Linda Frum, the Unfair Elections Act, and the Senate Farce

When I saw Linda Frum had caused a flap on Twitter by trying to defend the indefensible Unfair Elections Act, all kind of thoughts flew into my mind.

How could somebody so dumb be a Senator? Can I be one?

And lucky for her she only made a fool out of herself on Twitter. 



Where everyone forgets what anyone said the day before.

But sadly I see, she couldn't leave dumb alone.

Elections Canada is a bureaucracy with two missions: to ensure the integrity of the voting process and also to promote voter turnout. Those two missions are contradictory. You want the biggest vote total? Accept every ballot. You want to eliminate voter fraud? Eliminating improper ballots may reduce vote totals.

Because if it was bad in 140 characters now it REALLY sucks eh?

Her collection of Con talking points, which have been refuted by people MUCH smarter than her, leads absolutely nowhere.

And seems to indicate that either she is not in full command of her intellect, or in full control of her partisan instincts, as one Globe commenter suggests:

Sorry Ms Frum, competing interests are not the same as a conflict of interest. Both are goods to be pursued to reach the goal of democratic elections. When one danger is shown to be a fiction promoted by the conservatives, we have to really wonder what "voter integrity" goal you are really pursuing.

Or that she has fallen under the spell of the Wacky Witch of the Senate Marjory LeBreton, whose partisan spirit still haunts the place....



But then she isn't the only one to fall under that spell mixed and cooked up in the PMO. So are the Con senators who would have us believe that the Senate is morphing back into the chamber of sober almost sober second thought. 

Conservative senators are recommending that the government abandon plans to exempt certain fundraising calls from election spending limits, in one of nine changes to the controversial Fair Elections Act recommended unanimously by a Senate committee.

When in fact their recommendations, while making some good suggestions, do not touch the dark heart of the bill. They do not recommend that vouching be retained, even though it's a blatant attempt to suppress the vote. They do not call for the Election Commissioner to be responsible to Parliament instead of the government. 

They do not call for the Chief Electoral Officer to be given the powers to properly investigate the Cons who tried to steal the last election, or prevent them from stealing the next one.

And all those recommendations are, in my opinion, just a smokescreen to allow Pierre Poilievre to look like he's listening to others, and changing his bill...



When in fact it's all a farce. He could adopt all their recommendations, and not change the intent of the bill one iota.

And how serious are the Con senators about what the Globe calls putting a "brake" on the bill?

The changes are being recommended while the Fair Elections Act, Bill C-23, is still under consideration by a committee in the House of Commons and amount to a warning shot from the Senate. If the changes are not made by the House, it could lead to a tug-of-war between the institutions.

When they are rushing their recommendations out before the House of Commons has even finished studying the foul act. Which if Poilievre agrees to their changes, can only speed up the process.

And everything from Poilievre's distortions, to Frum's confusions, to Brad Butt's lies...



Are all part of an orchestrated Con campaign to distract and confuse Canadians.

While they rush the bill through to cover their asses before the robocall trial begins in June.

And of course, don't forget that old Tommy McInnis is on that senate committee...



The one who also claimed he PERSONALLY witnessed massive voter fraud. Only to admit the very next day that actually he didn't. He got his information from Elections Canada. The agency that has made it absolutely clear that voter fraud is NOT a major problem.

Which should tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about that Senate report eh?

And the good news?

The Cons are so desperate they're losing touch with reality, and they don't realize how obvious is their plan, to anyone but the desperately dumb. 

They can fool themselves, but they can't fool most Canadians because they know Con artists when they see them.

And so great is the resistance, that unless this bill is killed.

The anger could be so great.

It could end up killing THEM...



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