The robocall affair has morphed into a veritable whodunnit, with Canadians continuing to puzzle over Pierre Poutine's true identity.
The only clear thing resulting from the controversy is that Canada has lost its coveted reputation for holding squeakyclean elections.
Federal Liberals are pointing to 27 ridings where they say misleading phone calls were made during the 2011 election, all but four in Ontario. The NDP says it has confirmed misdeeds in eight ridings and is probing 13 others, again mostly in Ontario.
Questions are being raised in B.C. about Prince George-Peace River, Vancouver-Quadra and Saanich-Gulf Islands, where Green MP Elizabeth May is citing misleading calls in the 2011 and 2008 elections.
By the day, more ridings are added to the robocall list, with the most comprehensive allegations involving Guelph, Ont., where a disposable cellphone registered to "Pierre Poutine" - the name of a local eatery - is now part of an Elections Canada investigation.
Late last week it reported having received 31,000 messages in relation to last year's ballot, all related to suspect phone calls. That compares to 500 such messages about the 2008 vote and just 329 from 2006.
Opposition parties, of course, are tripping over themselves in a bid to exploit the situation for partisan purposes, painting Stephen Harper's government as fraudulent. It's not clear they're gaining any advantage so far. Harper has declared unequivocally that the party's national campaign had nothing to do with such activity: "The Conservative party can say, absolutely, definitively, it has no role in any of this."
In an age of instant replay, prime ministers don't make such declarations unless they're certain of their facts.
That said, few dismiss the notion that so-called rogue campaign workers - from any one of the political parties - may have got up to no good.
As University of Victoria political scientist Reg Whitaker notes: "A basic rule of dirty tricks at the street level [is] plausible deniability for those in charge, and the plumbers will take the fall when the doodoo hits the fan."
Voters at this point will want assurances that Elections Canada and/or the RCMP is doing thorough probes to identify the miscreants. And that all political parties will take precautions to safeguard the electoral system.
In that vein, Harper should be resisting his excessively partisan impulses. Instead of vilifying Liberals for being "poor losers," he should commit to ensuring the sanctity of the electoral system.
"I do not believe the Conservatives are handling this issue well," says Roger Gibbins, head of the Calgary-based Canada West Foundation.
"I would have expected the PM to say that he shares [acting Liberal leader Bob] Rae's concern about the integrity of the electoral process."
Instead, Harper "is egging on the opposition parties, whereas the issue could have been, should have been, taken more out of the political process."
In the end, the robocall mess may not result in significant political damage for any of the parties because proving anything will be difficult.
Asks Gibbins: "How do we know if Person X in Smithers really received a call, and whether it had any behavioural impact?"
Whitaker agrees: "The extent of the scandal is going to be very difficult to measure - hazy recollections of telephone calls past, 'he said-she said' stuff, all anecdotal, and thus subject to dismissal."
If there's a silver lining to the robocall episode, it's that voters, going forward, will now be inclined to simply hang up when they receive robocalltype phone messages on voting day.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Barbara Yaffe
The only clear thing resulting from the controversy is that Canada has lost its coveted reputation for holding squeakyclean elections.
Federal Liberals are pointing to 27 ridings where they say misleading phone calls were made during the 2011 election, all but four in Ontario. The NDP says it has confirmed misdeeds in eight ridings and is probing 13 others, again mostly in Ontario.
Questions are being raised in B.C. about Prince George-Peace River, Vancouver-Quadra and Saanich-Gulf Islands, where Green MP Elizabeth May is citing misleading calls in the 2011 and 2008 elections.
By the day, more ridings are added to the robocall list, with the most comprehensive allegations involving Guelph, Ont., where a disposable cellphone registered to "Pierre Poutine" - the name of a local eatery - is now part of an Elections Canada investigation.
Late last week it reported having received 31,000 messages in relation to last year's ballot, all related to suspect phone calls. That compares to 500 such messages about the 2008 vote and just 329 from 2006.
Opposition parties, of course, are tripping over themselves in a bid to exploit the situation for partisan purposes, painting Stephen Harper's government as fraudulent. It's not clear they're gaining any advantage so far. Harper has declared unequivocally that the party's national campaign had nothing to do with such activity: "The Conservative party can say, absolutely, definitively, it has no role in any of this."
In an age of instant replay, prime ministers don't make such declarations unless they're certain of their facts.
That said, few dismiss the notion that so-called rogue campaign workers - from any one of the political parties - may have got up to no good.
As University of Victoria political scientist Reg Whitaker notes: "A basic rule of dirty tricks at the street level [is] plausible deniability for those in charge, and the plumbers will take the fall when the doodoo hits the fan."
Voters at this point will want assurances that Elections Canada and/or the RCMP is doing thorough probes to identify the miscreants. And that all political parties will take precautions to safeguard the electoral system.
In that vein, Harper should be resisting his excessively partisan impulses. Instead of vilifying Liberals for being "poor losers," he should commit to ensuring the sanctity of the electoral system.
"I do not believe the Conservatives are handling this issue well," says Roger Gibbins, head of the Calgary-based Canada West Foundation.
"I would have expected the PM to say that he shares [acting Liberal leader Bob] Rae's concern about the integrity of the electoral process."
Instead, Harper "is egging on the opposition parties, whereas the issue could have been, should have been, taken more out of the political process."
In the end, the robocall mess may not result in significant political damage for any of the parties because proving anything will be difficult.
Asks Gibbins: "How do we know if Person X in Smithers really received a call, and whether it had any behavioural impact?"
Whitaker agrees: "The extent of the scandal is going to be very difficult to measure - hazy recollections of telephone calls past, 'he said-she said' stuff, all anecdotal, and thus subject to dismissal."
If there's a silver lining to the robocall episode, it's that voters, going forward, will now be inclined to simply hang up when they receive robocalltype phone messages on voting day.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Barbara Yaffe
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