Do You Care About The Juno Awards?

That is today's poll question. Personally I won't be watching and couldn't name with certainty any winners from the last 10 years. Michael Bubble probably won one or two. Drake is a big deal. Didn't Justin Beiber cut in front of Tony Clement in line at the airport once? At least the Junos are a few notches above the Gemini Awards, which have become a joke and should be abolished. Any crap green lit by the CBC can win a Gemini in one of about 10,000 categories. At least Juno winners have to sell a few albums. Do you care enough to at least find out who won, if not watch the show? William Shatner is hosting this year. He's hard to book.

Will The Liberals Now Stop Complaining About Deficits?

For the last three years we've heard the opposition constantly complaining that the governing Tories were running a deficit. The Liberals in particular hammered this point at every opportunity, trying to paint the government as spending irresponsibly (even though it was the Liberals who demanded a multi billion stimulus package as a condition to supporting the 2009 budget in a minority parliament after a coup attempt). Fast forward to 2012 when the Tories have taken measures to reduce the deficit and cut spending, and suddenly they are accused of viciously attacking Canadians with allegedly draconian cuts. It's hard to please these guys. I suppose at the end of the day, that's what the opposition is here for, to complain.

The good news is that the CBC will have their federal funding cut by 10%. Maybe that's not enough, but it is a start and a move in the right direction. Of course as you can imagine, the CBC is none too happy about this budget. They are talking about it on Newsworld today under the headline "BUDGET FALLOUT". They'll either have to scale back their expenses, or charge a little more for advertising on their shitty programing. Can I recommend holding a telethon perhaps? It would be interesting to see how much money they could raise, if any. Most CBC employees are paid far far more than the average Canadian.

I like this budget. We could have used this last year, but the Tories campaigned on the minority budget that the opposition voted against to force the election. They were locked into last year's budget, this one is far better. We are still more than 3 years away from the next election, so we have a few more Tory majority budgets left.

Get used to it Liberals. Do the NDP have an opinion on the matter? Probably, but who cares?

Who Attacked The NDP Leadership Vote?

Okay so let me get this straight, the company responsible for the NDP's online voting in their recent leadership race claims that someone hacked hundreds if not thousands of computers and directed them to the website where the NDP was conducting online voting in order to suppress democracy. They are not openly accusing the Conservatives, but did say that such attacks are "often launched as protests by the organization's political or economic opponents" and came from 10,000 different IP addresses. Hint hint. Do you really think the Conservatives would do this while already under investigation for electoral fraud? How stupid would you have to be to do such a thing when so many are trying so hard to convict them of a similar crime? Meanwhile, what is the probability that the NDP's online voting problems were the result of a technical glitch or the system being unable to handle the volume of voters? Allegations of a "cyber attack" came pretty early in the day, not long after after the problems began. But hey, accusing Pierre Poutine 2.0 of a cyber attack makes for a better news story than a technical glitch or system flaw.

Today's poll question; what is the most plausible explanation for the NDP leadership race internet voting problems? Was it a large scale cyber attack from the Tories or Liberals? Was it a technical glitch? Was it foreign espionage? Was it Anarchists?

BC Liberal Titanic Slowly Sinking

British Columbia's Liberal Premier Christy Clark has lost her first MLA to the BC Conservatives, as John Van Dongen has defected for "personal reasons" (the reason being profound disagreement with Clark's leadership). The Titanic is slowly sinking, and Tories have begun jumping on the lifeboats. He won't be the last to defect. Even with Stockwell Day and Preston Manning playing the role of the band playing happy music on the Titanic to avoid panic, the gig is up. Christy Clark can't win and her party is mortally wounded. The BC Liberals chose a left winger to replace Gordon Campbell, and she's losing ground on both the right and left flanks. The BC NDP is polling in majority territory, so the Liberal leftist can't even win the left and she is alienating the right.

The writing is on the wall, and it is time for BC Conservatives to explore their options. When she became Premier, she promised a quick election to get a mandate from the people. When the polls started showing people turning on her and her party, she postponed that election as long as possible. I said this was a disaster during her leadership campaign, she won anyway with the support of internet voting from fans of her radio show, and now is proving me right. She's an Allison Redford clone, both elected in questionable leadership races (not by the people) who are falling flat in the public's eyes. The biggest difference is that Danielle Smith has a far stronger base than John Cummins, but both are a far better option for provincial Tories than the one in power.

