Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Elections Canada Bullies

All this talk about Elections Canada "raiding" Conservative Party headquarters is giving me a case of deja vu.

Back in the days when we worked for the same advocacy group, Stephen Harper and I were waging a battle against the Elections Canada bureaucrats who were responsible for enforcing election gag laws.

In fact, Harper (in a letter I wrote for him) went so far as to call them "jackasses."

Later on, those jackasses kicked back.

In fact, Elections Canada dispatched the RCMP to lay charges against us, claiming we had violated election laws.

The charge was a sham.

But it was a perfect example of the kind of bully tactics the folks at Elections Canada like to use to intimidate anyone who dares to oppose them.

And believe me, Elections Canada is not some non-partisan government agency. The guys who run it definitely have an ideological axe to grind.

Yesterday's stunt at Tory party headquarters indicates they still like to employ the same tactics.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

give me (and most Canadians) a choice to believe Elections Canada vs you and your ilk ...

well it just ain't a level playing field

Anonymous said...

I don't profess to know all about the in and out scheme but I thought all election filings had been done by now. What could they possibly be looking for?

Robert McClelland said...

The guys who run it definitely have an ideological axe to grind.

Well if ideological means insuring our elections are held in a fair manner where all parties follow the rules approved by Parliament then I guess they do have an ideological axe to grind.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see you and Warren Kinsella have a 10 minute bit on Mike Duffy to debate this issue.

You both seem to have taken different sides.

In my opinion, the guy who ordered this is a Liberal hack and it's a move to make Dion more comfortable going into an election.

Anonymous said...

I remember Harper talking about that very situation in BC during his December 2002 Canadian Alliance campaign kickoff speech at Tudor Hall in Ottawa. If I'm not mistaken Gerry, I think he got a rousing response from the partisan crowd (lots of freedom lovers and Chretien haters).

I wonder if anybody has that speech on video archive?

Anonymous said...

Wow... Bobby McLaLaLand is still free of the asylum.

Of course Elections Canada has an ideological axe to grind. They have had a long history of attacking the Conservatives while letting every other little Elections fraud go unanswered.

Remember Michael Moore coming up here and breaking the elections laws and Elections Canada not even responding at all to that?

How about the fact that the Liberal party wasn't de-registered as a political party after the Sponsorship scandal as would have been according to the rule of law (clause 497) of Elections Canada?

Oh yeah... that good old, unbiased Elections Canada.

Anonymous said...

How is it that the Elections Canada official and the RCMP just happened to have the media AND the Liberal Party television cameras trailing them on their "raid"?

Anonymous said...

How is it that the Elections Canada official and the RCMP just happened to have media and Liberal Party television cameras at the ready to record the event?

Anonymous said...

"Well if ideological means insuring our elections are held in a fair manner where all parties follow the rules approved by Parliament then I guess they do have an ideological axe to grind."

Soooo Bobby, sweetie - I guess you would be happy to have the RCMP assist elections Canada in "raiding" the Liberal and NDP and Green party headquarters given that THEY ALL USE THE SAME PRACTICES!!!!

Geesh - let us know when you are calling elections Canada, Bob, so we can be sure to have cameras at the ready to document the "raids"

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Elections Canada and CBC's broadcast coverage last night that announced Elections Canada are expected to lose the Tory initiated lawsuit, this will find resolution despite the HEADLINES smearing the Tories.

Mr. Nicholls, could you possibly review how it was possible in the Ontario election for all the votes to be counted within approx. 50 minutes? Including the referendum ballot? That count defied the laws of physics. It didn't make any sense that Ontarions would vote for their taxes to go up. Even despite the immigrant vote. Immigrants are more aware than most regarding tax hikes. I never accepted the vote count. Though people say it will never get reviewed. What I'm trying to point out is that I believe Ontario aspires more to Conservatism than the Liberal agenda and it wasn't reflected in the voting process.

Anonymous said...

Uh, does anyone not remember that CBC itself broke the law by feeding election results online in Jan 2006.

Any Elections Canada charges there?

Nada!

Complete Jackasses!