How To Stop Stephen Harper From Stealing the Election

There are now only twenty-seven days to go before the election that will determine the fate of this country. Less than four weeks before we find out whether it will live or it will die.

But even as the decent people of Canada prepare for the battle they hope will bring down the brutish Stephen Harper and his sinister Con regime, a new danger looms.

For even as we struggle to get people to cast their ballots, you can be sure that the Cons are planning to suppress them or steal them. 

Are you sure you can vote? Are you sure that on election day you won’t be told that your ID, including your voter identification card from Elections Canada plus testimonials from sound citizens as to who you are that used to suffice, isn’t enough under the Harper government’s Fair Elections Act? It is the centrepiece of the Harper government’s assault on democratic process and arguably its most devious piece of work.

Indeed, of all the reasons to give Harper the bum’s rush as he gnaws at the vital organs of the Canadian state, this democracy-warping law is surely at the top.

Harper and his grotesque minion Pierre Poilievre have rigged the game with their obscenely named Fair Elections Act...



The key intent of the law is to strip Elections Canada of its powers. Its authority to investigate electoral fraud has been removed and given to the Office of Public Prosecutions, which doesn’t report to Parliament. 

Something like the Tory robocalls scandal (in which opposition voters in some ridings were misdirected to the wrong polls) could now pass unnoticed, and Elections Canada is even prohibited from communicating about robocalls to citizens.

They are making it easier to steal this election, like they tried to steal the last one...



And of course it couldn't be more disgusting: 

The government’s stated reason for all this was to prevent “electoral fraud.” If we were an enlightened nation, we would be laughing these guys out of office for this instead of entertaining their possible re-election. The Harper party is above all the party of electoral fraud, believing itself above the niggling business of election laws. There have been Tory scandals in every one of their elections, and several Tories off to jail, including, recently, Harper point man Dean del Mastro, led off in chains.

So I am glad to see that Elections Canada has been training its staff to try to spot voter suppression. 

Elections Canada has quietly warned staff to be on the lookout for increasingly sophisticated tactics aimed at discouraging — or even stopping — voters from casting a ballot.

“It’s important for us to identify potential risks in order to be prepared to detect and respond to incidents that may occur, including incidents that could compromise the integrity of the election,” said Elections Canada spokesman John Enright.

And incidentally reminding us where Stephen Harper got his ideas...



The research revealed that rough-and-tumble American political campaigns are the seedbeds of such behaviour — identifying 17 cases in 15 states from 2004 through 2012.

So that we might recognize a traitor or a beast when we see one.

But because he is a beast we cannot only rely only on Elections Canada to safeguard our democracy. We all need to get involved.

The progressive parties should get together and set up an action centre, with it's own toll-free number, its own website, and its own Twitter site with a hashtag like #election alert.

So Canadians all over the country can instantly report violations, and we can send one of our flying squads, Elections Canada officials, and hopefully the police to the scene.

But even that won't be enough. The progressive parties should also put out hard hitting ads, reminding Canadians that the Cons tried to steal the last election.

And that they could do it again...



Canadians need to be reminded of what happened so they can be forewarned, and be even more motivated to remove that criminal conspiracy from power.

We have waited too long for this election, for the chance to defeat the monster.

Too many hopes are riding on it.

So we must not let him steal it...



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