Canada's Conservatives Misled Voters With Massive Robocall Operation

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Canada's Conservatives Misled Voters With Massive Robocall Operation

Posted by timothy on Saturday February 25, 2012 @09:30AM from the now-that's-offsides dept.

choongiri writes "Elections Canada has just traced thousands of illegal phone calls made during the 2011 federal election to a company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country. The automated VOIP 'robocalls' appeared to be designed to stop non-Conservative voters from casting ballots in key ridings by falsely telling voters that the location of their polling stations had changed, causing them to go to the wrong location on election day. This news casts serious doubt on the legitimacy of Canada's Government. The Conservatives narrowly won their 'majority' by 6,201 votes in 14 ridings, with only 39% of the popular vote." For those as unfamiliar with the term "riding" in this context as I was, here's Wikipedia's explanation.

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More disturbingly... by iCEBaLM · 2012-02-25 09:36 · Score: 5, Informative

Some calls apparently were from people claiming to be with the Liberal party, acting rude, calling at very late/early hours, in an attempt to cause people who said they supported the Liberal party to not vote for them. These calls happened in multitudes of ridings (districts for you yanks) including Etobicoke Centre where the Conservative candidate won by only 26 votes.
1. Re:More disturbingly... by gl4ss · 2012-02-25 09:47 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  wtf?
  surely some jailtime is in order? shouldn't be _that_ hard to figure out where the calls originated from(someone paid for them in some form.. even if they were done with skype-out or whatever).
  sincerely some guy.
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
2. Re:More disturbingly... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-25 09:50 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Solution: Ban all robocalls and livecalls for election purposes! I am sure that Canadian would benefit from this.
3. Re:More disturbingly... by davester666 · 2012-02-25 10:32 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  hahahahaha.
  Like what happened in the states, like in Florida, where dead people just happen pop out of the grave and vote, or where primarily Democrat-voting districts just happen to get robocalled with the wrong date, time and/or location to vote [or that you need a passport and multiple other forms of picture ID to vote].
  As long as the entire voting process, as well as the government in general, is under the direct control of the political parties that are permitted to run, every so-called 'investigation' will continue to result in...nothing happening.
  
  --
  Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
4. Re:More disturbingly... by TheRaven64 · 2012-02-25 10:48 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The problem is not that these things are legal - they aren't - it's that the risk/reward ratio is wrong. If you cheat and win, then you get to run the country. If you get caught, you get a slap on the wrist.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
5. Re:More disturbingly... by Leolo · 2012-02-25 12:35 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Elections Canada runs all the elections. And they are is independent from Government.
6. Re:More disturbingly... by rs79 · 2012-02-25 13:12 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Sure, and under Liberal rule the country ran well. Under Conservative rule it went downhill very quickly: education, health care, prisons, foreign affairs, defense - all these have been chipped away by either federal or provincial conservatives and the damage never undone.
  One quick example: when I went to school in the 70s high school had grade thirteen, which was optional but was, in a sense, like first year college, but free. The Ontario premier (a failed teacher) did away with this and found a way to save a few bucks by having school start early. This mean getting up at 5:30 to catch a bus in rural areas and kids are out by 2:30. That being enough out of sync with the 9-5 world of the parents that it caused problems oh an the results are in - kids don't learn well this way according to recent studies. Who would?
  It's hard to keep crazies in mental hospitals now because of rules brought in by the same whacko, and he gutted the prison system - no more educational/training programs, no more daily legal services. You just rot there now. Recenlty a large federal prison near here in Kingston had to shit their farm down that has been in use for ages - they grew their own vegegetables. That got shut down even though the alternative - having food trucked in - was more expensive. Somebody got bribed, there isn't a single good thing to come of that deal for anybody but the company providing the food.
  The conservatives a a pack of treasonous cunts who have absolutely decimated what Canada is and what Canada could have been if it were not for the mean spirited, greedy corrupt pack of not-very-smart-poeple we jokingly refer to as "the conservative party".
  
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  Need Mercedes parts ?
7. Re:More disturbingly... by Nimey · 2012-02-25 17:04 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  There wouldn't be any evidence. There seldom is if the perps are competent, and if the evidence trail pointed upwards some flunky would fall on his sword to protect the Big Boss. This has been done many times before, and will again.
  Just saying.
  
  --
  Hail Eris, full of mischief...
  
