Boy, you just try to be fair and you hear about it. Babel-on-the-Bay’s complaint desk was overworked the other day after commenting on the Guelph Robocall verdict. You try to be fair because a foolish young man took the blame for something really stupid and people jump on you for not wanting to throw him in jail. If they had the real perpetrators of the crime in court, we would have been calling for a life sentence.
The Babel-on-the-Bay commentary under discussion was lamenting the ongoing cruelty of the political process in this country. There is a huge difference in politics between being competitive and being criminal. It is also a good reason why running a political campaign is not a democratic process. The factors determining how a campaign is run are time limits, spending limits and the limits on our actions imposed by criminal law.
First of all, the reason why we have always had fixed limits between the writ of election being issued and polling day is so that everyone has an equal opportunity. The campaign manager has a fixed calendar from the Returning Officer as to such campaign activities as when people can vote. The campaign manager builds the campaign within the parameters of that calendar and there is no forgiveness if you miss some critical milestone.
Spending limits are a newer aspect of campaigns and the campaign manager and the official agent have to work together to meet all the obligations. There are no ‘oops’ allowed after the fact that can remove your candidate from office. (You can look up Peterborough federal riding on that subject.)
And in addition to election law, you have criminal law. Just one example: Every political worker at some time or other has felt the urge to kick down an opponent’s sign. What stops you is that it is known as vandalism and has been the cause of getting people arrested. No campaign manager likes being woken by the police in the middle of the night to discuss what a group from the campaign thought would be a lark in the dark.
And as much as older politicos refer to the parliamentary staffs on the federal and provincial level as “kiddie land,” the reality is that the more senior members of the party usually have too many responsibilities that keep them from being available for those jobs. It is a great learning experience for these young people and we greybeards have a responsibility to keep them out of jail for some stupid act on behalf of their party.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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