Re-Election wanted!

[erin9mmm]

& how many of those who protest actually exercise their right to vote? I know of quite a few folks who can't be bothered going out to vote, yet jump at every chance to slam politicians.

Probably very few. If you don't vote you shouldn't complain.

& not to be too critical, but if Guelph was one of the ridings affected, why are they not mobilizing to hold a rally there?

Now that would make sense to the issue.

I would love to meet just ONE politician who can meet that criteria. Heck, I would love to meet one individual who is not a faith leader who can abide by that criteria (methinks I've been living in downtown Toronto too long ).

Remember the Liberal sponsorship scandal.

[Natalka]

It's the scale of the thing. Elections Canada reported around 1,000 complaints between the 2 elections of 2006 and 2008 compared to 31,000+ complaints for the 2011 election.

Plus people are becoming more politically aware both of policies and abuses. They report in the hope that the process can be cleaned up on all sides.

The number of complaints after the 2011 election was 1,003 - similar to the last election. Not all were robocall complaints. There were 1,352 complaints from the 2008 election and 329 from the 2006 election.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stor...-confirms.html


The 30K+ number of 'contacts' didn't come about until recently (when people were encouraged to contact EC and other politicians regarding robocalls - surely not all of those are from people who received the robocalls in question...).

[glowworm2k]

I heard on the evening news on Friday that Elections Canada will be conducting full investigations in many ridings. I understand that they can't give particulars of the cases, but I'd be interested to know how many ridings they are talking about and which ones they are. Hopefully the public and media will keep this issue in the news so that we can learn a few more details as this progresses.

[Patty Smyth]

Con. 39.6
LIB 18.9
NDP 30.6
GRN 3.6
BLO 6.0
Oth 0.9

THESE stats are why so many are complaining because the majority of Canadians did not vote for them. They may have won the seats but they certainly do not speak for the majority of the people.

[Patty Smyth]

& how many of those who protest actually exercise their right to vote? I know of quite a few folks who can't be bothered going out to vote, yet jump at every chance to slam politicians.

& not to be too critical, but if Guelph was one of the ridings affected, why are they not mobilizing to hold a rally there?


I do wonder just how many of the would-be voters who received the calls & couldn't vote were actually intending to go out & vote. Given that turnout was around 60% (61.4% according to this CBC report http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cana...nout-1029.html# ), how many people were actually affected.

This is an interesting site that lists the voter turnout of previous elections:
http://www.electionalmanac.com/canada/voterturnout.php





(Snipped for bandwidth's sake, but certainly not content - thank you for posting the Bible text )

I would love to meet just ONE politician who can meet that criteria. Heck, I would love to meet one individual who is not a faith leader who can abide by that criteria (methinks I've been living in downtown Toronto too long ).

As for Harper calling himself a Christian, I think it's more the media doing so. He certainly hasn't used his beliefs to frame his party's policies.



Thank you, everyone, for an interesting, informative & POLITE conversation.

I do love the folks on SC.

Disagree strongly here. I think it permeats his agenda. Policies speak for themsleves(epspecially on the abortion issue) and he is also the 1st PM to ever say god bless canada at the end of his speeches to the PUBLIC!!! This is the last thing I want to hear from a public figure. We get enough of this from the U.S. Leave religion where it belongs, in the privacy of people's homes. Seperation of church and state is a right of all Canadians.

[erin9mmm]

Disagree strongly here. I think it permeats his agenda. Policies speak for themsleves(epspecially on the abortion issue) and he is also the 1st PM to ever say god bless canada at the end of his speeches to the PUBLIC!!! This is the last thing I want to hear from a public figure. We get enough of this from the U.S. Leave religion where it belongs, in the privacy of people's homes. Seperation of church and state is a right of all Canadians.

Makes me like him all the more. It's in our anthem "God keep our land.."and I'm proud.
..but that could be a whole new thread

[Patty Smyth]

Makes me like him all the more. It's in our anthem "God keep our land.."and I'm proud.
..but that could be a whole new thread

Yes that should be changed also to reflect the growing changes in society.

