If only the political establishment and the chattering classes were as sensible and considerate as the Canadian people.
The mass response to the so-called robocalls scandal has been one of drowning indifference. Eager pollsters have rushed to the electorate to fulfill their hopes and dreams that the possibility of a few people making dumb phone calls to some Liberal voters may have done irreparable damage to the Harper government.
The verdict? Nobody cares. We have better things to do, and rather like the way the Conservatives have maintained a stable economy and a strong, respected foreign policy.
Meaning that the people are not as stupid as liberals and leftists like to think — it’s always been one of the great ironies of politics that those who claim to love people in fact rather despise them.
Canadians have also realized that 30,000 complaints about false calls during an election do not suddenly materialize in a few days, when most people have long forgotten the boring old election and are busy paying bills, raising families, being normal.
What we now know is that the moaning calls were being encouraged and orchestrated, often by radical organizations based in the United States.
So, the real scandal here seems to be that foreign interests assume they can influence Canadian politics, which is unacceptable Yankee imperialism — let’s organize a few demonstrations, and do some occupying!
Something else which came to light last week was a particularly dirty campaign in Guelph, the epicentre and origin of the entire mess. What is so often ignored is that the Liberals well won this riding, so if there were any misleading calls, they were pointless.
What we do know happened was that large numbers of people in Guelph received recorded calls from someone describing herself as a local resident, making a personal attack on Marty Burke, the Tory candidate.
The calls claimed that Burke would make all abortion illegal, and take away “a woman’s right to choose.”
Actually, Burke has said that he thinks the abortion issue should be debated, in which he is supported by half the country. The call is purposely misleading and dishonest, and designed solely to have people vote against the Conservatives.
We have no idea who was behind the calls, but it certainly wasn’t the Tories.
Burke, by the way, is a typically evil and nasty Conservative. He served more than two decades in the military, defending this country around the world, and then defending democracy, equality and human rights in extremely dangerous areas as a peacekeeper. He’s now a respected and experienced Air Canada pilot.
In other words, he’s massively responsible, brave, worldly and experienced. The Liberal MP for Guelph, Frank Valeriote, is a long-time politician.
Such propaganda calls are typical, as are assorted lies and personal attacks on Tory candidates, coming from declared opponents as well as mainstream voices in the consensus media.
The reason you may not have heard about them is that the victims have generally taken the higher ground, and tend to accept democratic results and not cry that their sacred right to govern has been lost.
Don’t be, well, robotic on this one, and think for yourselves.
