I know people question why the Conservatives are attacking the 3rd Party. Well I have 4 reasons.
1. Many of the very right-wing conservatives want to get rid of the Liberals altogether. This twitter post on march 20, 2012 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=177168012401326&set=a.109769852474476.11221.100003243845287&type=1&theater ) explains that, as well as the book "Harperland" (http://www.straight.com/article-351602/vancouver/prime-minister-control)
. Attack ads (smearing) of Michael Ignatieff, Stephane Dion and now Bob Rae have nothing to do with what's best for the country. It has nothing to do about Canada what so ever. Shouldn't a political party, especially one that is the Canadian Government, spend their energy on Canada as a whole, not one individual.
2. Fueling voter apathy. The Conservatives will talk about the fact the number of voters increased in the last election, while leaving out the real fact that the 2011 election had the 3rd lowest voter turnout in Canadian History. If you look at the Elections Canada stats on past elections, ( http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index&lang=e)
you will notice, after adjustments, that the last four elections have the lowest turnout. Why? Perhaps the the negative attack ads played a roll in that. Perhaps the constant fear mongering by the Conservatives. Voter apathy favours the Conservatives. As long as they get their voters to the polls and discourage others, they will win (as I will continue to explain in point 3) We need to deal with VOTER APATHY. If more Canadians vote the better representation of the Canadians as a whole.
3. Election Fraud. The Conservatives want a distraction from the whole "Robo-Call Scandal". Well, this scandal is not going away. It may fade a little but the minute more evidence is found the media and public eat it up. Bottom line...on election day telling people that their polling station has changed when it hasn't is Fraud. Canadians can relate to this story. All Canadians have the right to vote. This fraud was done in favour of the Conservative Party of Canada. The Conservatives are not responding in a way that demonstrates consideration towards this violation of our right to vote in a fair election or even...innocence . They keep changing the story, claiming that the opposition parties are SMEARING them, that the Liberals are behind the robo-calls, etc..and now they decide to release an attack ad on Bob Rae. Distraction tactics by the Conservative Party, plain and simple.
4. Some say that releasing the attack ad on the day of the by-election in Toronto-Danforth is significant. Yes it is...because the media would be reporting the by-electon which favours the Opposition parties. Of course the Conservatives did not want the Opposition parties to have all the attention...this was the Conservatives chance to get some media coverage. Besides, the Conservatives were quoted as saying that this by-election was for the "Liberals to lose".
So in response to the actual content of the ad...
When the Mike Harris Conservatives took over from the Bob Rae NDP's in the 90's, they made major cuts to education, Health Care, and other social programs and they left the current Ontario Liberals with a $5.6 Billion hidden deficit. For the first three years after Mike Harris the Ontario Liberals had balanced budgets. The Liberals under Chretien and Martin had balance budgets, created surpluses and actually paid down national debt. The Federal Conservatives created the LARGEST Deficit in Canadian History of $55.6 Billion and had taken a surplus of Employment Funds and created a deficit of $8.8 Billion deficit with no EI emergency funds.
Basically...The Conservative Party of Canada are hypocrites and don't really care about ALL Canadians.
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Elections Canada: "Some political parties did not comply" with request that polling station info be for internal use only
Courtesy of the collective gimlet eye that is the twitterverse, a tidbit from the official post-election report prepared by Elections Canada that would seem to be at least a little bit more interesting than it might have initially appeared on first reading:
Provision of polling site information to political parties
In response to an initial request from a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, the preliminary list of all election day polls was sent to all parties. Because a polling site can be replaced by another at the last minute, and to ensure that electors always have access to the most accurate information regarding their location, Elections Canada indicated to political parties that the list supplied should only be used for internal purposes and that parties should not direct electors to polling sites. Political parties were invited to refer electors to the Elections Canada Web site, their local Elections Canada office or their voter information card for locations, to prevent electors from being directed to incorrect polling sites. Some political parties did not comply with this request.
I've sent a note to Elections Canada asking for more information on the lack of compliance with the request that the information "only be used for internal purposes." I'll let you know what, if anything, I hear back.