[DH666]

Have you ever noticed that whoever is in power for more than one term they tend to have power go to their heads and think they can get away with illegal tactics? Doesn't matter if it the Conservatives or the Liberals after a while they all feel that they are entitled. Happended to Mulroney as well as Chrétien.

[glowworm2k]

Have you ever noticed that whoever is in power for more than one term they tend to have power go to their heads and think they can get away with illegal tactics? Doesn't matter if it the Conservatives or the Liberals after a while they all feel that they are entitled. Happended to Mulroney as well as Chrétien.

So true!

I guess we should be thankful that at least we end up hearing about most of this stuff.... Russia's election results were announced today and they say there was known interference, but I doubt that folks'll be able to talk about that in an open manner

[Patty Smyth]

Like I said before NONE of them are choirboys but at least I can admit the liberals have huge faults it seems conservatives can do no wrong in their owm minds and many of their supporters.

[TaraF]

A new day, a new scapegoat. It appears that today blame for the Robo-Calls are being laid at the feet of Elections Canada. FAIL.

Click for article

And while I do understand that it isn't Harper making these comments and allegations, it is one of his MPs. Apparently Harper has no control over anything, even his own party!

[gryphon]

The number of complaints after the 2011 election was 1,003 - similar to the last election. Not all were robocall complaints. There were 1,352 complaints from the 2008 election and 329 from the 2006 election.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stor...-confirms.html


The 30K+ number of 'contacts' didn't come about until recently (when people were encouraged to contact EC and other politicians regarding robocalls - surely not all of those are from people who received the robocalls in question...).

One reason why the investigation is going slowly according to some is that mutliple fake reports were made by people not in those ridings.

[erin9mmm]

Like I said before NONE of them are choirboys but at least I can admit the liberals have huge faults it seems conservatives can do no wrong in their owm minds and many of their supporters.

I have a feeling I am one of the supporters you are referring to so forgive me if I take offense to your statement.
I am a conservative supporter because I agree with the basis of their party-

The Conservative Party generally favours lower taxes, smaller government, more decentralization of federal government powers to the provinces, modeled after the Meech Lake Accord, and traditional religious and cultural values

quoted from wikipedia
I am not going to take up my pitchfork and join the rest when there are no facts, just accusations. I will save my decision until the investigation is over.

[TaraF]

"Canadians are good and worthy folks, but they suffer an excess of civil obedience, politeness and lack of civic rage that could be harnessed to combat political atrophy. At a time when Arabs risk life and limb for political freedoms,... Canadians seem largely apathetic about the erosion of their democracy."

- Ramesh Thakur, former assistant secretary general of the UN and author of 30 books on governance and ethics.

It's sad when everyone else sees there is a problem and Canadians just sit back and shrug it off. *sighs*

[Valiant]

Have you ever noticed that whoever is in power for more than one term they tend to have power go to their heads and think they can get away with illegal tactics? Doesn't matter if it the Conservatives or the Liberals after a while they all feel that they are entitled. Happended to Mulroney as well as Chrétien.

It is inherrant in human beings to let power go to their heads, due to the flaws in human nature.
"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

No doubt about it, we see a range of corruption in the character flaws and unethical practices in the various parties that govern. And how much do we not see, because it has been covered-up by lies and deceit?

But the thing that troubles me, is that this Conservative party is moving steadily and speedily to gain more and more power and control over Canadian rights and freedoms. There was a time when Canadians could criticize and protest the actions of their government; and we ousted a few corrupt politicians and parties that way, and defeated others in elections. But right now, anybody that opposes our government's ideas is branded as the government's latest "threat to Canada", with government retaliation to follow.
And that is just too much power in the hands of the powerful.
We, the people of Canada, are losing our rights and freedoms, while the government is claiming more and more authority over us.