Last month, the Conservative Party of Canada got in hot water for conducting an improper push-poll trying to drum up discontent with the proposed realignment of federal electoral boundaries in Saskatchewan.
Thus far, I’ve yet to hear if any formal objections to the map have been made by sitting MPs. If 10 MPs object to a map provision, it is then evaluated by a parliamentary committee which has the authority to invite, but not compel, the boundary commission to reconsider its recommendations. Having been accused of political interference in what is supposed to be a non-partisan process, Conservatives MPs may be dissuaded from mounting as vigorous a protest against the map as they otherwise would have. But we’ll find out for sure in the next month or so.
Meanwhile, in the other robocalls case, where eight Canadians with the support of the Council of Canadians have launched legal action in federal court asking that results in six ridings be set aside because of misleading live and automated phone calls that were made prior to the May 2011 election the wheels of justice continue to grind.
On Friday, the presiding judge agreed to allow court records obtained through a broader Elections Canada investigation of deceptive phone calls that were made in dozens of ridings across Canada to be entered as evidence. The federal court case concerns six ridings where the margin of victory was small enough that possible fraud may have had an impact on the outcome. But from my perspective if a political party is found to have engaged in disreputable and illegal conduct in an effort to tilt the election outcome in their favour that calls into question the legitimacy of their entire mandate as a government — not just their hold on seats where the outcome was close.
You can read more in this CBC report.
