The CanaDoper Café (2012 edition of The great, ongoing Canadian current events and politics thread.)
This - the Conservative Party has already been found guilty (by themselves…that was their plea) of violating election law. It’s therefore even more plausible that they did so via other means during other elections.
I think people are misinterpreting me - I’m not accusing anyone, let alone everyone, in a party of anything or calling for everyone to be taken down over this. What I am seeing, though in discussions about this (mostly in newspapers), is people doing just that, though, against the “other” party. I think doing so is stupid and unproductive, but if it’s going to happen, it’s valid that it goes both ways. Basically, I’m annoyed at opinions that paint an entire party with the actions of a few, but refuse to accept that the same can be done in the other direction. I don’t think we should even be doing it, but it’s what I keep hearing…"Conservatives may have done X’…“oh yeah, well Liberals…ADSCAM!”…“Oh yeah, well Conservatives, ROBOCALLING” “Oh, but that’s only some people!!!” … it gets stupid, because the same was true with the other example.
Basically, I’m bitching 
It’s more a rambling commentary on stupid partisan commentary.
I want a thorough investigation and I want anyone who knew about this to be punished, whether that’s a high up or low level person. No handwaving or excuses if a higher up person is involved - remove them from office and punish them to the full extent of the law, point finale. I hate that people in power get away with illegal shit just because they are in power.
I’m trying to decide if stealing money is worse than stealing a vote (or actively preventing someone from voting). You can get money back, through fines, seizure of property, insurance, whatever (and, from a certain perspective, jail time). You can’t get your vote back once the election has passed. How do you make reparations to the person who was disenfranchised?
So call centre employees in Thunder Bay are coming forward with what seems to be a pretty direct link between the Conservative Party and the misdirected voters. Thoughts?
It’s going to be very interesting as it plays out. If this was truly a concerted act sanctioned by the Conservative party itself I will be extremely disappointed, to say the least.
That really didn’t clear anything up. Reading about all the calling and stuff that was going on election night (six million calls made by the Conservative party), it sounds like 100 people mis-directed actually sounds like it could have been an honest mistake.
Liberal staffer behind Toews Twitter attack: Rae
Funny stuff, really.
Heh - I love the whole Vikileaks30 story, and the #tellVicEverything response. I don’t think there was anything posted that wasn’t publicly available for anyone who cared to look for it, so in that sense I don’t think the staffer actually did anything wrong. Doing it at work, using (presumably) government resources…I can see why he’d resign (though I’m not sure he should have had to), and I’m satisfied with that.
Does Elections Canada ever actually move polling stations at the last minute, and how do they normally handle notifying voters? Individual calling? Canvassing with mail cards? I’m not sure it’s even the place of a political party to get involved in telling people where to go vote, precisely for the reason that if their information conflicts with what Elections Canada has put out, that could lead to someone being unable to vote. Encourage voting, but leave the mechanics of it to Elections Canada. I’m not content with brushing off having even one person sent to the wrong place as a mistake, as if that’s acceptable. It isn’t - that person may have been deprived of their right to vote because of that “mistake” and that’s unacceptable to me.
Dalton McGuinty hates Alberta’s oilsands.
From the news article:
However,
and
So, which is it? Is Alberta to blame for Ontario struggling economically, or is it Dalton McGuinty?
It is rather obviously Dalton McGuinty. A high dollar’s a disadvantage for some companies but an advantage for others. Seriously, if someone needs to various effects of exchange rates explained to them, they aren’t qualified to run a dog walking business, much less a province. Obviously, Dalton knows this, but you have to understand that right now in Ontario politics, he really, really needs a distraction.
The reason McGuinty is doing this is because of the Drummond Report, which he is desperately, and unsuccessfully, trying to get people to forget about. The Drummond Report effectively says “the province’s finances are a disaster and the things the McGuinty government has promised and unaffordable and cannot be done,” and he’s already dismissed simple math and reality and refused to admit the truth.
The time bomb that is Ontario’s provincial finances is something he can’t politically deal with because he caused most of it, and dealing with it woul mean rolling back the promises he’s made, so he has to seek out external villains. I’m sure the Toronto Star will agree with him - it’s their job to - but nobody else in Ontario buys this bullshit.
Ontario’s electricity pricing strategy alone is itself quite possibly the most idiotic government policy in the history of Canada. It, by itself, costs us more money than this alleged problem with oil prices.
Is it just me, or is this…awkward.
I’m not implying that Harper is covering anything, but…either it’s just the most awkward sentences ever or…his own investigation has unearthed something? I don’t know, I’m very tired and I’m having trouble parsing it. Combined with his previous “In this case…” I’m wondering whether Harper is, at the least, less of a smooth talker than I though he was? 
Also, this is hilarious:
The mental image of some poor people wandering around empty malls and schools looking for the polling station so many months after the election and never being able to leave or come back…
… yep, I’m tired, because I’m laughing like a loon.
If you wander around aimlessly for the rest of your life because a phone call directed you to a location, perhaps it would be better if these people didn’t vote. 
Taking fighting out of hockey is re-visited again. I guess I’m okay with fighting being taken out of hockey; I’m more of a lacrosse fan anyway, a sport that hasn’t attracted enough attention to have itself fully emasculated yet.
In my opinion, the best hockey only comes around every four years when the olympics happen. Anything that makes the NHL more about players’ skills is fine by me.
I agree. Especially since it’s the only hope I have of my team actually winning anything.
I am glad to know that I am not alone in that belief. And I like how Toronto Hydro is pleading poverty because they didn’t get a rate increase recently. Part of me almost has to believe that the entire Hydro system in Ontario is corrupt.
Oh, and did anyone see, that Via train that crashed outside of Toronto was going more than 4 times the speed limit for that section of track?
Only if it was switching rails, which it was. I heard on the radio the Transportation Safety Board is trying to determine if the signal lights in fact indicated this to the Train Engineers.
Fighting in Figure Skating, now that’s a different matter - I think it would liven things up immeasurably…
Have I mentioned that I really admire Calgary’s mayor, Naheed Nenshi? I couldn’t agree more with him in this case.
Better still, I’d love to find a way to get rid of the politicians who are trying to con us.
Simcoe County School Board (Ontario) is out of control with tax dollars.
School buses, and therefore school (pretty much) were cancelled Wednesday morning because they *expected *freezing rain in the afternoon. It snowed.
School buses, and therefore school (pretty much) were cancelled Thursday morning for reasons immediately inevident to me. Maybe because it had snowed (gasp!) Wednesday night?
Infuriating, to many a parent who had to make special arrangements, or miss work for the care of their normally-in-school-all-day child, and also to taxpayers who aren’t best pleased with the Board simply finding a reason to use some secret snow-day quota before they missed their chance.
What a waste.
In other news, Iceland is looking at adopting the Canadian dollar.