Having crossed swords with Elections Canada in the past, it is easy to understand the Conservative disdain for the bureaucrats of Elections Canada. What we should question is the desire of the Harper government to add another layer of bureaucracy to what is already glacier-like policing of elections. Instead of taking four to six years to clean up political corruption, we can now take twice as long.
But before you buy into the Conservatives claiming this proposed elections act to be an improvement that they label as “Fair Elections,” you should ask: Fair for whom?
Taken in context with previous actions of this government, this elections act is just one more step in subverting Elections Canada to a lap dog for an Imperial Prime Minister’s Office. They have to let the little beast yap, but now it will be to no avail. The Tories hope to defang and emasculate Elections Canada by turning policing of elections over to people with little or no understanding of political processes in this country.
A fair and open committee discussion of this act could not only improve the act but save the Conservatives from the obvious accusations of conniving to change elections in their favour. Politicians have to deal with these issues in an atmosphere of collegiality and equality. The number of Members from the Tory caucus should not be the determining factor.
And the only way to deal with robocalls is to ban them. All of them! The Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission should put a stop to any and all recorded telephone calls to subscriber telephones. We pay for those telephones, not those who want to sell us something. The calls are not only intrusive, rude, annoying, demeaning, destructive and cheap but they are often misleading and serve as cover for those who would exploit recipients. They are grossly inaccurate for polls unless dealing in vast numbers. And they are often unanswered by those who can afford call display. The simple answer is that if the call is not worth the time of a human caller, we do not want the call.
The Conservatives are going to spend a great deal of effort trying to cloak this new act in respectability but the facts might differ. Only an equal input from each of the political parties and hearings with their various apparatchiks will give us an insight into vital changes needed in the Election Act.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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