A follow up on this morning’s post on sign skulduggery, I’ve since learned of a few more signs around the riding that have gone missing overnight, this time from the Riley Park area. We’ve had one De-Elect David Emerson sign removed from our front lawn too.
Eventually those behind this will be spotted, and that’ll be an interesting story indeed. In the meantime, almost 1,000 have been delivered and demand for signs shows no sign of slowing down.
On Thursday I wrote a brief piece on legislation India has put in place, effectively creating a prohibition on floor crossing in that nation.
Tomorrow sometime after 12:30pm I’ll be on-air with broadcaster Gurpreet Singh on Radio India KVRI 1600AM. In late February Mr. Singh wrote an opinion piece featured in The Now, a bi-weekly community newspaper delivered to over 110,000 doorstops in the Surrey, White Rock and North Delta area. That’s largely Conservative territory.
In the light of the controversy sparked by the defection of David Emerson to the Conservatives, Canada should follow the example set by India, the world’s largest democracy, to stop political turncoats from deceiving voters.
… In 2003, the Indian government approved an anti-defection bill that allowed automatic disqualification of the defecting legislators. This legislation met initial opposition as it asked the defecting legislators to resign from the house and face a byelection.
It faced criticism from seasoned politicians who had changed parties more than once. However, the Union Cabinet formally approved the bill, making it into a law that brought disqualification to the defecting legislators in different states. In January this year, byelections were held in three assembly ridings in the Maharasthra state of India after legislators changed parties.
Canada would do well to follow India’s lead in this area. Encourage your MP’s and party to support floor-crossing prohibition legislation, and encourage activists working for real democracy in Canada.
Mr. Singh’s article concludes with a comment that cuts to the real heart of the matter:
Voters are not as foolish as some politicians believe. In federal elections, they largely vote for parties and not the candidates. If political turncoats think they have a right to change their hearts, they should have courage to go back to the voters.
What Emerson and Harper did required no political courage; they instead banked on voter apathy and short memories. That’s not leadership anyone can be proud of, and history will show their judgement to be wrong on both counts.
Conservatives know that they’ve screwed up when radio talk-show host and generally right-friendly columnist Charles Adler blasts them:
Back in the ‘90s, I stuck the Judas horns on the big fat head of Lucien Bouchard.
He betrayed Brian Mulroney by leaving the cabinet, founding the Bloc Quebecois and creating a bizarre picture of people sitting in the House or Commons on a mission to destroy Confederation.
Much more recently I hung horns on David Emerson for selling out those who voted for him as a Liberal.
Emerson didn’t like being called a traitor. He much preferred the term lying politician.
Back on February 7th, the day after Emerson’s surprise swearing in caused so many Conservatives to swear, Adler had this to say:
Dear Prime Minister Frankenstein,
… And all this brings us around to your very first act in office. You brought Liberal David Emerson into government. Apparently you didn’t even ask him to turn in his Liberal membership card before putting his hand on the Bible.
You took a guy who told everyone in his riding that they should not vote for your guy because you were on the far right. After being sworn in, he told people that his entry into cabinet meant you were tacking left.
Adler gets it. Canadians overwhelmingly get it. Eventually Emerson and Harper will get it too…
Someone out there in Vancouver-Kingsway is worried about the De-Elect Emerson signs going up all over the riding. In addition to the odd sign being stolen – which the De-Elect Emerson folks will happily replace – someone has been leaving in sign-owner’s mailboxes what looks to be an official letter from the City of Vancouver regarding political signs.
City bylaws prohibit the placement of political signs on city property, and every riding association CEO, secretary and president knows this. Still, in the heat of an election some ridings do break the by-law, intentionally or not, and eventually the riding association will get a phone call or letter from the city informing them that signs have been impounded and that they’ll be assessed a fee. Typically its the riding president, secretary or “CEO” (an Election Canada assigned title) that receives the communication from the city.
In a foolish attempt to intimidate riding residents, someone in the Grays Park area is trying to impersonate the city by leaving part of an actual city letter in sign-owner’s mailboxes. This letter is of course fraudulent, confirmed by the city:
Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 08:38:37
From: Rockett, Alan… yes you are completely entitled to have the sign on your private property. It looks as though someone in the neighbourhood has copied the letter regarding election signs on city property, is copying it, and leaving it in mailboxes around your area. I have had other people ring me regarding this letter. By chance is there any official letter head from the city at the top of the letter??
Thank you for your inquiry and again, you are completely entitled to have the sign on your property.
Regards,
Alan Rockett
Street Activities Coordinator
City of Vancouver
604.873.7339
It turns out what is being left in mailboxes appears to be a copy of a real letter sent out by Mr. Rockett during the last election that has had the top half (city letterhead logo and original addressee) cut off.
All this skulduggery begs questions: Is the Conservative riding association, or anyone connected with it now or during the last election, behind this set of circumstances? Or has some hapless party member taken matters upon themselves?
These are reasonable questions to ask. The Conservative riding association ought to take pro-active steps and contact their membership to demand this activity stops. Impersonating city officials, trespass, and tampering with or removing private property (lawn signs) are offenses which may lead to prosecution.
I’m going to write the Vancouver-Kingsway Conservative Electoral District Association president, Marilyn Brown, and the two BC-based Conservative Party National Councillors – Byng Giraud and Ray Leitch – and suggest that the party take steps to stop this. A quick check of their membership list from CIMS for members who live in the Grays Park area ought to turn up some suspects who could be gently nudged to do the right thing.
Clearly the almost 1,000 lawn signs installed are having an effect!