Bob Rae Infomercials

Today's poll question; how do you see the new Conservative ads about Bob Rae? Are they necessary infomercials? Are they deplorable attack ads? Do you care? Have you even seen them? As a survivor of Bob Rae's Ontario, I see them as infomercials necessary to educate rest of the country about the consequences of Bobby taking power; others see them as cheap "dirty tricks". Why would the Conservatives even target Rae if he's only the "temporary leader? Because none of us believed him when he promised to step aside after 2 years, now he will not deny the possibility that he's running for the full time gig, proving us right. Being the acting leader gives him a decided advantage heading into the not so distant leadership campaign.



I'd rather Mulcair become Prime Minister than Rae, and I'm no fan of Tommy Boy. It does seem as though Tom is trying to tune down the angry man routine, but we will see if that lasts and if he can truly squeeze the Liberal Party in the center. Appointing Libby Davies to be your deputy hardly signals a move to the right.

Mulcair Finishes On Top

The NDP elected a new leader last night, as Tom Mulcair defeated establishment favourite Brian Topp on the 4th ballot. Clearly Topp's biggest mistake was his failure to hire a marching band to follow him around the convention center, putting Tommy over the top. For a party dependent on leadership idolatry for electoral success, Mulcair played it smart to surround himself with such a large entourage, constantly on the move. Those of us who watched Saturday's gong show got to see a never ending parade, almost like he was doing laps around the building while Topp stayed far more stationary looking as though he was on the verge of another nervous breakdown. Perhaps "nice guys" don't always finish last, but they rarely finish first; as the official opposition is now to be led by an attack dog that allegedly would have ran for the Tories had Stephen Harper offered him a cabinet seat.

Still, had the Dippers listened to Broadbent and elected Topp, they would have had a disaster on their hands. He's an effective backroom strategist, but lacks the mental toughness to fight on the front lines. If NDP voters were seduced by the marching band, then it was probably for their own good. Granted, their internet voting was hacked, but party insiders insist the vote result was legit. At the very least it showed us one of the many reasons why internet voting is a terrible idea in federal elections. Is Pierre Poutine still at large? I did not see anyone actually accuse the Tories of a cyber attack, but hey, I fell asleep half way through the 3rd ballot. The accusations will surely be coming in the near future, even if they were thinly veiled over the weekend.

Now that the Dippers have this leadership race behind them, they can get down to what's really important; finding the body of Osama Bin Laden to confirm he's dead, or that he ever existed in the first place. I know how important that conspiracy is to the new leader of the official opposition...

To celebrate his victory, I have even started a Mulcair "tag" on old blog posts if you'd like to read a history of my posts where he was mentioned.

Pierre Poutine Recorded "Vote Liberal" Message

In an interesting turn of events, the infamous "Pierre Poutine" (allegedly responsible for the supposedly "greatest electoral fraud in Canadian history") also recorded a message supporting Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote in Guelph. I'm not sure why a Conservative operative would want to encourage people to vote Liberal, but the recording is attached to the account. Batman and Robin (aka Maher and MacGregor) have theorized that the purpose of the call (which was recorded but never sent out) was intended to annoy Liberal supporters. This argument is a bit hypocritical considering the Liberals themselves sent out thousands of robocalls encouraging people to vote Liberal, not all of which were legal according to election law. If sending out robot calls saying "vote Liberal" will discourage liberals from voting, then why would the Liberals send out their own robocalls encouraging people to vote Liberal?

The true identity of Pierre Poutine remains a mystery, at least to the public. Supposedly Elections Canada already knows who he is and aren't releasing his identity until they have completed their investigation.

Regardless, this story just got a lot more interesting...

Who Will Be The Next NDP Leader?

With the debates over and the NDP leadership campaign heading into it's final weekend, who do you expect to win? Will it be Mulcair, or will Topp land on top? By the way, prepare yourself for the silly puns if Topp is crowned the next leader. Will Broadbent's last minute attempt to swing momentum from Mulcair to his boy Topp have any significant impact, or did he unwittingly help Mulcair? Will the media be asking questions about Mulcair's hidden agenda, which Ed Broadbent alleges he has? Will Kady O'Malley ask Tom is he believes Osama Bin Laden is dead? These are questions we'll know the answer to on Monday.

At the beginning of the campaign some speculated that the Tories were the most afraid of Paul Dewar winning the leadership, which I'm not so sure about. There is not a single candidate on this list who will even be half as effective in that job as Layton. It's all downhill no matter who they choose. There will likely be a temporary bounce for replacing Turmel, but come the next election, we are looking at a likely fall in seat count (with the severity depending on the performance of the new leader). Nobody has any idea how Topp will perform in the House of Commons, where we at least know Mulcair can yell and scream across the aisle.

