Would you buy a used car from this man?
First, let me be clear. I thoroughly dislike Stephen Harper- few people would be happier to see him thrown out of office. That’s what motivated me to organize the Occupy Harper event last year- it was very satisfying to expose his cowardly ways…
So, when I first heard about the Robocall scandal I instinctively wanted to step outside and scream “fire the liars” at the top of my lungs! But, regardless of how satisfying it would be- we are only at the early stages of the investigation, and we have yet to see solid evidence of who is responsible.
Summary justice can be a slippery slope…
Meanwhile, as the politicians & pundits bask in their schadenfreude, they are missing one of the most important things we can learn right now- Elections Canada (EC) is failing to deliver on one of their most important mandates!
It’s their responsibility to ensure that voters are knowledgeable and informed about how elections work. Had they been successful, I’d probably not be writing this article.
1.) It is not EC policy to use robocalls to announce the relocation of a polling place. Had voters known this, the impact of these calls would have been negligible.
2.) Most voters, particularly our youth, have little confidence their vote can have a real impact on the results. But, considering Harper won the last election by a margin of only 8,000 votes- how likely is it that he wouldn’t have got in-office if there weren’t so many disenfranchised voters?
So, I’d like to leave a challenge to the politicians who will join us on Sunday. It’s okay for you to come out and bash Harper for a little while, we’ll enjoy it. After all, who doesn’t these days!
But, can you save a couple of minutes and dig into the real problems with our electoral system? What do you think should be done to improve voter education? Are you prepared to make a serious effort to cure us of our apathy? What will it take?
Do that and your country will love you…
Related articles
- Citizens Meeting Friday to Plan National Rallies Against Election Fraud (fixcanelec.wordpress.com)
- Robocall probe swamps Elections Canada (calgaryherald.com)
- Elections Canada confirms ‘robocalls’ investigation (ctv.ca)
- Robocalls scandal: Elections Canada flooded with complaints (video) (calgaryherald.com)
