05.18.2012 01:05 PM

Woot! Borys wins!

Take that, Con cheaters!

Woot!

33 Comments

  1. smelter rat says:

    Suddenly, it’s a very good day!

  2. William says:

    As Nelson Muntz would say “Ha Ha”

  3. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    Best news Bob’s heard all month…….”Lederer said the core of the case was about the “confidence that Canadians must have in our electoral process.” “…..Amen to that….

  4. jack says:

    judges decision seems logical but will the supreme court see it the same way??

  5. Robert Jago says:

    If you mean ‘Con cheaters’ in general, yeah well maybe – but the article isn’t saying the Cons cheated in that riding. It said that Elections Canada staff didn’t do their job right and let people vote who shouldn’t have been allowed to do so. If you’ve ever been a scrutineer at a polling place, I’m sure you’ve seen how well meaning, but under-trained Elections Canada staff are.

    As for Borys, the last thing parliament needs is another anti-choice MP, especially one who’s on the record as agreeing to ‘strive to introduce and pass laws to protect unborn children from the time of conception’ (source: Campaign Life website).

    • Tim Sullivan says:

      It was not part of the case, evidence was not advanced, because the incompetence of the poll staff was sufficient to get the Order the Liberals wanted. It is a minimalist approach.

      However, it would be interesting to know what voters voted twice, who the poll staffers were who illegally vouched for more than one voter, and who the voters were who were not resident in the riding.

      These were conscious and deliberate actions. I would say that yes, there is little time to train and we get some nimrods working at polls, but this level of incompetence takes some skill.

  6. Dude Love says:

    How is it con cheaters when it was Elections Canada that the screening of voters?

    • Dude Love says:

      From the CBC article you posted.

      “The judge has found problems with the way that Elections Canada ran the election in this riding,” he said in an emailed statement.

      “As the judge took care to point out in the decision, Ted Opitz and the Conservative campaign team followed the rules.

      • Shaun says:

        Sure the Con campaign and Ted followed the rules, but it was the cons that cheated by getting individuals that were not eligible to vote, or vote more than once, etc., to help the cons cheat for the win. We’ll be seeing more of this sort of conservative thing come to light in the months and years ahead. Robo-scam is still in its infancy.

        • Rod says:

          Where is your proof, Shaun? You’re accusing the Conservatives of cheating but have offered no facts to back up your claim. What if it turns out that these ineligible voters cast their ballots for the Liberals? Or even the NDP?

  7. Twenty Year Grit says:

    Best birthday gift ever!!!!!!!!

  8. Michael says:

    Stephen Harper comments while trying to figure out how to blame the Liberals:

    “An activist judge has made a ruling that is absolutely ridiculous!”

  9. sj says:

    The only thing that could make this better is if it turned out that the two time voters were driven to the polls by the Tories. One can hope.

  10. Brendan O'Farrell says:

    There is likely now to be a by-election. The only way there is no by-election is if the Conservatives appeal to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court takes up the case and then the Supreme Court overturns the lower court’s decision. All of that is possible. However I think that although it is likely that the Conservatives will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, it is unlikely the Supreme Court will take up the case. I think the seat becomes vacant the moment the Supreme Court announces that it will not take up the case. In a by-election, I think the Conservatives have a good chance of winning for two reasons. Firstly, many votes may be unhappy with Wrzesnewskyj for forcing what they view as an unnecessary by-election. In such a case they might well turn to the Conservative candidate and vote for him. A second less primary reason I think the Conservatives could win the by-election is because since 2003 when the Conservative Party of Canada was formed, no incumbent Conservative MP in Ontario has ever lost an election. Every incumbent Conservative MP in Ontario has been re-elected every time an election has occurred without any exception whatsoever. The rule in Ontario for federal elections has been that once a riding goes Conservative, it stays Conservative permanently and cannot be won back by the Liberals no matter how hard the Liberals try to win it back. Now in this by-election Opitz would not technically be an incumbent but would be an incumbent for all intents and purposes. And as I say, in Ontario Conservative incumbents never lose. On a similar note, for this by-election the Liberals must not underestimate the powerful Conservative machine. For two or three federal elections in a row the federal Liberals have underestimated the powerful Conservative machine and thus the federal Liberals have suffered disastrous defeats in previously reliably Liberal ridings in Ontario for at least the past two general elections.

    I am a Liberal supporter but if Liberals think Etobicoke Centre would automatically go back to them in this by-election they are underestimating the powerful Conservative machine and will have to work really, really hard if they are to have any hope at all to win the by-election.

    • Tim Sullivan says:

      You are assuming Ted Opitz was elected in the first place.

    • bluegreenblogger says:

      Sure, incumbency counts for a lot, but remember, this is Toronto, not ‘Ontario’. Etobicoke Centre and Etobicoke North are as close to Tory as anywhere in Toronto, but the margin was tight as hell, and the landscape has changed. Just watch what happens, there wiill be a surprisingly robust turnout for a by-election, which will mean Opitz will get clobbered this time around. We shall see in the due course of time

  11. Herman Thind
    Interesting what the Conservatives are whining and claiming: >>”As the judge took care to point out in the decision, Ted Opitz and the Conservative campaign team followed the rules.<<

    As one observer noted: "I don't believe that is quite what he said. He said he had found sufficient questionable ballots to justify overturning the election. That says nothing one way or another about whether the candidates or their teams followed the rules."

