02.24.2012 05:20 PM

The Vote Suppressor™

Get a load of this horseshit:

“The Conservative Party of Canada ran a clean and ethical campaign and would never tolerate such activity,” said the statement attributed to Jenni Byrne, who managed the Tories’ national campaign.

And then, today, this:

A Conservative staffer caught up in a scandal over fake election day phone calls to keep voters away from the polls has lost his job.

So, they did nothing wrong, and then – a mere 24 hours later! – they throw a future Conservative Senator under the bus. Then: did nothing wrong. Now: something went wrong, but we didn’t do it.

Make sense to you? Me neither.

However this one ends up, it follows the Reformatory MEP issues management standard operating procedure™:

1. Nothing to see here, move along. The Tim Horton’s crowd don’t care.
2. The Liberals did it first. Adscam, blah blah blah.
3. The young staffer who did this was acting without anyone’s knowledge or approval. Nothing to see here, move along, etc.
4. Rinse and repeat.

53 Comments

  1. Cara says:

    I’d like to know where the money came from to pay for these robocalls, especially if more than 10 ridings involved. What would it cost for one riding? Let’s say $500 or maybe a $1,000? Multiply that and the where did the money come from questions quickly begin. The now tire track covered Sona is 23yrs and it’s hard to believe he could find this kind of money in his own wallet. Unless someone put it there for him.

    • David_M says:

      Who paid the bills. Exactly the the question that needs to be answered.

      • Pat says:

        And co-ordinated the whole thing – I highly doubt Sona could have co-ordinated the delivery of robocalls to a dozen or so ridings across the country…

    • kenzo's says:

      Deep Throat’s immortal words to Woodward and Bernstein: “Follow the money.” (insert Hal Holbrooke’s rich immortal voice, if need be.)

  2. Jason King says:

    Its a step up from Tulk’s defense of

    1.) George Washington did it back in the day
    2.) It was an Illegal election
    3.) I met this guy for an hour and he and his friend told me…
    4.) Is Kennedy one of your heroes?

    And us British Columbians get made fun of for the weed. There is no way I could come up with gold that out there if I was roommates with Tommy Chong.

    • Jason King says:

      Must correct point 2. I meant to say that it was Elections Canada’s illegal ballot box. Based on his personal mistrust which is based on ideology which isnt based on facts.

    • Curtis in Calgary says:

      Apparently, you cannot differentiate between defense and defence. Of course, Harper acolytes prefer the US spelling to the proper Canadian spelling.

      • Bill says:

        I thought you libs didn’t like the British, with PET doing the pirouette and all that fancy stuff. Harper rules and is the best PM ever.
        Curtis, your British English is very good. Can you come to Ontario and teach? Is your French this good aswell?

        • pomojen says:

          “Harper rules and is the best PM ever.”

          Ah…so you ARE a spotty adolescent communicating from your grandmother’s basement! All is clear now. I am sure Gord is thrilled to have you squeaking up over there in his “defence.”

          You are right about one thing though – Harper does rule. He is firmly in charge of the whole thing. He knows exactly what his party is doing. And he is very much aware that spotty adolescents like you will defend him to the end and that poor stupid kids, like the one he is throwing under the bus right now, will gladly take the heat for him rather than let him face the music.

          Stop drinking the kool-aid. The ends never justify the means in politics. Your guys broke the law in order to win. One day it will catch up with them, and with your awesome ruler.

        • Bill says:

          You are discriminating against adolescents??? Pomojen, the libs lost everyone else during the last 15 years, you should be careful not to offend the young. Add 35 + adolescents age and your assessment is spot on, I’m someone who got sick and tired of the Ontario/Quebec liberal leaders. Who broke the law? Has any of this been proven?

      • Jason King says:

        iPhone autocorrect, goalpost changing or dyslexia. You cant have it every way Gord.

        a bit of disclosure I have discalculacia.

    • Philip says:

      Where did Mr. Sona get the money to open the RackNine account and the phone numbers of Liberal (and now perhaps NDP) supporters for the other 17 ridings, Mr. Tulk?

      If Mr. Sona is misguided enough to fall on his sword for a political party, which is more than happy to let him do it, then I feel sorry for him. I do have to wonder why, what passes for adult supervision in the Conservative Party would let a young man throw away so much, for nothing. All this, just so someone like Mr. Tulk, can pretend that his beloved Conservative Party isn’t covered in six different kinds of shit.

