New Conservative Robocall Deception Laying Pretext for Gerrymandering?
In case you haven’t heard yet, the Conservatives have apparently decided to double down on their shadowy robocall schemes by putting out an allegedly bogus push-poll telling Saskatchewan residents that the new riding boundaries being drawn in that province are going to screw good Saskatchewan residents out of their democratic vote (as if). Naturally, a naked attempt at laying a pretext for gerrymandering isn’t enough: they have to engage in shady PR tactics to do it.
This is not the first time the Conservatives were caught conducting shady push-polling. This time, the calls were sent out under what is, according to press reports, at best a shell company with the name of “Chase Research,” at worst a totally fictitious corporate entity. (In fairness, it could be neither, and the media is simply wrong. Whoever set up the calls is presumably intelligent enough to register the name and file the appropriate paperwork so that it isn’t a total sham.) And Conservative spokesman Fred DeLorey said: nope, not us. Chase Research isn’t us. We’re the Conservative Party. We’re not calling Saskatchewan residents telling him that the riding boundary commission is trying to disenfranchise them.
Except that more evidence surfaced, or someone got ahold of a decent source for a change, and all of a sudden, DeLorey says, yep, that was us after all. He wasn’t lying when he denied that the governing party was doing this last week. Nope: he was “miscommunicating.” Whatever that means.
What’s even more disturbing about the fact that the Conservatives lied about the fact that they’re doing push-polling in Saskatchewan is why they’re doing the push-polling in the first place. The Conservative Party has come out officially against the recommendations of the non-partisan, non-political commission struck to redraw the boundaries between federal ridings in that province. There are commissions doing the same work in every province right now; it’s a regular 10-year update process that shifts around the boundaries based on the last census to make sure each riding has a reasonably equitable number of voters in it.
Now, for obvious reasons, it should be axiomatic in a democracy that political parties play no part in this process. When they do, and when it’s done in an attempt to redraw the boundaries in their own interest to garner more seats, that’s called gerrymandering. It’s the sort of corruption one associates with 19th-century Britain. Or Republicans in the American Deep South. And, apparently, Conservatives in Canada. It doesn’t take a genius to guess that if the Conservatives claim there’s a monstrous injustice in the Saskatchewan redistricting commission report, it’s because they think it might cost them seats in the next election.
And I suppose it might. The main recommendation in Saskatchewan is moving towards more homogeneous ridings — urban ridings and rural ridings — instead of the system the province currently has, in which many ridings have a small wedge of either Regina or Saskatoon, plus a huge swathe of countryside. There are arguments for and against — these split ridings make it hard for MPs to represent their constituents’ interests properly, but it does mean that the big cities effectively get more MPs than they deserve, which makes the mayors happy. It’s a safe bet that if the Conservatives are angry, it’s because their polling has alerted them to the fact that either the new urban ridings or the new rural ones are unlikely to go Conservative in the next election.
This raises another disturbing question. That explains why the Conservatives would be unhappy about the redistricting report. It doesn’t explain why they’d engage in a push-poll over the matter, and then lie about the fact that they were running one.
Here’s my theory. Although in theory the redistricting reports are non-partisan, once the commission is done with them, the reports go to a Parliamentary committee for review. In theory that review should be done in a spirit of objectivity, but there’s no guarantee of that, and with this government’s penchant for sending committees into secret hearings behind closed doors, there’s not even a guarantee that we’d know about if it if they weren’t being as objective as they should be. However, if they’re going to overturn a non-partisan boundary commission and move the riding boundaries into a position that will maximize benefit to the Conservative Party, they can’t say so publicly. They’ll need to provide a different explanation — a pretext.
This push-poll is part of the plan to provide the pretext. The Conservatives claim that the overwhelming majority of the people in the province oppose the changes — which, depending on how they worded their questions, might well have been the case. (My guess: almost nobody in Saskatchewan, or anywhere else for that matter, has carefully inspected the proposed boundary changes in their region and has an informed opinion on the subject, making them very susceptible to leading questions in a push-poll.) They hope to use this alleged groundswell of public outrage, which they’ve conveniently astroturfed for themselves, to rationalize rejecting the new riding boundary proposals, and substituting in their place some boundaries that are more to their liking. In other words, gerrymandering.
The next question becomes: is this unique to Saskatchewan, or do the Conservatives plan to run this little scheme for other provinces’ redistricting commissions, too?