  E pluribus sanguinem
Perish the thought. by Bieeanda · 2012-02-25 09:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

This is also the government who prorogued parliament in order to head off a legal inquiry into some of their other shenanigans-- which, had it gone through, could very well have been a scandal of historic proportions.
They also made significant changes to the election system and advertised it poorly, several years ago. You Americans in the audience might be familiar with this sort of tactic: requiring forms of identification that younger and poorer voters were less likely to have, in the name of combating electoral fraud. I worked the polls that year and it was a real goddamn treat explaining to people from all walks of life that they couldn't vote because they didn't bring the right ID. Some came back later. Some didn't. The whole thing was an awful bottleneck.
1. Re:Perish the thought. by realityimpaired · 2012-02-25 10:27 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  This is also a government that was found guilty of contempt for parliament shortly before the last election... the first time *any* british parliamentary system has *ever* been found guilty of that, since the introduction of the british parliamentary system almost 1000 years ago. By rights, Harper should have been in jail during the last election, not on the campaign trail.
Re:Serious, but the governement is legit either wa by ceoyoyo · 2012-02-25 10:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

There's a big difference between a minority and a majority government. And who's to say what the effect was? There was large scale elections fraud by the party that won the election, thus, their right to govern is in question. Even if no ridings were swayed, whoever was involved violated the elections act and, if they were elected, are in office illegally.
Re:Serious, but the governement is legit either wa by Theleton · 2012-02-25 10:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

Illegal methods can undermine the legitimacy of a government even if they weren't ultimately responsible for winning the election. Just ask Richard Nixon.
This is currently an issue. by SolemnLord · 2012-02-25 10:41 · Score: 5, Interesting

So far one staffer has resigned as the allegations have landed, in what appears to be a case of falling-on-the-sword-itis. The scale of the scandal is actually pretty massive. As TFA points out, these calls have been confirmed to appear in 18 ridings, and others are being suspected. In those 18 ridings, the calls only hit households that were waffling Liberal (as per recent polling).
What this means is that someone had to plan the calls, get the party affiliation information on these 18 ridings (at least), hire RackNine, hire a bilingual voice actor, and see everything through. The likelihood of one person pulling all this off is next to nil, and it doesn't help that the Conservative party has a (rightly deserved) reputation for bullying and playing dirty pool with the rules.
And since it's going to come up, the Conservative Party of Canada is actually the result of a merger between two separate parties: the original Progressive Conservatives, who were the centre-right answer to the Liberal's centre-left, and the Canadian Alliance-née-Reform party, the country's (relatively)-far-right party. Prime Minister Harper was previously a member of the Canadian Alliance, and it's safe to say that his view, regardless of his party's, doesn't represent the overwhelming majority of Canadians. He's not all bad, but I will throw a party he is unceremoniously dumped from the Canadian political scene.
1. Re:This is currently an issue. by SolemnLord · 2012-02-25 11:31 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I've always felt the Harper was one of the only things keeping the Conservatives in check, and the reason for his somewhat authoritarian style is that a lot of his MPs are pretty far off the deep end so he needs to keep them under reign.
  I agree and I disagree. Harper certainly had to keep his MPs in check, but that seemed to matter more when he was running a minority government than now. You didn't hear a peep out of the fringe MPs up until the Conservatives had a majority. Without the need to appeal to Canadian moderates who would have voted for the Liberals otherwise, Harper is showing less interest in holding back the fringe MPs, and more interested in ramming his legislation down our throats. It was practical intra-party authoritarianism.
  As for who might be responsible, I started writing up things and realized that I was probably sounding paranoid. I think that the Nixon comparisons being made in the Globe & Mail are warranted, but I admit I could be wrong, too.
2. Re:This is currently an issue. by rs79 · 2012-02-25 12:52 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Whether he's to blame or not, he's accountable.
  And he is far, far from innocent. This is about a oil sands. A long long time ago Canada was - not so much - an oil producing nation, then they figured out how to get oil out of the oil shale ("tar sands"). Suddenly Canada had a few trilliion dollars of goo to exploit. What does a country do when it finds a windfall like that? Help its poeple or exploit the shit out of it and get what you can on the world market (then blame the Suadi's for the price of oil)?
  At the time the PM was Pierre Trudeau, as fine of a PM as this country has ever known. Now, some countries, like, oh, Britain, consider fuel to be an essential resource and it's nationalized. Trudeau made some noise that maybe that wasn't a terrible idea and Canada want to do something *like* that.
  Boom. That was it. Suddenly from out west a new political party popped up, the "reform" party, With the usual American style Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt they managed to scare the electorate to the point where they trounced the more liberal conservative party to the point where it had only 2 seats, then consumed it.
  And who was the guy that spearheaded the reform party out west and ushered in a USA style way of doing things? Steven Harper. Who used to live in Toronto.
  Starting with the first oil crisis in the late 70s American big oil interests have pumped a lot of money into Canada to get the government they want - and they got it in the form of Vice President Harper who gave us Bush's wars and we sell all the oil to the US - America gets most of its oil from Canada and very little from Saudi check for yourself.
  Canada has enough oil and so few poeple that we could be having twenty-five-cent a gallon gasoline or heating oil - the latter being pretty important in a country that gets -44 degree weather and relies on oil in rural settings almost exclusively. Instead the oil is sold to the US at Saudi prices and American oil companies benefit.
  No PM in recent history has done more to damage Canada than Harper. And oh look, it wasn't even a legitimate vote. Is there any doubt we're the 51's state or that _Syriana_ could be re-shot in a more, um, northern clime?
  
