02.28.2012 08:47 AM

More than 200 comments



Robo-caller.

(Wow. Suspect people are paying attention to the Robo Scandal.)

24 Comments

  1. Brad Young says:

    The comments on your Sun articles are interesting to say the least.

  2. dave says:

    Little bit different tone to the comments in the Sun than in some other message boards I look at!

    • W the K - No, not Warren says:

      This is nothing. Just the usual bunch of the delusional and misinformed. During the Rob Ford/Pride Parade controversy last summer the comments were particularly scary. Full of venom and allusions of violence towards gay people. And those were the ones that, presumably, made it past moderation. One of my kids is gay. Reading those comments was terrifying.

  3. Marc L says:

    I agree that we need to get to the bottom of this. It is indeed extremely serious and if senior Conservatives are involved — and that remains a big “if” at this stage — they should be proscecuted. Whoever got the idea of doing this has no respect for democracy and is indeed trying to turn Canada into a Banana Republic.
    That said, it would be really nice if the politicos out there would take this as a truly serious issue instead of trying to turn it into a big spectacle to gain political “gotcha” points. Unsubstantiated statements implicating Harper in this without an ounce of evidence do not help. Claims that they “stole the election” (as you state in your post) or Rae’s claim that they would have taken 27 more ridings are laughable. With what we know up to now, do you really think the Liberals would have won the election had this not occurred? And whether or not this is worse than the sponsorship scandal is irrelevant 9and at this stage there is as yet no evidence that it is).
    Call a full-blown investigation. Make sure the RCMP digs through every nook and cranny. Proscecute those involved to the full extent of the law. If the whole party was involved, hell, wipe it off the map. But until then, opposition politicians trying to score political points by making broad unsusbstantiated claims are not being helpful.

    • Michael says:

      Not sure why you are saying it’s a big “if”

      Are you seriously buying the “it was some low level staffer, working off of the reservation” story? Even for a minute?

      • Marc L says:

        I truly do not know.

        • Cath says:

          I also don’t buy that Mr. Carroll didn’t have help either.

          • Ted B says:

            I don’t think you appreciate just how easy it is to set up a twitter account with a fake name then.

          • Philip says:

            That because Cath is in the business of trying to tie Mr. Carroll to the entire election fraud scheme under investigation by the RCMP. It’s all about trying to create a narrative that the Conservatives are no worse than others, everyone does it……..etc. False equivalents and deflection.

            Of course Bob Rae did apologise, personally to Vic “I am victim too” Toews, so there isnt any traction. I sure Mr. Toews can find it in him to apologise to the entire country for trying to pass a piece of legislation he couldn’t be arsed to read. And attacking those who had taken the time to read it and found the bill terrifying in its scope.

    • Ted H says:

      The money involved in the so called sponsorship scandal was peanuts, compared to some of the waste initiated by the Conservatives, no one in government was ever charged and the Liberal’s biggest mistake was opening a public enquiry rather than stonewalling it as the Cons would do. For those Fundamentalist Christian Conservatives, they must get on their knees and thank the Lord daily for the sponsorship scandal, without it they would not be in power. It was the best thing that ever happened to them. You are correct, there is still an evidence gap but misleading voters resonates in the same way as paper bags containing money on the restaurant table. Just like a frying pan, with enough heat and use the teflon eventually wears off.

    • GPAlta says:

      Almost everything is worse than the sponsorship scandal, because once you get through the misinformation, spin, and “spectacle” of the kind you’re rejecting here, you find that there was very, very little substance to the “scandal” part of it.

      The perpetrators of this election fraud obviously spent the time, money, and risk required (which was substantial) because THEY thought it would help them win close races, so I don’t think it is at all laughable to suggest that the perpetrators might have been right in their estimation, and that close races might have been won because of this activity.

  4. Tiger says:

    Bottom line is that if anyone knowingly and in bad faith misdirected voters, or set things up so that callers would use databases to do the same, he or she should be charged and, if convicted, jailed.

    It’s a serious crime. It’ll take a serious investigation by RCMP and Elections Canada.

  5. Philippe says:

    Great article Warren, very powerful.

  6. Ottawacon says:

    I think it is only a matter of time before the ‘other shoe’ drops. One of the things that became evident in the ‘in and out’ scandal is that the actual level of centralization of national campaign versus riding is significantly greater than the reporting level. We saw things like purchase orders issued for each riding, invoices back, all executed at the national campaign level and then simply sent on to the riding level to take care of reporting to Elections Canada – the basic control was at the level of the national party.

    Now, we have an uncertain number of ridings all hit by the same robocalling company. Any bet that the purchase order from each riding looks exactly the same?

  7. nic coivert says:

    It may be too late, if we’re already a banana republic nothing will come of this but fizzle and whiff.

    • The Zaphos Institute says:

      No, not too late, because (thankfully) we have Elections Canada.

      Now our big neighbour to the south is another story. They don’t have a national body to oversee elections, instead it’s left up to individual counties to administer. Because of this ‘robocalls’ are now a well established tactic of vote suppression there; just part of the long, sordid history of election fraud in the USA.

      My own ‘Robocall’ theory is this was adopted by CPC operatives because of this now being an established tactic in the US; and them NOT realizing we have an independent national body overseeing our elections. As Mr Kinsella has written many times now, this was a dumb move on their part. EC, aided by the RCMP, is investigating and will eventually get to the bottom of this.

      The only question now is how high up did this go? If it was just a small group of overzealous campaign volunteers with no official sanctioning from the CPC, then just a few will be charged. Anything higher than this will be bad news for the Harper government, and by now everyone knows what some of the potential fall-out can be.

  8. Cath says:

    200 comments – wow – approaching KD territory:-)

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