    …………

    Borys only brought in a handful of complains to speed up the process. There was PLENTY of NEOCON tricks going on in Etobicoke.

    Under a court order, Wrzesnewskyj's lawyers were able to examine the ballots at 10 polling divisions, as well as poll books and electors' lists at Elections Canada's office in Ottawa.

    The test to declare the election invalid, and trigger a byelection (after any appeals are exhausted), was a finding that more than 26 ballots, the losing margin, should not have been counted.

    Particularly outstanding is what went on in Polling Division 31, located in a church in Etobicoke. Eighty-six people voted by registration certificate on May 2, meaning they showed up without a voter identification card. Wrzesnewsky's lawyers claim that 68 of those voters actually lived in another polling division and should never have been allowed to vote at polling station 31. Lederer threw out 15 ballots in that polling division.

    In another polling division in the riding, five voters who voted by registration certificate are listed as being crossed off the electors' list in another polling division, indicating they most likely did vote twice.

    In one polling division, both the deputy returning officer and the polling clerk vouched for more than one voter who showed up without ID, something that, as Elections Canada employees, they should have known was illegal. Lederer threw out the four votes for which they vouched.

    .

  12. Gary says:

    Borys has spent $200,000 of his own money on this case. That is a lot of bread.

    • Tim Sullivan says:

      The Judge said he would consider costs if the parties did not agree, but hinted that each party should pay their own costs.

      Fair enough, but I wonder, did the Cons admit to any of the improper ballot procedures? The CPC now says that 56000 people have had their votes discounted. The CPC gives no inch, concedes no issue, offers no compromise.

      The sitting MP should have to pay costs to the extent he conceded nothing and made the Libs have to move the ball further up the field.

      This is how the system is supposed to work.

  13. Eric says:

    Correct or not, I feel that this move plays into the perception of the Liberal sense of entitlement, that they felt that they should have won if it wasn’t for the pesky .

    I would be quite satisfied to see the NDP take this riding and see the Liberals drop to third place …

    • smelter rat says:

      I believe it is true that Liberals feel entitled to fair elections. Not sure about the Reformacons though.

    • Paul says:

      Absolutely. Hell, if I were a resident of that riding and voting in the by-election I would be asking myself: “Who do I want for MP? A member of the majority government who can actually get things done, or some ineffectual third-party also-ran?”

    • Michael says:

      So asking that we have a fair and democratic election process is a sense of entitlement? Something we send election monitors into 3rd world countries to ensure happens, btw. Nice spin.

      Having lived the better part of my life in Etobicoke Centre, I can tell you that the NDP will elect a member in this riding when Lucifer starts wearing ice skates.

    • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

      Sense of entitlement?…..when is defending democracy and upholding the rules(which Elections Canada themselves failed to uphold) a sense of entitlement?…….

      I congratulate Mr.Wrezenewskj for having the nads to defend his right to see justice done……

      I also hope that in the coming by-election the good citizens of Etobicoke Centre give a stinging rebuke to “Dear Leader’s” heavy handed ways….and I suspect they wont be turning to Tinfoil Hat Mulcair, either….

    • Tim Sullivan says:

      Yeah, damn them for insisting on a fair election, those BASTARDS!

    • Jordan says:

      Yes it ridiculous that the Liberals feel so entitled that they think faulty elections should be overthrown!

    • bluegreenblogger says:

      lol, and Opitz will be satisfied if he wins, the Greens will be satisfied with a win too I bet, (If they can find a candidate). Go ahead, fire up your bong and indulge in all the wishful thinking you want!

  14. JamesHalifax says:

    While elections Canada made the errors, it will be the Conservatives who pay for it. Surely, the judge knew that a bye election would result in a loss for the ‘Conservatives, for clearly, every person who voted NDP will now vote Liberal to keep the Conservative out. This is patently unfair, but given the anti-Harper hysteria in some quarters it shouldn’t be a surprise. In effect, a JUDGE is going to decide who takes the seat regardless of how many voters wanted a Conservative. Instead, we have an example of “judicial strategic voting” which is a sign of things to come.

    One thing you can be sure of. No matter how elections Canada screwed up, it will be a gong-show with every labour unionist, David suzuki types, greenies, marxists, showing up to support boris. Fair…of course not, but thanks to Elections Canada this will become the norm.

    If you can’t beat them at the ballot box…….beat them through the Courts.

    That being said, I wonder if we will need to go through similar processes to account for similar errors in other ridings where the conservatives did NOT win. particularly, those communities where recent immigrants seemed to have a great effect on the outcome, for reasons very similar to those stated in this particular case.

    If anything, Canada isn’t as boring as some think.

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