  --
  Need Mercedes parts ?
3. Re:This is currently an issue. by rs79 · 2012-02-25 16:10 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  - The reform party never won an election.
  So what? They won seats, and split the vote on the right so much the conservatives were down to two seats. It was either fold up a very old political party or merge with reform. They did the latter. See Wikipedia: "Reform had also failed in 1997 to establish itself as the clear right-wing alternative to the Liberal Party. The Progressive Conservative Party, which had been steadily rebuilt under Charest, enjoyed a modest revival in the 1997 election. It won 20 seats, up from the dismal two it had won during in the 1993 election. The split in the right-wing vote between Reform and the PCs allowed the Liberals to win a second majority government with only 40% of the vote, the combined vote of the Reform and the PCs in 1997 equalled the same amount. Political observers noted that it was a divided right which allowed the Liberals to gain a second majority government, and claimed that if the two parties did not put away their differences, the result would repeat itself."
  The NEP was actually enacted between the years of 1980 and 1985. Canada never say "twenty-five cent a gallon gasoline", despite this fine program.
  If you look at the top 5 oil producing nations in the world, only Canaa charges its citizens full retail. Given the staggering rise in heating oil costs (ie, what use to cost $750 a season now costs $5000, many poeple have given up their homes because of this) and the trend towars national policy, not provincial, being in charge of that kind of oil gives some wiggle room in a country where the government subsidizes home, heat and shelter for poeple in its safety net. Or we could just run the thing like a US business, which is where Harper et al want to do for some reason. I'm sure that they're one of the most clueless and corrupt parties in Canadian political history is just a coincidence.
  Again, from Wikipedia:
  The NEP was introduced in the wake of the energy crises of the 1970s. Because of high oil prices, several economic problems that were beginning to manifest themselves through the 1970s were accelerated and magnified. Inflation was most commonly between 9 and 10 percent annually[1] and prime interest rates over 10 percent.[2] Unemployment was epidemic in the eastern provinces.[3] The NEP was designed to promote oil self-sufficiency for Canada, maintain the oil supply, particularly for the industrial base in eastern Canada, promote Canadian ownership of the energy industry, promote lower prices, promote exploration for oil in Canada, promote alternative energy sources, and increase government revenues from oil sales through a variety of taxes and agreements.[4] The NEP's Petroleum Gas Revenue Tax (PGRT) instituted a double-taxation mechanism that did not apply to other commodities, such as gold and copper (see "Program details" item (c), below). The program would "... redistribute revenue from the [oil] industry and lessen the cost of oil for Eastern Canada..." in an attempt to insulate the Canadian economy from the shock of rising global oil prices[5] (see "Program details" item (a), below). By keeping domestic oil prices below world market prices, the NEP was essentially mandating provincial generosity and subsidizing all Canadian consumers of fuel.[6]
  - The "oil sands" were a benefit, but did not substantially increase Canadian oil production. Oil production in Canada has been rising at a fairly steady rate for the past 50 years
  Yeah and it dropped in 72 and didn't recover until 95 again.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Canadian_Oil_Production_1960_to_2020.png
  blah blah blah... It was a blatant attempt by the Liberal party to buy votes.
  Clearly the oil industry still has some Wikipedia edits to make to bring history in line with their "official" version.
  We have always been at war with Oceana, too.
  
  --
  Need Mercedes parts ?
Re:So Racknine is a push version of 4chan? by Skapare · 2012-02-25 11:59 · Score: 5

All forms of robocalling should be outlawed in all countries. Penalties should be: 1st offense, 1001 slaps on the wrist by a robowristslapper ... 2nd offense, 1001 punches in the face by a robofacepuncher ... 3rd offense, 1001 knifestabs by a roboknifestabber.

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now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
They didn't just "pop out of the grave" by tlambert · 2012-02-25 12:00 · Score: 5, Funny

Like what happened in the states, like in Florida, where dead people just happen pop out of the grave and vote
The dead people were getting old, so they moved from Chicago to Miami, like most people in Chicago do when they get older.
Interesting factoid:
It's not commonly known, but the reason so many old people end up in Florida in the first place is that they shrink as they get older. As they shrink, their ability to see out of their cars decreases, until all they can see is the little crescent moon of sky between the dashboard and the top of their steering wheel -- this is also the primary cause of the so-called "ghost car effect", where a car appears to drive itself; the secondary cause, as any idiot knows, is Google. When this happens, all they can see is birds, and since birds are migratory, the old people end up going South as well, and end up in Florida (West of the Rocky Mountains, they end up in Arizona).
-- Terry