Ottawa’s Vikileaks and robo-call affairs are being treated as equivalents. They are not.
The robo-call affair involves allegations of electoral fraud. If, as suggested by Liberals and New Democrats, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives deliberately misrepresented themselves to voters before last May’s election, it is a serious police matter.
The Vikileaks affair, in which a Liberal staffer released on the Internet publicly available details of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ messy divorce, was at worst in bad taste.
At best, it was an example of brilliant — if nasty — guerrilla theatre.
The robo-call allegations are twofold. One is that political operatives in some ridings (most notably Guelph) used live or automated telephone calls to direct voters unlikely to support their party to non-existent polling stations.
In some cases the callers fraudulently identified themselves as officials of Elections Canada, the non-partisan body that oversees voting.
The second kind of allegation, while murkier, involves claims that operatives posing as Liberals or New Democrats deliberately called undecided voters at inconvenient times — such as the middle of the night — in order to irritate them.
The aim here, it is alleged, was to make these voters so mad at the opposition parties that they would throw their support to the Conservatives.
In some closely fought ridings where these tactics are said to have been used, the Conservatives won by the narrowest of margins.
In Northern Ontario’s Nipissing riding, for instance, the Liberal incumbent lost to the Conservatives by 18 votes. In Toronto’s Etobicoke Centre, the Conservative candidate won by 26.
Altogether, complaints have been made in 40 ridings. In seven of these (six of which elected Conservatives), the margin of victory was less than 1,000 votes.
Suspicion has focused on the Conservatives in part because a Tory political aide involved in the controversial Guelph campaign mysteriously quit his job last week.
But the other reason is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s party is years ahead of its competitors in modern campaign technology.
The Conservatives are particularly skilled at using telephone surveys to identify and analyze voters, including those who back other political parties.
It would be almost irresistible for a party with access to such detailed information to use it in dodgy ways, particularly if those making the decisions had no qualms about the means used to smash their opponents.
The Vikileaks affair, on the other hand, was a more old-fashioned, albeit legal, dirty trick.
It involved dredging up publicly available personal information — in this case the details of Toews’ divorce case — to discredit an opponent.
Politicians know they are all vulnerable to this kind of attack. So it should come as no surprise that Liberal interim leader Bob Rae moved quickly to fire the miscreant in his party who had done the dredging.
Rae knows that most adults, including Liberals, have secrets they would prefer to protect.
Still, the Vikileaks affair demonstrated a certain kind of poetic justice. In order to justify the government’s proposed intrusive Internet legislation, Toews had argued that only villains — such as child predators — want privacy.
The Vikileaker demonstrated that such a claim is patently false and that all of us — including Harper cabinet ministers — have portions of our lives we’d prefer to keep to ourselves.
Does this justify outing Toew’s complex marital past? I reckon I’d side with Rae here. Some things should just be left alone.
But whatever one thinks of Vikileaks, it was a schoolboy prank compared to the robo-call scandal. That one goes to the heart of how we choose the people who represent us. It’s deadly serious.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Thomas Walkom
The robo-call affair involves allegations of electoral fraud. If, as suggested by Liberals and New Democrats, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives deliberately misrepresented themselves to voters before last May’s election, it is a serious police matter.
The Vikileaks affair, in which a Liberal staffer released on the Internet publicly available details of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ messy divorce, was at worst in bad taste.
At best, it was an example of brilliant — if nasty — guerrilla theatre.
The robo-call allegations are twofold. One is that political operatives in some ridings (most notably Guelph) used live or automated telephone calls to direct voters unlikely to support their party to non-existent polling stations.
In some cases the callers fraudulently identified themselves as officials of Elections Canada, the non-partisan body that oversees voting.
The second kind of allegation, while murkier, involves claims that operatives posing as Liberals or New Democrats deliberately called undecided voters at inconvenient times — such as the middle of the night — in order to irritate them.
The aim here, it is alleged, was to make these voters so mad at the opposition parties that they would throw their support to the Conservatives.
In some closely fought ridings where these tactics are said to have been used, the Conservatives won by the narrowest of margins.
In Northern Ontario’s Nipissing riding, for instance, the Liberal incumbent lost to the Conservatives by 18 votes. In Toronto’s Etobicoke Centre, the Conservative candidate won by 26.
Altogether, complaints have been made in 40 ridings. In seven of these (six of which elected Conservatives), the margin of victory was less than 1,000 votes.
Suspicion has focused on the Conservatives in part because a Tory political aide involved in the controversial Guelph campaign mysteriously quit his job last week.
But the other reason is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s party is years ahead of its competitors in modern campaign technology.
The Conservatives are particularly skilled at using telephone surveys to identify and analyze voters, including those who back other political parties.
It would be almost irresistible for a party with access to such detailed information to use it in dodgy ways, particularly if those making the decisions had no qualms about the means used to smash their opponents.
The Vikileaks affair, on the other hand, was a more old-fashioned, albeit legal, dirty trick.
It involved dredging up publicly available personal information — in this case the details of Toews’ divorce case — to discredit an opponent.
Politicians know they are all vulnerable to this kind of attack. So it should come as no surprise that Liberal interim leader Bob Rae moved quickly to fire the miscreant in his party who had done the dredging.
Rae knows that most adults, including Liberals, have secrets they would prefer to protect.
Still, the Vikileaks affair demonstrated a certain kind of poetic justice. In order to justify the government’s proposed intrusive Internet legislation, Toews had argued that only villains — such as child predators — want privacy.
The Vikileaker demonstrated that such a claim is patently false and that all of us — including Harper cabinet ministers — have portions of our lives we’d prefer to keep to ourselves.
Does this justify outing Toew’s complex marital past? I reckon I’d side with Rae here. Some things should just be left alone.
But whatever one thinks of Vikileaks, it was a schoolboy prank compared to the robo-call scandal. That one goes to the heart of how we choose the people who represent us. It’s deadly serious.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Thomas Walkom
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