For 2013, I call dibs on the headline "Orange Crushed"...

Good Luck To Bob Rae In Toronto-Danforth

Today the former riding of Jack Layton is holding a byelection, and I'd like to offer Bob Rae the best of luck. Isn't he the candidate? Funny how there are giant billboards advertising his face throughout the riding, meanwhile he's only supposed to be the "temporary leader". I'm willing to wager that there is not a single Nicole Turmel billboard in Jack's old stomping ground, which the NDP are likely to win no matter how often Bobby's ugly mug shows up on campaign ads. That's some kind of interim leader. Make a guy who promised to step down in a year the face of the party. Granted, some of us never believed Rae when he promised his leadership was only temporary. He wants to be Prime Minister. That's why he joined federal politics and defected to the Liberals. He's the man. He will be the Liberal leader in the next election, which I believe is what he wanted all along.

Ed Broadbent Knee-caps Mulcair

With one week remaining before the NDP elects a new leader, one of the party's "patron saints" Ed Broadbent appeared on the CBC Thursday to declare front runner Tom Mulcair essentially unfit for leadership. This was a last minute attempt for Eddy to swing party support towards his man Brian Topp, who has slipped since entering the campaign as the establishment favourite. In the event that Mulcair pulls out a victory next weekend, the Tories have been provided with some excellent clips for the next election campaign. Broadbent pretty much accuses him of having a hidden agenda, that nobody in the party knows what he's going to do.

If Brian Topp finishes on top, not only can you expect that pun to be ridiculously over-used, but many may look back on the Broadbent rant as a possible turning point. Although the Tweets popping up on the TV screen during the interview were more along the lines of Eddy coming across as a grumpy old man, so it remains to be seen how much damage he did to Mulcair's candidacy, if any at all.

31,000 More Like 700

Anyone who had been confused into thinking there were 31,000 specific allegations of voter fraud from the last Canadian election, be aware that number is actually more like 700. The other 30,300 are just spam complaints from a left wing online form letter filled out by people who want an election mulligan and do not refer to specific incidents. The statement today by Elections Canada that they were investigating 700 "similar" complaints had several media members very excited that there are indeed some real allegations on top of just spam. Terry Milewski was pretty jazzed up when he reported the "new" information; and I say "new" with caution because we don't know when exactly all of these specific complaints were collected. There were dozens, if not hundreds of complaints to the Guelph EC office on election day regarding misleading calls. They have been investigating this for a while now.

Considering that Pat Martin has already informed us that 10,000 robocalls (which insiders would call a "blast") costs less than $200, that 700 number could and should be much larger, whether Pierre Poutine ordered multiple blasts or just one. The excitement shown by Batman and Robin (et all) was due largely to the confirmation that real complaints exist, and that it's not all just spam (even if 700 is less "sexy" than 31,000). Be careful not to hold your breath waiting to find out how many of the 700 "similar" allegations are actually complaining about real fraud.

Today In Robogate: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The latest conspiracy theory (so exciting only one Canadian news agency would report it) is that anonymous Conservatives have been trying to frame a young former staffer of being the infamous Pierre Poutine, which must surely be evidence of a systematic voter suppression campaign cover up. The left's new favourite investigative journalists Maher and MacGregor have found a "source" who speculates that the kid could not have acted alone, and had to have been helped by those now trying to frame him. It's all a bit contradictory, they propose either he's innocent of any wrong doing and guilty Tories are trying to frame him; or he's guilty and needed help from the Conservative Party (who then tried to turn him into a patsy, the next Lee Harvey Oswald). This suggests that Maher has no idea who Pierre Poutine is, he's just laying out alternate theories, keeping the story alive. The National Post was the only news organization that would publish this speculative garbage. If there were any truth to this Tory conspiracy story, the CBC would have been all over it like flies on shit.

Personally I think we should let investigators investigate and leave the poor kid alone. It is borderline irresponsible to engage in this kind of specific allegation before we know the facts. It would not be a surprise if Maher got a phone call from the young staffer's attorney today. The original article was altered in the middle of the day, or at least the headline was. The talking points remained largely the same. I feel sorry for the kid.

Are Maher and MacGregor writing all their work together now? Somebody in Blue Like You's comment section referred to them as Batman and Robin, which gave me a good laugh. That's awesome. I'm considering calling them Batman and Robin in all future blog posts on the subject.

