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One of the ugliest political deceptions used on Canadian voters apparently happened during the last Federal Election, in May, 2011. It is just coming into significant light now.
Simply put, the action was set up to deliberately mislead voters. Some individuals, claiming to represent Elections Canada, made phone calls directing voters away from established voting places, to addresses where there was no voting poll. (Elections Canada is the government body which runs Federal — meaning national — elections.) The calls apparently were made to people who were somehow identified as supporting parties other than the Conservatives. Calls have been traced to a "voice broadcast" company in Edmonton, Alberta. This is a company which has done work for high-ranking individuals in Canada's Conservative Party, including the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.
Plain and simple, someone was disrupting the voting process. The disruption may not have come from the business involved. But it apparently came through that business. For a while, it appeared that the problem occurred in only a few constituencies, where the vote was expected to be tight. Then the number rose to 18. Now, as many as 50 electoral districts may have experienced that disruption. That is over 15 per cent of Canada's total electoral districts.
Yesterday's news is that Elections Canada has received over 31 thousand calls of concern since the story first became public. That's 31,000 calls, by individuals alleging they received misdirecting information.
Clearly, this is not an isolated problem. In fact, it appears to be very well-organized.
The significant thing is that this fits the Conservative's style of political operation, the end-justifies-the-means, win-at-any-cost approach. Which, I believe, is inconsistent with the Christian values which many Conservatives claim to follow personally.
The Conservatives have set out to fundamentally change Canada, from a country based on citizen equality, to one which has strong class divisions. It follows a pro-business, anti-worker style to governing. And it is scaring a lot of Canadians.
All this brings us to the work of Lawrence Britt. Britt has made a point of studying Fascist governments in many parts of the world. He has come up with Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism. Here is number 14.
Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
This misdirection of voters which occurred last May is entirely consistent with what Britt has identified — "fraudulent elections."
I'm certainly not the first person to raise concerns about the overall extreme right-wing trend developing in Canada, and in the United States. (Some call it Fascism, which it may be.) But I am concerned about the continuing "problems" the Conservative Party is having (causing?) in Canada.
I'm a Canadian who really loves my "home and native land." And I'm getting more and more concerned by my nation — our nation — developing trends which are not helpful to the majority of it's citizens.
Footnote:
I'm going to give Rick Mercer the last word on this. (His numbers are a bit off, but he makes a good point.)
