Monday, February 27, 2012

The Robocall Scandal widens



The robocall scandal continues to widen. It certainly wasn't just one riding where one young kid was involved. Elections Canada and police are currently believed to be looking into reports that automated calls in as many as 18 ridings falsely advised voters that the location of their polling stations had changed. Opposition parties claim it's more like 27 to 34.

The Conservative Party does not need to look into "robocalls" made during the last federal election any further, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says. "It's certainly not something our party condones," MacKay said Sunday of the fraudulent calls to voters. "It's inappropriate behaviour to say the least." But he told CBC News in New Glasgow, N.S., that he believes the calls directing people to wrong or non-existent polling places were isolated incidents.

Yeah, right. It's not something we condone. Just like we don't condone torture of prisoners. Much. Harper initially said the Conservative party had no knowledge of the scam. Yet with the rapidly expanding magnitude of the scandal, that is really becoming hard to believe.

I'm not a fan of Bob Rae but he did say one thing in question period that made sense. When will Stephen Harper begin to take personal responsibility? Excellent question. Unfortunately the answer is never.

Elizabeth May was profoundly eloquent on the matter. She said she was enraged because this scandal is an assault on Democracy. Turns out the robocalls were used in her riding as well to discourage non conservative voters from voting by telling them where they vote was moved. Elizabeth May said we don't have a smoking gun here. We have a dead body on the floor. I like her. She is a welcome addition to the debate. Clearly the police should investigate the matter because it is fraud.

2 comments:

  1. Scandal yes, but its a wee bit early to say its the conservatives that are actually behind it. There is no actual evidence that links the conservatives to the call, except for the scripts that the operators read (as far as I know)... Doesn't make much sence that the conservatives would break the law, and then tell people they were doing it... The articles do claim that people said the callers stated that they were callign on behalf of the conservaitve party, for the most part. So why break the law, and then tell people you're doing it? Something doesn't really add up here...

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  2. Every account I've read is that the calls were claiming to be from Elections Canada not from the Conservative party. They were fraudulently pretending to be from Elections Canada to try and convince voters their place of voting had been moved. It wouldn't make sense for a member of the Liberal party to be told where to vote by someone from the Conservative party. One conservative staff is being used as the scape goat. I.E. confession of guilt. Only there is no way that the kid involved in one riding would oversee 18 ridings.

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