Robogate Absurdity Continues

Guy Giorno really said it best tonight when he Tweeted to Stephen Wicary and Susan Delacourt "You assume we have records of things we didn't do. Elections Canada can take what it wants but CPC can't volunteer what it never had." This coming on the heals of the Liberals handing over phone records earlier this afternoon, which does seem an appropriate gesture considering they have already confessed to breaking electoral law regarding partisan phone calls during the writ. It would be interesting to know how much paper was shredded today in the office where these records were produced. The sooner EC completes its investigation, the sooner we can get to the bottom of these Liberal dirty tricks. I want to know if Frank Valeriote stole the election in Guelph.

The Conservatives have already voted unanimously with the opposition to increase Elections Canada's investigatory powers, and are not withholding any information from them. As of yet, the only party proven to have engaged in illegal activity in Guelph are the Liberals, despite what fake confessions you might have seen on Youtube today. So many people wanted so badly for Pierre Poutine to be a Conservative office worker that they jumped all over the fake clip before finding out its lack of authenticity. Even a Blogging Tory wrote a premature post "Pierre Poutine is Michael Sona". Come on people, this is getting ridiculous.

Who Benefited From Robocalls In Guelph?

There have been allegations of large scale "voter suppression" in the riding of Guelph in 2011, and the interesting question is who benefited the most from this alleged fraud? Of all the Liberals who ran in the last election, which candidate experienced the largest increase in popular vote? That's right, none other than Frank Valeriote in Guelph, who had 32% of the vote in 2008 and 43% in 2011, an 11% rise, the single largest increase of any Liberal in the country (while the party was plummeting nationally). Only 21 out of 308 Liberal candidates experienced a net gain (Central Nova doesn't count because they ran no candidate in 2008), and only 2 of those won their seat. So while 287 Liberals (93% of the party) experienced declines in popular vote, Valeriote hit a long home run with an 11% gain? Meanwhile in neighbouring ridings Cambridge and Wellington the Liberal vote fell 8% and 6% respectively. When you look at the statistics, Valeriote is the Barry Bonds of the Liberal Party.

Boy, if the Conservatives were trying to suppress the Liberal vote in Guelph, they sure did a phenomenally terrible job at it!

Robogate Protests: The Diminishing Returns Of Crying Wolf

The Canadian left's ability to attract protesters to their little gatherings sure has fallen a long ways since Prorogate (remember the outrage when we delayed the start of Parliament by a few weeks to host the Olympics) where the most lofty estimates guessed hundreds of thousands of demonstrators coast to coast to coast. This weekend they tried to organize a similar protest about allegations of Conservative voter suppression, and attendance barely even made a whimper. On Parliament Hill, about a dozen people showed up.

Ladies and gentlemen, your "Canadian spring"! Thank you to Richard Madan for snapping that picture from the CTV studio. This helps to illustrate that the people who have been continually pumping and promoting idiotic protests are experiencing the diminishing returns of turning issue after issue into a major national crisis. Eventually people stop listening to you. Even Occupy Canada drew less of a crowd than the prorogue protests, though it did attract a small number of young clowns who wanted to hang out for a camping trip to complain about capitalism and maybe shoot a little heroin. We're almost at the point where the number of media people covering the protests are outnumbering the actual protesters. Did "Stop Harper" girl even show up? Just a suggestion, perhaps the left should dial down the feigned outrage, otherwise if a wolf actually shows up, the average Canadian is not going to take you seriously.

Bob Rae Is Cool With Robocalls

Saturday Liberal leader Bob Rae was on the Roy Green Show to make it perfectly clear that there is nothing wrong with Robocalls. He's all in favour it, and defended the illegal robocalls made by the Liberal campaign in Guelph (where the caller pretended to be a regular concerned citizen, not a paid representative of the Liberal Party). Bob also backed off accusing the Conservative Party of wrongdoing; he simply wants what everyone on both sides wants, to find out who misdirected voters to incorrect voting locations. Anyone planning to show up to a Robogate protest with a sign "Democracy, not Robocracy", know that the Liberals are cool with Robocracy (even if the calls violate election law), so long as it is issue based.

To be fair, Roy Green did not handle the interview particularly well. He kept quoting Dean Del Mastro and then when Bob tried to debate the points, Roy kept say "I'm just telling you what he said" instead of engaging him in a conversation. I suppose Roy was trying to get Rae to respond to what Del Mastro had said earlier on the program, and Bob kept answering questions with questions; except to say that he was entirely in favour of robocalling during a campaign. So if anyone out there is upset that they received a robocall in the last election, the opposition parties are not proposing making robocalls illegal. They are only outraged about specific robocalls of which no evidence currently exists is connected to the Conservative Party. Bob might have been premature calling this a "Nixonian moment" for Stephen Harper. The "if anybody did it, it's these guys" argument alone is not adequate ground for a conviction in a court of law.

