Stephen Harper and the Outrageous Voter Suppression Scandal

Last night I pointed out something about the Con regime's so-called Fair Elections Act, that to my knowledge the entire MSM somehow managed to miss.

And that is that this truly sinister bill is not just about satiating Stephen Harper's deranged hatred for Elections Canada, or increasing the Con fundraising advantage.

It's also about suppressing the vote.

And how did I manage that incredible feat?

By tying myself to a chair, and forcing myself to read the whole damn thing. (PDF)

Noticing this strange amendment and that totalitarian ONLY...

Section 18 of the Act is replaced by the following: 18. (1) The Chief Electoral Officer may provide the public, both inside and outside Canada, with information on the following topics only: 

(a) how to become a candidate; (b) how an elector may have their name added to a list of electors and may have corrections made to information respecting the elector on the list; (c) how an elector may vote under section 127 and the times, dates and locations for voting; (d) how an elector may establish their identity and residence in order to vote, including the pieces of identification that they may use to that end; and (e) the measures for assisting electors with a disability to access a polling station or advance polling station or to mark a ballot.

Comparing it to the original Act:



And realizing the changes are obviously intended to prevent Elections Canada from running campaigns to encourage Canadians to vote. Even though voter apathy is an enormous problem in Canada.

So I'm glad to see today that the Globe has finally seen through the smokescreen. 

Elections Canada will be prohibited from encouraging Canadians to vote in federal ballots under changes the Conservative government are making to the agency’s mandate.

Elections Canada had put increasing efforts into encouraging voting – running ad campaigns that reminded Canadians of their democratic rights.

I'm really enjoying watching the stooge Pierre Poilievre's stooge trying to defend the indefensible in such an idiot manner.

A spokeswoman for Pierre Poilievre, the Tory minister for democratic reform, said the government doesn’t believe Elections Canada has a role to play in trying to boost turnout.

“Parties and candidates should inspire Canadians to take part in democracy,” said Gabrielle Renaud-Mattey, director of communications for Mr. Poilievre.

As only Mr Dick Head himself could...



When in fact governments in every modern democracy run ads to encourage their citizens to vote.

This bill is designed to do exactly the opposite, as Chantale Hebert also points out today.

One does not need to read between the lines of the bill to come to the conclusion that the Harper government is more inclined to see a higher voter turnout as a threat than as an ideal outcome. At a time when most comparable jurisdictions are looking for ways to reverse a decline in turnout the legislation put forward on Tuesday nudges Canada in the opposite direction.

And to make it even more democratically diseased or perverted, it is also specifically aimed at discouraging younger Canadians from voting. For obvious reasons:

There are all kinds of models that purport to project how a higher turnout among younger Canadians would impact the outcome of federal elections. But they all concur on one finding and it is that the Conservative party would lose from such a development.

Can you believe that? Corrupting the present AND the future of our democracy, for crass partisan purposes. How low can they go?

But then why should anyone be surprised? When voter suppression is the dark heart of the Con strategy to win elections. The only way they can win with a core support of only about THIRTY percent.

That's what the robocalls were all about...



That's why they turn our Parliament into a Roman Circus. Where a rookie female MP can be silenced by a mob of howling Con jackals.

That's why the corrupt Cons are always claiming that all politicians are the same...



So decent people are disgusted by the political process, turn away from it, and don't bother to vote.

And the sad thing is that sometimes even progressives are guilty of doing the same thing to ourselves. By going on and on about how we're all doomed, or how there is no difference between Mulcair, Trudeau, and Harper. Or how we should have The Revolution BEFORE we seize power.

And by so doing reduce ourselves to a state of depression, hopelessness and paralysis, which is just what the Cons want.

Instead of stepping up our attacks on the Con regime and its deranged leader, mobilizing Canadians, encouraging ourselves, and joining ranks to crush the filthy Harperites in the next election, before they destroy what's left our country.

Which is why I'm relentlessly optimistic when I blog. Not because I'm stupid or naive, but because I want to cheer up progressives, try to make them laugh in the darkness, and encourage them to fight harder and smarter than ever. 

Because I'm absolutely convinced that if we don't let the bastards grind us down, we WILL defeat them.

At least that's what I tell Jack who helped inspire me never to give up HOPE...



Even in the midst of this seemingly never-ending Canadian winter.

But of course, I don't want to sound TOO brilliant eh? Just because I beat the entire MSM to the voter suppression story. Ahem.

Because I do have a couple of natural advantages. I know bullies, I have fought them before, and I know you can DESTROY them.

And of course being of the rowdy rebel Scottish persuasion, all I need when I'm feeling down is to hear the sound of pipes and drums and I'm ready to fight the WORLD.

And the Cons are mice at my feet.

So my message to you tonight is this one:

Can you believe those bastard Harperites who would produce excrete a so-called Fair Elections Act which is really a plan to DISCOURAGE people from voting?



Is he CRAZY EVIL or what?

Is that not MADNESS?

And of course fight him, fight him, fight him.

And never stop BELIEVING...



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