robo-calls

Smoky Lake Signal Article No. 211 (March 7, 2012)

Whispering in the Wind

Federal Conservatives in Turmoil!
The “robo-call” scandal has dominated Canadian politics for a couple of weeks now and indications are that there will be even more bickering and controversy in the House of Commons for weeks to come – or at least until the end of the month when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tables the government’s 2012 budget. Last week Mr. Flaherty announced that he will be tabling the Conservative budget in the House of Commons on March 29th and that means even more controversy, bickering and name calling on another extremely important issue for Canadians. It is interesting that Mr. Flaherty pointed out that the budget will be tabled without all the details – to me, that could mean that the federal Conservatives have recently changed their fiscal minds due to the current political landscape; or the economic situation is more desperate than first thought. In either case it’s not good news for Canada – just how bad the federal government’s situation is will have to wait until March 29. I might be jumping the gun on Canada’s fiscal situation but there is no question in my mind; Prime Minister Harper’s premature use of “closure” in the House of Commons and his general style of “majority government” governance is not suited to building consensus when addressing the numerous conflict issues that have emerged – remember: Attawapiskat and other First Nations questions of dependence related to so called treaty rights; the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway Pipeline proposals and the lack of a Canadian Energy Strategy; the addressing and selling of a better Social Security system in light of demographic trends; and now of course, the 2012 budget and the question of fraudulent electioneering tactics in the last federal election.

Robo-calls, an Un-regulated Fiasco –
Passing judgment on who did what to whom in the 2011 federal election campaign is not going to be an easy task for Elections Canada. According to Elections Canada, they’ve received something like 31,000 “contacts” regarding the 2011 election campaign, and each contact, if legitimate, will have to be investigated and dealt with – in past federal elections the complaint levels or “contacts” made to Elections Canada were at about 1,000 or less. According to Conservative spokesman, Dean Del Mastro (Prime Minister Harper’s parliamentary secretary), it will be up to Elections Canada to deal with the issue and it will be up to Elections Canada to separate the “wheat from the chaff.” The opposition parties have a much different perspective on the issue; they want to have a “public inquiry” and when it comes down to it, I think they want to see by-elections. How this electoral mess gets sorted out and who sorts it out is not going to be easy and it could take a lot of time, possibly years. That’s why I think it has to be settled in the political arena rather than through a judicial body such as Elections Canada. Yes, Elections Canada will have to continue its work and do its job but the issues can be substantially expedited with an “all party task force” which would seek resignations if it is agreed that there is unwarranted, unjustified harassment, intimidation and / or fraud – its that simple. Another avenue that will have to be pursued if we are to see a more democratic electoral system in Canada, is the control and legitimacy of the so called “robo-call” method of advertising political views – here the so called “robo-call” firms (including RackNine out of Edmonton) should be held at least partially responsible for the message they are transmitting; who they transmit the message to and when the message is transmitted – that means a code of conduct and more regulation of these “for profit” firms.

The “robo-call” Scandal, Will There Be an Alberta Twist?
Albertans will be going to the polls within the next two months and a question comes to my mind; will Albertans be inundated with robo-calls from Alberta’s political parties? Will there be any robo-call harassment, intimidation or fraud? I suppose we will have to wait and see but I do think the various parties are re-thinking their communication strategies in light of what is going on in Ottawa.