The Liberals have said that Elections Canada is aware of their illegal calls. I'm interested to know if there was a fine or penalty issued? Did they raid the Liberal campaign office?

Liberal Illegal Robocalls Not As Big Of A Story

Interesting that the Liberals have been caught making illegal robocalls in the controversial riding of Guelph, but the story is noticeably absent from the CBC Politics page. The big headline is a request to investigate Julian Fantino's election finances. It would appear that confessed Liberal "dirty tricks" just isn't as interesting a news story as allegations of Tory "dirty tricks". Then again, the Liberals are in 3rd place and not promising to cut the CBC's budget by 10%, so I can see where they might get bumped down the priority list. Does anyone care about the Liberal Party anymore? Perhaps when the story broke this afternoon, the CBC online editors had already gone home for the weekend? Somehow I doubt that Evan Soloman will be leading his show with this on Monday. We'll see how many of the 31,000 "complaints" (if we can call them that) collected by Ian Chapstick and friends were actually "complaining" about robocalls ordered by the opposition parties.

Protests have been planned for this weekend in cities across the country. The Robocall protests to date have not mustered much attendance, but we'll see if this new information on Liberal dirty tricks helps boost the numbers. Will there be any signs demanding an end to Liberal dirty tricks? I won't hold my breath...

Today's poll question, should there be a byelection in Guelph, where the Liberals won handily by using dirty tricks?

Is The Media Slowly Uncovering Elections Canada Incompetence?

Over this past week the opposition and the media have been hammering the Tories with allegations and speculation of large scale election fraud, and their relentless "digging for the truth" may be about to uncover large scale election incompetence by Elections Canada's army of temporary low wage workers. For example, CBC's Terry Milewski reported today on several hundred incomplete or bogus registration forms in the riding office of Eglington Lawrence, where Joe Oliver defeated Joe Volpe (of course you might remember Joe Volpe, who formerly registered dead people to support his Liberal leadership campaign). The accusations that the Conservative candidate was responsible for sloppy paper work in the EC office started flying before anyone thought to point out that Elections Canada is responsible for ensuring that registration forms are properly completed with proof of ID provided before they add that voter to the list of electors. This is not Joe Oliver's fault, but that inconvenient truth is absent from Milewski's investigative report.

If Elections Canada registration forms are suddenly going to fall under the media's watchful scrutiny, be prepared for errors and mistakes numbering in the thousands (I'd recommend looking into the riding of Libby Davies in East Vancouver for starters). EC would much rather investigate allegations of misleading robocalls than expose their own mistakes. That is not to paint all election workers with the same brush, but we are talking about a work force of thousands with varying levels of competence. There's an idiot in every room and election law is complex and continually evolving. If we start a full investigation into botched or incomplete registration forms, this is going to extend far beyond a single Toronto riding, and the black eye will belong to Elections Canada, not the Conservative party. If we find that most of this "greatest electoral fraud in Canadian history" was actually primarily Elections Canada f**k-ups; I won't hold my breath waiting for an apology from Pat Martin or any of the other dipshits so eager to jump to conclusions before there exists any evidence of wrong doing by the Tories.

I don't often recommend people read Milewski's work, but if you scroll down and read the comments, it just might make you sick to your stomach.

Who Needs A Public Inquiry When We Have Pat Martin?

What does it say about an alleged controversy when the official opposition has a vile piece of work like Pat Martin become the defacto spokesperson for the issue? The opps lose credibility, and yet seem perfectly happy to let him grab the Robogate football and run with it. Who needs a Judicial Inquiry when we have Pat's Twitter account? He's already got the whole thing figured out, and if you don't know, just ask him. Below is a selection of his Tweets from the last few days (in chronological order with most recent on top). You'll be happy to know that he's moved beyond his extended conversation about the Hamburgler and Mayor McCheese stealing an election....

@bigpicguy that is likely but as yet it has not been proven they have violated the act

@Monctonsnowman yes but we're not talking about contracts between RMG and the CPC. We want the ones between RMG and the Cons Government

@Monctonsnowman Nope. Because EC's mandate is described in the Elections Act and Govt contracts with a private company not in scope of act

@Monctonsnowman Yes RMG would have to comply with court order. Just not sure EC could get a court order for matters not related to election.

