Elections Canada's disclosure is still incomplete -- key questions remain

Democracy Watch — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:43:30 -0400

Elections Canada's disclosure that it has received 700 complaints about false phone calls during the 2011 federal election, its commitment to issue a public report once its investigations are completed and the Chief Electoral Officer's willingness to explain to a parliamentary committee how it handles complaints, are all steps forward.

However, other steps must be taken to ensure Canada's election law is enforced fairly, properly and effectively.

Elections Canada's report on the false phone calls must include a chart with information about the nature of each complaint, how and when each complaint was investigated, what evidence was found, what the conclusions were and what enforcement actions were taken (if any).

Robocall scandal is Canada's Watergate

rabble staff — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:44:49 -0400

Perhaps it's our Canadian modesty that prevents us from thinking we could have a scandal as big-league and important as Watergate. But that modesty may be misplaced.

When it comes to democracy, nothing is more basic than the citizen's right to vote. So the deliberate attempt to prevent voters from casting their ballots amounts to a stake through the faintly beating heart of democracy as surely as attempting to wiretap the headquarters of a rival political party.

Of course, Watergate became a world-class scandal because the break-in and coverup were linked to the highest political levels in the U.S.

Is something like that possible here?