    • smelter rat says:

      Your boys are done Gord. Watch and weep.

    • Jason King says:

      Oh yeah here comes the snark and insult. You always get thin skinned when you lack a defense.

      Still on that lame Kennedy trip? You really do lack an argument then.

  3. Philippe says:

    They seem pretty adept at throwing one or 2 poor saps under the bus and then pretending they have clean hands. Yet they’re “top-down” control freaks – nothing gets done in that party without knowledge from the chieftains. I find it highly unlikely that only a few individuals sanctioned this repulsive, despicable tactic.

  4. AP says:

    Shit all this can be cleared up. Just have Vic Toews release the Google searches that Sona conducted last year. Search term to look for “what would Nixon do?”

  5. W.B. says:

    Everybody knew about this in May, and yet the national media, except Postmedia of course, just turned and walked away. Nothing to see here just business as usual. “Elections don’t really matter, democracy doesn’t matter, It’s war out there, and winning is not the most important thing it’s the only thing. They pulled it off, so it’s acceptable.”
    I don;t understand how the reporters and pundits can listen to these party leaders, party officials, and company execs stand up and lie and not break out laughing.

  6. Steven says:

    It remains to be seen if there will be any lasting indignation with Papa Doc Harper and his Con Con Macoutes among the general voting public, and whether any of this will really matter in 2015.

    My concern is that the Tim’s crowd actually doesn’t care because they believe that all politicians are corrupt.

    I’ve heard that comment repeated by the Tim’s crowd / hockey /soccer dads and moms in my vote-rich 905-area.

    • Steven says:

      Because the Nazis killed, maimed and starved my relatives and people, Gord.

      There’s just some things I wouldn’t do and I wouldn’t stoop that low, unlike your HarperCons and their sock-puppets.

      • Steven says:

        Mea culpa: Duvalier also had people killed and maimed, but not on the scale of Hitler and the Nazis. My apologies to the Haitians who suffered under Duvalier.

        My Duvalier reference was to a corrupt, power-crazed reactionary regime which engaged in deliberate, organized intimidation of any real or perceived opposing voters.

    • james Smith says:

      Please, all good REAL Canadians call Mr Harper “OUR DEAR LEADER”

    • Jason King says:

      You’re having quite the herp derp day Gord. Could get the lame goalpost changing done so you start complaining about someone calling Harper a name. Why dont you ask him if Kennedy is his hero?

  7. David_M says:

    One other question comes to mind. Who was the woman that made the recording? Did she know what she was doing?

  8. Steven says:

    P.S. The HarperCons have already pushed the rinse /spin button – i.e. ” all the parties do the same thing, etc.” Check out former Harper Senior Advisor / PMO honcho Keith Beardsley’s piece in today’s National Post.

  9. Harry says:

    Liberals on the sponsorship scandal: “simply a few rogues, nothing to do with our leaders”
    Liberals on robo-calls: Couldn’t possibly be a single guy, it HAD to come from Harper himself!

    Hypocrisy at it’s finest.

    • David_M says:

      Ted! We have a DefCon3 clean up on aisle WK!

    • Jan says:

      Hi Observant!

    • smelter rat says:

      Fuck you. Name 1 Liberal politician who was convicted of anything to do with ‘ADSCAM!!!!’

      Let’s see how this one plays out,

    • The Dude says:

      Sorry for the facts, but Harper said he would be different. I guess worse is different.

    • Philip says:

      Gosh Harry, what about the abusive, repetitive calls, from live operators claiming to be from the Liberal Party? All from the same North Dakota area code and covering another 12 ridings. Hmmmm. Did young Mr. Sona do all those too?

      The Ottawa Citizen just broke that story, What a great time to be a Conservative, isn’t it Harry?

  10. william smith says:

    OK we’ll give you Adscam but raise you with AirBus

  11. patrick deberg says:

    A by-election must be held in every riding that can be proven to have been compromised. How can you send troops to die for democracy in a foreign country and then show utter contempt for democracy in the country they swore to protect and die for? I cannot believe any true conservative can permit this stain on the face of all we stand for. Please do not allow this mockery to stand. New elections now!!!