@Monctonsnowman EC doesn't comment on investigations at all. And I think investigating Govt contracts with RGM would be outside their jurisd

@Nicki_Doyle I know. Sometimes I almost hope we're wrong because the prospect of being right is almost too sad. Like the end of innocence.

@Nicki_Doyle No kidding, when Deano starts with, "let me be clear" you know you're going to get a whole load of bullshit.

@Nicki_Doyle yeah but in agitate, educate, organize; we're still at the 'agitate' stage. This is only starting to resonate and penetrate

@tylercranston I don't really like people very much which is limiting if you aspired to be national leader. #IHateAllTheCandidates

@Nicki_Doyle I know. I did put three written questions on the order paper but govt has 45 days to respond. Not many other options...

Why won't the Cons tell us what contracts the Govt has given RMG? Asked three times and nothing. This is public record and yet they refuse.

@EmmMacfarlane @acoyne Robocalls are the concussion of the nation.

Have Rush eat Ann Coulter. Then, drop Ann Coulter on Kony.

I love how the conservatives applaud when they vote for Time Allocation...sheer perversity

@thepresentMO They won't tell us what the RackNine govt check was for, or how many other govt contracts he has received.

@thepresentMO RMG checks were not from Govt. They were paid by CPC as election expenses. Question is what other Govt business did they get

@thepresentMO $15,000. The same amount as in 48 other ridings... Total of 94 ridings hired them for other amounts.

Yeah but if you're going to kick Sleepy off the Vet's Committee what about Dopey and Grumpy and Sneezy? Seems discriminatory...

@stphnmaher Nah. Pierre Poutine's just a patsy, the master mind is the Hamburgler.

The Sanctity Of The Voter Information Card

For those who do not already know, that Voter Information Card you receive in the mail that tells you where to vote is printed out in the first week of the election campaign. They print out a whole bunch of mailing labels, a whole bunch of cards with poll locations all them, and then bring in an army of low wage temp workers to stick the proper label on the proper card. There are thousands of workers sticking labels on millions of VIC cards in a rush to get them to Canada Post by the end of week two, and mistakes happen. Thousands are returned by the post office to EC riding offices for a variety of reasons, be it incorrect address or the elector being deceased. Most of the temporary workers are efficient and effective workers, but there is always at least one absent minded, seemingly competent, worker in that room.

During the last election, Elections Canada changed 127 poll locations during the campaign (and at a national average of about 900 voters per location), that would mean that roughly 115,000 voters (give or take 10,000) had their poll locations changed mid election. How did EC inform all of these people that their polls had changed? They can't call everyone because they don't have every voter's phone number (that is not mandatory information, and many people don't want to volunteer it). The best thing they can do is mail out new VIC cards, hope they arrive in time and that the elector shreds the old one. It does seem strange to instruct the parties not to call people to inform them that a poll location had been changed. That doesn't help get the vote out. Changing any poll location will create a mass of confusion among those affected, so when you had the media last week reporting on alleged "massive electoral fraud", anyone who received a phone call they didn't like or were informed that poll locations had changed, suddenly thinks they might have been the victim of attempted fraud (with the real kick in pants being that the overwhelming majority of complainants actually did get to vote).

Feb 2012 Polling

Here are your poll results from February. Should Canada halt trade with China until they adopt a more agreeable foreign and domestic policy? Has Vic Toews been treated fairly? Should James Moore be sitting in Cabinet? There are also questions about this year's Presidential election. The Republican race should be decided on this week's Super Tuesday. I predicted before the first primary that Romney would win the nomination and then lose to Obama. We'll see what happens.

HAS JUSTICE MINISTER VIC TOEWS BEEN TREATED FAIRLY THIS WEEK?

No, it has gone too far (76%)
Yes, he deserves it (20%)
Undecided (4%)

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE JUSTIN TRUDEAU BECOME LEADER OF THE LIBERAL PARTY?

Yes (74%)
No (25%)
Undecided (1%)

SHOULD THE LIBERALS HAVE BOUGHT CANADA'S 4 COLD WAR ERA SUBMARINES FROM THE BRITISH 13 YEARS AGO?

No, we should have bought new subs (90%)
No, we don't need any subs (6%)
Yes (3%)
Undecided (1%)

SHOULD CANADA HALT TRADE WITH CHINA UNTIL THEY ADOPT MORE AGREEABLE FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICIES?

No (88%)
Yes (8%)
Undecided (4%)

IF YOU ARE BEING THREATENED, IS IT ACCEPTABLE TO FIRE WARNING SHOTS WITH A GUN?

