Category: Other

Robocall protest falls flat

First, voter suppression is a serious thing, and as an extension, false allegations of voter suppression are serious too. Elections Canada should investigate fully and prosecute any wrong-doing if it is shown to exist. My guess is that Guelph is the only riding that will show irregularities of extended concern to Elections Canada.

A lot of ink and broadcast bandwidth has been dedicated to 31,000 “complaints” filed with Elections Canada regarding the so-called Robocall Scandal. The opposition is trying to construct a media narrative of a broad orchestrated conspiracy. Elections Canada instead reports that 31,000 “contacts” have been reported. What’s the difference, you ask?

Well, let’s take a look at leadnow.ca’s petition. The second addressed recipient of the petition is William H. Corbett, Commissioner of Elections Canada. Today, Leadnow’s petition boasts 39,677. No small feat however, this petition was likely emailed out to leadnow’s list which has been built off of previous petitions (and campaigns). A signature petition to demand a public inquiry does not a specific complaint of voter suppression make. Indeed, for those looking for the truth in the matter, flooding Elections Canada’s inbox only makes it more difficult to find the needles of legitimate complaints (if they exist) in the ever-growing spamstack. Troubling has been the media’s tone and volume on these contacts as they are seemingly equating lazily clicking a mouse and joining (re-joining) leadnow’s mailing list with the effective filing of a police report.

There was a protest against robocalls on Parliament Hill today, led by leadnow. How many of the 39,000+ mouse-clickers showed up for it? Don Martin reports,

BC Blue reports the senior organizers of Leadnow:

– Alex Michalos – Emeritus Professor (Political Science), University of Northern British Columbia; Author of 22 books; Editor in Chief for the Journal of Business Ethics; Director of Research for the Canadian Index of Well-Being; Member of the Order of Canada

– Alnoor Ladha – Director of Strategy, Purpose.com (building 21st century movements); Formerly at Ogilvy & Mather, J. Walter Thompson and Mother

– Ben Brandzel – Int’l practitioner & trainer in online organizing; Former Director of New Media for Barack Obama, Founding Adviser/Board Member of 38Degrees.org.uk and Avaaz.org, Advocacy Director for MoveOn.org

– Beth Wilson – Managing Partner, KPMG (Community Leadership), Board member of National Ballet of Canada & Cabinet member of United Way; one of Canada’s “100 most powerful women”

– Ian Capstick: Owner, MediaStyle.ca; Former Press Secretary to Jack Layton, Frequent Media Commentator

– Jim Stanford: Economist, Canadian Auto Workers; Frequent Media Commentator

– Judy Rebick: Journalist, author, political activist and feminist; Founding Publisher Rabble.ca, Former Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University

– Julia Pope: Communications director for a company developing asthma therapeutics; Background in regional electoral politics and journalism; Participant in the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives’ 2012 NextUp leadership program.

– Robin Sears: Partner, Navigator Ltd (Strategic Communications); Former Nat’l Campaign Director, NDP

– Ross McGregor: Director, Tides Canada & Waterfront Toronto; Former President & CEO of Ketchum Canada & Toronto Region Research Alliance

– Susan McLennan: President & Founder, Babble On Communications-

– Vicky Husband: Long-time Environmental Activist; Former Conservation Chair, Sierra Club of BC; Member of the Order of Canada

So who were the other 15 people, and where were the other 38,970?

RIP Andrew Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart has died. He was 43.

The news was a bit shocking when I saw it passively cross my twitter feed this morning via Brian Lilley. Twitter announcements of celebrity deaths are to be automatically taken with a dose of skepticism these days as celebrity news and rumour can spread quickly on the medium. Compounded with his young age and the fact that controversy around facts was one of Breitbart’s tactics, I thought this too was a hoax that had snagged the imaginations of the twitterers.

Unfortunately, this was not the case.

I met Breitbart at CPAC just a few weeks ago in Washington DC after he gave one of his characteristic barnburner speeches to gathered attendees in the ballroom of the Marriott Wardman Park hotel. He came right up to the blogger’s room after the speech. American conservative bloggers have highly revered the man, and the room buzzed as he worked his way through it. I wanted to make my own introduction, really just to say hello, and tell him of similar struggles in Canada to change the liberal media culture landscape. But I had to wait as he tore into a liberal bloggers who had misrepresented herself as a Washington Times columnist in order to get an interview. After the fracas, he was pleasant enough to make time for a quick exchange.

Later at the conference, I was sitting in a restaurant with a few friends taking a break from the activities. Governor Scott Walker was scheduled to speak later that evening and the Occupy/Union folks were planning on giving him a noisy reception. As the left-wing mob advanced on the hotel, we had a view from our table.

And then a booming voice.

He was taking on the mob. In fact, about 100m and through the windows of the hotel, I could hear the general rabble of the crowd being shouted down by one man. It was Breitbart, of course. He was telling the Occupiers to stop the sexual assaults that have been reported at Occupy camps around the US.

If we compare Occupy and the Tea Party, the Tea Party is generally more polite and law abiding than the occupy protesters. But what the Tea Party lacked in fire and bad behaviour, Breitbart tried to close the gap.

He was the boor of the right and we were glad to have him.

The right has often been cowed by mainstream observers into thinking it is their behaviour that is anti-social; many conservatives think they ought to apologize before speaking their views. The man in the tricorner hat, waving a Gadsden flag and a mispelled sign about Obama’s socialism has shouldered more shunning by mainstream opinion makers than the anarchist defecating on a police car while marching to shut down the port of Oakland. Breitbart’s attitude was to tell the right to stop apologizing and to stun the left and put them on their heels.

He wasn’t just a bomb thrower for the conservative movement. His work and the Drudge Report and his own news websites made his work a source of news content for the right. Republicans and Democrats would use Drudge and Breitbart for breaking news and yes, they swore by (and at) it too…

He will be missed by those of us on the right and yes, by those on the left. He is survived by his wife Susannah and their four children.