  12. Lee says:

    Harper should be the first person to be put into his new prisons.

  13. Iris Mclean says:

    I bet Vic Toews is glad this shit is hitting the fan.
    Poor guy needed a break.

  14. David_M says:

    Do you think our PM might visit the GG Monday morning?

  15. james Smith says:

    As time goes on, we see more & more examples of dirty tricks from the present PM. Some here seem to be arguing it’s only a matter of time before Canada looks more like Putin’s Russia. I don’t see it that way, but I also remember just a few years ago most people saying: “well, I sure as heck don’t want Harper to get a majority!”

  16. Annie says:

    There is somethimg that is not mentioned. Some one took a very long time , getting all, the names, telephone numbers..where they iriginally vote, and what they vote..no rookies

  17. unintelligentia says:

    Smelter Rat, they never followed the cash with Adscam. Coyne alluded to the biker connection back then, but no one followed up. Was he wrong then, but right now? There will be no watergate; Canadian journalists don’t work that hard.

    David M, PM will visit the GG three and a half years from now. I’m not defending it, just challenging the ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead festivities.

    • smelter rat says:

      Alternatively, maybe there was no place to follow it to. I would have thought Gomery would have left no stone unturned.

      • Bill says:

        Are you libs still denying no elected liberal know nothing…..Nice try.

        • smelter rat says:

          Put your money where your mouth is, asshole.

          • Bill says:

            I’d get moderated if I called you that…..double standard a play here…..

            smelter the reality is you and your party are has beens and lib policies will take us where Europe is today.
            People understand this and this is why the voter put the libs in 3rd place.

            If you don’t think Jean P and Alfonso G didn’t know anything you aren’t being honest with yourself.

  18. fred says:

    ‘We don’t need you calling us back anymore. We’re not going to vote for your candidate because of the call received last night.’

    Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/More+than+dozen+ridings+blitzed+harassing+fake+Liberal+phone+calls+2011+election/6206603/story.html#ixzz1nP1NgTJH

    The tip of the iceberg. How many people were harassed when they were groggy, how much do they remember and do they have a conscious memory of
    their decision to switch party affiliation?

  19. Anne Peterson says:

    All I can conclude from conservative comments on threads is that they have no moral or ethical standards at all. Either they can’t identify lying, cheating and stealing if they are doing it themselves or they don’t care. It’s the delusional comments and twisted justifications that put me off the conservative party as much as it’s the actions of the party itself. They are enough to make my hair stand on end.

  20. Tired of it All says:

    All right Cons, I’ll bite. The Sponsorship Program was $250M national patriotism play that funded efforts across the country. Most $ was directed to QC. The Scandal ™ – $14M funneled back from various ad agencies to the Liberal Party of Canada (Qc). Main players: Guité, Lafleur and another half-dozen or so *convicted* criminals. One major Inquiry which found a bunch of wrong doing. It also found the sitting PM had nothing to do with it. In later years it was proven the Justice himself was a problem.

    A sitting PM called inquiry, effectively against his own party. Do I need to retype that? A Liberal Prime Minister called an inquiry into episodes on the record of his own party. Rinse, repeat.

    To go back. $14M. That’s it. Tony Clement makes this sh*t look like the Girl Guides on speed – and that’s not even THIS issue.

    Smelling Salts Moment: The Program, in case you forget, was about addressing the separatist threat that came within a hair of destroying Canada. Just so we are *clear.*

    The phone calls are several orders of magnitude greater.

    I’ll type real slow here: there Sponsorship Program was not about winning a given election. It was preventing separatist BS from ripping the country apart.

    See where we are going with this?

    People were tried and convicted; a PM fell; a party was destroyed. There was redress and, sorry to say, closure.

    So, am I saying there is moral equivalency? God damned right I’m not. What the Conservative party has done constitutes an act of political interference so egregious, so malevolent that the reckoning is coming. And guess what? You may end up with Bob Rae as PM, or worse, Nycole Turmel.

    • Bill says:

      Where is the proof? Nothing has been determined yet. Don’t put the horse before the cart.

      Be careful about the “hair of destroying Canada” part. Not everyone feels this way. If Quebec wanted to go, so be it.
      Canada could have moved on and become stronger for it. We didn’t need the libs funneling cash to Quebec.

      Bob Rae will never be PM, ever.

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