Yes (95%)
No (4%)
Undecided (1%)

SHOULD WE STOP ACCEPTING ALL INTELLIGENCE FROM COUNTRIES KNOWN TO ON OCCASION USE TORTURE?

No (88%)
No, but have them prove no torture was used on a case by case basis (6%)
Yes (6%)
Undecided (0%)

HOW MUCH TRADE SHOULD WE SEEK WITH CHINA?

More (81%)
Less (10%)
The Same (5%)
Undecided (4%)

DO YOU THINK THAT JAMES MOORE SHOULD BE SITTING IN CABINET?

No (72%)
Yes, but not Heritage (19%)
Yes (7%)
Undecided (2%)

WHAT IS NEWT GINGRICH'S BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

Record in office (34%)
Marital Infidelity (24%)
He's named Newt (13%)
Attacking Clinton for similar Infidelity (8%)
He's only moderately wealthy (8%)
Age (5%)
He's flawless (5%)

WHAT IS MITT ROMNEY'S BIGGEST WEAKNESS

He's too liberal (60%)
Mormonism (19%)
Record in office (8%)
He's flawless (6%)
He's too rich (5%)

SHOULD PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS BE SCALED BACK (INCLUDING THOSE OF MPS)?

Yes (94%)
No (5%)
Undecided (1%)

SHOULD THE AGE OF PENSION ELIGIBILITY BE SLOWLY RAISED FROM 65 TO 67?

Yes (68%)
No (19%)
Undecided (13%)

BC Teachers On Strike "For The Children"

Today's poll question; why do you think British Columbia's teachers are on strike? Is it for the money, or for the children? Most of the commentary coming from the teachers is that they are fighting to give your children a better education, fighting for special needs, that this job action is not about the teachers, it's about the children. What do you think? Personally I'm of the opinion that it's all about the money, trying to get a 15% wage increase during a time of fiscal austerity. No question there are great teachers out there who have a sincere desire to see their students succeed, but that's not why you walk off the job. They're trying to get paid.

The Curious Case Of "Pierre Poutine"...

Today's poll question; Who is Pierre Poutine? He's the anonymous figure who seems to be at the heart of Robogate. As the authorities conduct a proper investigation we should find out his true identity. If and when that becomes public, who will he turn out to be? A Conservative, Liberal, Dipper, Anarchist, Marxist, Media member, Green, foreign spy, Al Qaeda, Taliban, an American activist, or do you think that we will never know? The hyperbole regarding Robogate has been insane. The allegations warrant an investigation by the proper authorities, more the police than Elections Canada, and I'd like to know more about the EC riding office in Guelph last April. Something smells fishy, in my professional opinion.

So who is Pierre Poutine? Might as well make a prediction before we find out the truth, assuming we ever do. I'm voting he's a random Anarchist. I'd be shocked if he were a prominent Tory insider.

Elections Canada "Launching" Investigation?

Elections Canada announced yesterday that they are launching an investigation into Robogate. Here I had been under the impression that they were already investigating this, since there were several complaints about misleading phone calls on the day of the last election. What the hell have they been doing for the last 10 months? We knew on Election Day that this was happening. It's not like the story has come out of nowhere. Sure enough, the day after EC announces this new investigation, a few hundred protesters took to the streets demanding a new election. Jurisprudence be damned, they want a mulligan and they want it now! What's the point of even having an investigation? We should just rush to judgement, let loose a barrage of baseless accusations, and give Mike Ignatieff another shot at the Prime Minister's Office. The PMO was stolen from Iggy.

Look, 10,000 robocalls costs you less than $200 (according to Pat "Columbo" Martin, who knows all the price points for ordering this service). The anonymously infamous Pierre Poutine who ordered many of these calls is more likely to be an anarchist trying to disrupt democracy than an agent of the Conservative Party. All the people who are saying that this will damage the CPC regardless of the outcome, are the same people who said proroguing Parliament for a month to host the Olympics would cost the Tories dearly in the next election. Bob Rae (a multi-proroguing offender as Ontario Premier in a recession) marched in the streets Dammit! We won a majority. Oh that's right, I'm sorry, allegedly stole a majority. The Conservatives remain guilty until proven innocent (what else is new), so we on the right may as well just hold tight until this new investigation is complete.

I'm curious what percentage of complaints in the months following the election were due to mistakes by Elections Canada large temporary workforce. There are thousands of them, hired in a short period time, some less reliable than others, and they are fallible. By the way, if we instruct everyone who received an undesirable robocall to report it to Elections Canada, the complaints would number in the millions, because all the major parties use robocalls in some capacity. Recently the NDP even flooded a Quebec riding with robocalls about a non existent byelection.

