Not long before the federal election that produced a majority government for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I asked one of Elections Canada's returning officers to speak to my journalism students at Conestoga College.
From the moment she strode into the classroom, it was clear that Carolyn Hertzberger was no lightweight. Appointed in February 2007 as the returning officer for Kitchener-Conestoga, Hertzberger took command of the class with the kind of authority one would expect of a person who, throughout the year, must keep an electoral district in a state of semi-perpetual readiness for the next voting day. And on those days, her job is to co-ordinate a small army of deputies, supervisors, information officers, poll clerks and registration officers.
Hertzberger spoke with precision about election nuts and bolts, what a "writ" was, the mountain of research, reorganization and polling station re-distribution that must be done between elections, and the rules that govern voter, party and media conduct at polling stations as electors cast their ballots.
When she estimated the cost of each federal election as being northward of $280 million, a swoon of amazement, bordering on indignation, swept through the room. But it was also at this point that she delivered the most eloquent lines of her hour-long talk.
Yes, she said, elections are enormously expensive. But the cost, in concert with the principled and diligent work of elections officials across the country and throughout each year, enables an exercise that lies at the very heart of Canadian democracy. Just as the right to cast a vote should never be taken for granted, so too the onerous task of elections officials - on voting day or any other day - to ensure our elections are as fair and clean as we can humanly make them is a sacrosanct responsibility.
The students were impressed. More than one left the classroom with newly discovered sense of engagement with both the political and electoral processes.
We don't yet possess a complete understanding of the depth or breadth of the robocall scandal that continues to emerge, through shards of evidence, snippets of data and recovered memories across the country.
But this much we do know: It was an assault on dozens of ridings, not one. In many cases, it involved a caller who falsely represented Elections Canada. It entailed the misappropriation, by theft or other means, of voter information that belonged either to Elections Canada or to political parties. And the scope of the cross-country campaign to mislead voters, discourage them from voting or suppress their constitutionally guaranteed right to cast a ballot was the work of more than just a rogue operative, as may have been the case in the Vikileaks30 affair. The phone operation was a broad and co-ordinated effort.
It is the job of opposition parties to oppose government, loudly if necessary, and most times those loud and frantic protestations can be taken with a granule of salt, considering the partisanship that is perpetually at work in Ottawa. But in this case, they are correctly seeking answers concerning something that is clearly an attack on the fundamental mechanisms that ensure the will of the people is expressed, in an unadulterated way, in the House of the people on Parliament Hill.
Against opposition calls for a formal inquiry, Harper and his ministers have held steadfastly to the line that anyone with evidence in these matters should simply turn it over to Elections Canada. That's too feeble a response.
The Conservatives no doubt wish to avoid the general sense of hysteria and indignation exuded by former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin as the layers peeled off the sponsorship onion in 2003. But the tone of the Harper government concerning the subversion of the voting process and any possible Conservative party connection to it has, so far, underwhelmed. It is the parliamentary equivalent of a dismissive schoolyard "prove it."
We have no evidence that Conservative party brass had any part in the co-ordinated attack on voter prerogative. But then again, this was the party that calculated - correctly, it turns out - that a finding of contempt of Parliament last spring just wouldn't find much traction among voters in the face of a faltering economy and other issues closer to home.
All the work done by Elections Canada officials year round to preserve the integrity of our voting process deserves more than a collective shrug. Our students - and millions of others that we hope to attract to, not repel from, the democratic process - are watching.
Original Article
Source: lfpress
Author: LARRY CORNIES
From the moment she strode into the classroom, it was clear that Carolyn Hertzberger was no lightweight. Appointed in February 2007 as the returning officer for Kitchener-Conestoga, Hertzberger took command of the class with the kind of authority one would expect of a person who, throughout the year, must keep an electoral district in a state of semi-perpetual readiness for the next voting day. And on those days, her job is to co-ordinate a small army of deputies, supervisors, information officers, poll clerks and registration officers.
Hertzberger spoke with precision about election nuts and bolts, what a "writ" was, the mountain of research, reorganization and polling station re-distribution that must be done between elections, and the rules that govern voter, party and media conduct at polling stations as electors cast their ballots.
When she estimated the cost of each federal election as being northward of $280 million, a swoon of amazement, bordering on indignation, swept through the room. But it was also at this point that she delivered the most eloquent lines of her hour-long talk.
Yes, she said, elections are enormously expensive. But the cost, in concert with the principled and diligent work of elections officials across the country and throughout each year, enables an exercise that lies at the very heart of Canadian democracy. Just as the right to cast a vote should never be taken for granted, so too the onerous task of elections officials - on voting day or any other day - to ensure our elections are as fair and clean as we can humanly make them is a sacrosanct responsibility.
The students were impressed. More than one left the classroom with newly discovered sense of engagement with both the political and electoral processes.
We don't yet possess a complete understanding of the depth or breadth of the robocall scandal that continues to emerge, through shards of evidence, snippets of data and recovered memories across the country.
But this much we do know: It was an assault on dozens of ridings, not one. In many cases, it involved a caller who falsely represented Elections Canada. It entailed the misappropriation, by theft or other means, of voter information that belonged either to Elections Canada or to political parties. And the scope of the cross-country campaign to mislead voters, discourage them from voting or suppress their constitutionally guaranteed right to cast a ballot was the work of more than just a rogue operative, as may have been the case in the Vikileaks30 affair. The phone operation was a broad and co-ordinated effort.
It is the job of opposition parties to oppose government, loudly if necessary, and most times those loud and frantic protestations can be taken with a granule of salt, considering the partisanship that is perpetually at work in Ottawa. But in this case, they are correctly seeking answers concerning something that is clearly an attack on the fundamental mechanisms that ensure the will of the people is expressed, in an unadulterated way, in the House of the people on Parliament Hill.
Against opposition calls for a formal inquiry, Harper and his ministers have held steadfastly to the line that anyone with evidence in these matters should simply turn it over to Elections Canada. That's too feeble a response.
The Conservatives no doubt wish to avoid the general sense of hysteria and indignation exuded by former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin as the layers peeled off the sponsorship onion in 2003. But the tone of the Harper government concerning the subversion of the voting process and any possible Conservative party connection to it has, so far, underwhelmed. It is the parliamentary equivalent of a dismissive schoolyard "prove it."
We have no evidence that Conservative party brass had any part in the co-ordinated attack on voter prerogative. But then again, this was the party that calculated - correctly, it turns out - that a finding of contempt of Parliament last spring just wouldn't find much traction among voters in the face of a faltering economy and other issues closer to home.
All the work done by Elections Canada officials year round to preserve the integrity of our voting process deserves more than a collective shrug. Our students - and millions of others that we hope to attract to, not repel from, the democratic process - are watching.
Original Article
Source: lfpress
Author: LARRY CORNIES
No comments:
Post a Comment