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joe
This kind of got buried in the NP, but in case you haven’t seen it:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/05/conservatives-admit-they-were-behind-last-weeks-saskatchewan-robocalls-after-voice-analysis-links-them/
Seems that Matt Meier of RackNine fame was the voice behind the push-poll in Saskatchewan.
gerry mandered salamanders
We thought Fred DeLorey allegedly said Chaste Research .. so maybe this is just another Jason Kenney misadventure.. or a simple spelling mistake. Surely a purchase order, cancelled cheque and sacrificial conservative electoral dweeb volunteer will clarify it all.
Us mild mannered salamanders wonder what would happen in Question Period if the usual endless repetition of ‘NDP job killing 21 billion dollar carbon tax & payroll taxes’ mantras were responded to by complete and utter opposition silence.
What if the entire opposition simply stood up silently for Canada and said nothing. Just like the rest of us have to do while watching and listening to Harper’s horses asses read their nonsense lick spittle ravings. We’re speechless at the actions of the Harper Government.. and any responsible honest elected member of parliament must be as well.
Would the Speaker rule that silence on behalf of Canada and Canadians is out of order? Yet determine the Harper Government childish pedantic abuses are exemplary and valuable expressions?
Uh Oh Canada .. we aint seen nothin yet .. you say ?
We’ve seen plenty mr Harper .. and it aint pretty, it aint Canadian, aint honest.. in fact it aint even close.. stinks to high heaven of tainted reform beef and dead fish politicians in the house of commons.
Do Canada and Canadians and the rest of the real world a huge favor.. Prorogue one last time and leave town with as many of your followers as possible. Maybe Israel will take you in.. or China.. or try to find shelter in Alberta or somebody’s boardroom.
kootcoot
“Would the Speaker rule that silence on behalf of Canada and Canadians is out of order? Yet determine the Harper Government childish pedantic abuses are exemplary and valuable expressions?”
The sycophantic barely out of kneepads (nominal) Speaker of the current house will do WHATEVER benefits his actual master, Treason Steven, rather than Parliament or the people of Canada.
kootcoot
correction: kneepads above was meant to be kneepants. Mainly because he may still be utilizing the kneepads, to please his master in ways beyond aiding Steve in the destruction of Parliament!
Canada and B.C. are both becoming hostile environments for anyone trying to fulfill non-partisan mandate/position like auditing, doing research or even dispensing justice. Only lickspittles prosper in the neo-fascist kingdom of Harper and his Canadian Taliban.
G.J.W.
Well. Harper was Policy Chief for his, Northern Foundation Party of 1989. That has to be where his abusive dictatorship comes from. Harper certainly fits his old party pattern, to a Tee.
Harper will steal your eyes and then, come back for the sockets. Harper gives billions of our tax dollars to, corrupt greedy banks, mines and his favorite charity, big oil.
The majority of Canadians say. Harper cheated to win his so called majority, with his robo-call election fraud. Harper also had two Americans, Wenzel and Parker, directly participating in, 14 Conservative campaigns. Robo-calls came out of the U.S. Harper also campaigned, over a Calgary radio station, right on election day. That too, is election fraud.
Harper is a Traitor, doing acts of Treason. A monster selling Canada out to, Communist China. Harper has no right to even live in this country, let alone govern.
Alison
Conservative MP Brad Trost (Saskatoon) :
“admitted although he hadn’t actually heard the push-poll call, he said it has “good and accurate information” and he agrees with it.
“I heard other people describe it,” he said. “One of my colleagues had it at her residence and her husband got it and he said it was fine. I’ll take his word for it.”
So we’re all good then.
The reason for commission’s Saskatchewan redistricting report is the same reason why the Cons’ pushpoll robocalled against it. In the last election :
Cons : 256,004 votes (13 seats)
NDP : 147,084 votes (0 seats)
Liberals : 38,981 votes (1 seat)
Purple Library Guy
“Miscommunicating” in the Conservative lexicon means “Lying in such a way that you later get caught”. If you don’t get caught it’s just “communicating”. Not sure they have a word for telling the truth, it comes up so rarely for them . . .
Sixth Estate
Ah.
Thank you for explaining the jargon to me.
Aj
What’s really disgusting is how SARM president Dave Marit has become a puppet for the PMO. He clearly is doing the masters bidding. And does his mean we can expect him to get a senate seat or maybe a job paid for by taxpayers. http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Split+ridings+much+Marit/7903044/story.html
and SARM claims to be voice for rural sask and an impartial organization. What a joke.
MY QUESTION IS WHY IS NO ONE IS CALLING FOR HIS HEAD. The SARM convention is next month and this doofus has to go
Marit has no merit