BC Teachers And Students UNITE!

Next week British Columbia's teachers will be walking off the job for a 3 day strike because they won't be getting the 15% wage increase they are demanding. In what has been heralded by local media as a show of solidarity, a few hundred BC students walked out of class on Friday. While listening to certain journalists making a big deal out of this, I couldn't help but laugh. How many students wanted to show "solidarity" with their teachers, and how many wanted to leave school early on a Friday afternoon (and/or get their face on the evening news)? Public opinion is solidly against the teachers salary demands, and yet, here we go again with a work stoppage. I recall being in high school when Ontario's teachers walked off the job; and 97% of us were excited to get an unexpected holiday. The students who showed "solidarity" were a minuscule minority, often the sons and daughters of teachers.

The Premier should bump March break up a week, one of the teachers many paid vacations, so that it coincides with the work stoppage. Won't happen, but it's an idea.

Andrew Breitbart, You Will Be Missed...

There is one pundit that I have enjoyed since the first time that I listened to him, and that is Andrew Breitbart He will be missed. It is not often that I shed a tear at the passing of a political pundit, but upon learning that Andrew Breitbart had passed at age 43, I couldn't help it. This was a man who was doing something that I respected tremendously, going head to head with the most vile forces on the American left, who even enjoyed doing so. My only hope is that Breitbart 2.0 is waiting in the wings and is ready to step forward. Is it someone at Big Hollywood? Is it someone that he inspired? I don't know, but let's hope that another one of him steps forward in the near future.

Of all his speeches, the one that you most need to watch was at the latest CPAC conference. We just lost a valuable ally in the fight against left wing media bias.



Will the next Andrew Breitbart please stand up?

CBC's 10% Budget Cut

Today it was announced that the CBC can expect a 10% cut in its government funding in the upcoming budget, not that you would have noticed with all the hoopla over Robogate. James Moore has to be pretty choked up over this one. I can already see Pat Martin's Tweets tomorrow that the Tories are trying to suppress the CBC from investigating and reporting on Robogate while declaring war on Canadian culture; killing two birds with one stone. Though it should be mentioned that the once right leaning National Post has been hammering Robogate with as much vigour as the public broadcaster, again with no evidence of wrong doing. The first place that the CBC should be looking to cut is employee salaries. We don't know what Mansbridge, Soloman, or Strombolopulus get paid, but it's a safe bet that the number is way too big.

Will the national media and opposition parties start accusing the Tories of "suppressing" the CBC? Give it a week, though it should happen sooner than that. Turns out the CBC has a large number of employees in the top 10% of Canadian wage earners. Will the 90% revolt against the fat cats at the CBC? Don't expect any tents to pop up outside CBC HQ anytime soon.

Robogate: Do You Believe?

Today's poll question; do you believe that the Conservative Party engaged in widespread systematic voter suppression in the 2011 Canadian federal election? The poll question at the CBC politics page is; do you believe laws were broken in the last federal election? 95% of their audience has voted yes, though the question doesn't specifically ask if people believe the Tories broke the law. Frankly there is no evidence to suggest that the party is responsible for these phone calls, but the presumption of guilt has been running rampant through the media and opposition benches. One panel guest on CBC radio this week said "if anyone would do this, it's these guys", as though one journalist's presumption of guilt is adequate justification for criminal allegations.

We also have fringe parties in this country who are strong advocates of proportional representation, who often cite low voter turnout statistics as proof we need to overhaul our democratic system. These parties also get copies of the voters list, and have more incentive to engage in "voter suppression" than the Tories. They've got nothing to lose, whereas the Conservatives would have a lot to lose for doing this (with a high probability of being caught). Many Conservative supporters also received these misleading phone calls, which is not a very intelligent strategy for the Tories. Do I have any evidence that the Green Party or the Marxist Leninists engaged in voter suppression? No, but that shouldn't prevent me from alleging criminal behaviour. If I believe there's a chance it's true (and they have incentive to do so), I should be allowed to make unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud, right? (that was sarcasm by the way)

Pat Martin's latest theory is that the Tories were trying to suppress votes in safe Liberal and NDP ridings to deprive them of the $2 per vote subsidy money. Meanwhile the Tories campaigned on scrapping subsidy and have made good on that promise.

This is getting crazy. Elections Canada has been investigating this for months, and we should let them finish. Why is the investigation taking so long? My guess is that they are trying everything they can to find evidence of criminal activity by the Conservatives. If no evidence exists, this could take a while.