I just received this email from pm@pm.gc.ca which was spoofed quite easily on the Conservative Party website willyoubetricked.com
Subject: Why you shouldn’t fear me
Hi The Average Canadian,
Stephen Harper wanted to tell you…
My name is Stephen Harper. I am an ALBERTAN, here me roar! My goal is to make Canada America’s 51st state and destroy health care that all Canadians cherish by infusing my propaganda with hard core ad hominem attacks. Please vote for me, because if you do, I promise you’ll be able to vote for McCain 2012!
We are a tar sands level party, not a grass roots party. We consider anything with the word \”Green\” offensive, except for the almighty American dollar, which we hope to be able to implement in the coming months! We shall first have to make sure that American and Canadian jelly beans have the same standards, and then we shall proceed.
I hope everyone has a great weekend,
Take care,
Stephen \”I can lead you to Hell but not back\” Harper
If you agree click here.
Somebody emailed the PMO listserve address sending this email to whoever signed up on the Prime Minister’s government website for the email mailing list. Someone should look into the legality of using the Government of Canada’s resources to impersonate the Prime Minister.
The email seems to have originated in Winnipeg from an MTS Allstream account from this IP: 142.161.178.253.
Stephen Taylor is a scientist, political analyst and a blogger. Taylor writes here regularly and is the founder of bloggingtories.ca. Taylor has contributed to Macleans, CTV, talk radio and has been a featured speaker on new media at numerous events including the Western Standard Cruise and the Forum for Public Policy. In December 2008, Taylor organized Rally for Canada, a series of rallies held coast-to-coast to protest the proposed coalition government.
September 21st, 2008 at 1:34 pm
That should be worthy of a criminal investigation, should it not? It would be interesting to see who's behind it, especially which party they are affiliated with.
September 21st, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Three guesses as to who's behind this criminal act.
The Liberals are going down and they know it, which means they will do anything (literally, anything) do keep fighting the fight.
September 21st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Contact <abuse@mts.net> and let them have a go. I'm already irritated by my Conservative lawn sign having been vandalized this weekend and I watched a pick-up truck drive off the road to sideswipe a Conservative sign near here – they are really getting desperate!
September 21st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Of utmost importance, has the media been informed of this?
September 21st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
So how could someone have acquired that list in the first place?
September 21st, 2008 at 2:31 pm
You simply have to email a special email address with your content. The listserv program then pushes out to a list of people.
September 21st, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I also just received it. It looks like we have a hack here
September 21st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
If you're gonna spoof, do it right. You kids out there ever hear of a “proxy”? If not, leave the haxxoring to us professionals.
September 21st, 2008 at 3:06 pm
More of an exploit than a hack
September 21st, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Stephen big City Lib was just on CTV Newsnet over the latest Cons candidate 'stepping down' over some bad blogging.There was quite a lengthy interview,and not one mention (as seen in G&M article) about the Lib that had some pretty hateful stuff on her blog.Someone from the Cons blogosphere needs to provide some balance,as the msm seems to be pretty one-sided.Can you do it??? Or at least try?
September 21st, 2008 at 3:28 pm
One can only hope the RCMP get right on this. I also recieved this e-mail.
September 21st, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I got this as well. I live in wpg, is there a way to figure out where 142.161.178.253 is?
September 21st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Court order to mts
September 21st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
awesome, thanks! please keep us updated!
September 21st, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Hi Stephen,
I received it and I assumed that it was from a Conservative who was continuing with the “edgy” (read: disrespectful, bullying and below what should be the standard of our wonderful country's governing political party)marketing such Conservative Campaign '08 greatest hits: “Oily”, “Not a Leader”, and “Puffing losing his bowels on an Honourable Canadian” . This is exactly in that same mindset. Live by the Bullying and Juvenile Marketing Campaign and you may Fail by the Bullying and Juvenile Marketing Campaign.
September 21st, 2008 at 4:51 pm
*sarc. on
Probably – but hey, it's just a good natured prank, just some kid having fun, right?
OK, all together now: progressives have a sense of humour, conservatives not so much.
*sarc. off
September 21st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
under the criminal code of Canada, according to my neighbour who is an RCMP officer, this is a violation and the individual in question when caught can face prosecution. All it takes is someone to swear out a complaint.
September 21st, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Bridget, Stephane makes Gumby look like a bully. Give me a break.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
There is an incredible amount of desperation out there from the left and it seems to be growing quickly and out of control.
In my riding driving through the neighbourhood I saw dozens of blue signs were knocked down over the weekend on major streets and did not see one single other party's sign down.
Is it safe to expect that this will increase over the next few weeks?
Soldiers with guns? Tanks in our streets – in Canada (pronounced Ca-na-duh – the way those nice, non-political folks at the CBC pronounce it..)
September 21st, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I just got a different one, something about the 'Kosovo Compromise'. To be honest, once I realized it wasn't real, I stopped reading. Seems more than one person has figured out how to hack the system.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:02 am
I just got a reply from MTS. Apparently they have caught the culprit. In reply I asked if they would reveal the identity of this person and whether they would turn him in to the proper authorities. Stay tuned.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Here's how the Conservatives can win a majority – hands down. As demographic studies show our birth rate is at historical lows, and that this is a huge problem for our future labour force, and funding our future social programs, we in Canada need an incentive, to increase our birth rates.
Not just any incentive, but it has to be the right kind.
A good one would be to make it possible for WORKING people, to get a much higher EI premium, and for longer time, to take maternal/parental leave. For example, instead of the usual what – 55% of earnings for one year, make it 80% for 16 months. This type of incentive, for WORKING people, would be much better than anything that would encourage 16 year old, never worked, never finished school – kids, to have babies. We unfortunately already have enough built-in incentives for this in our welfare system. Rather, we need something to promote stable, working, families, to have more children.
Change the EI to increase the birth rate – ticket to a big majority.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Um…you're kidding, right?
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
EI benefits, if they can be called that, are 55% of “insurable” earnings. The maximum for insurable earnings is $41,000 (roughly). So your EI premiums stop being deducted when you pass $41k gross earnings. Now, when you want to claim EI for parental leave, or any other allowed claim, you only get 55% of $41k if you made $41k or more. I'd be having more kids if my taxes went to pay for 100% of their education. I'd be having more kids if I could split my income with my wife. As it stands, I honestly believe that gov't policy towards families have been made so that previous Liberal gov'ts could justify increasing immigration because they saw that immigrants voted consistently Liberal.
Watch this post to be flagged.
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:33 am
MTS is an Internet service provider out west.
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 am
When I lived in Winnipeg (grew up there), MTS was Manitoba Telephone System. If I am not mistaken, it is now part of the Bell Canada family of telecommunications companies. I could be wrong but I think it's part of Bell.
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 am
Manitoba Telephone System – or, at least that's what it was when I was growing up in Winnipeg.
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:07 am
Dan in Windsor: “As it stands, I honestly believe that gov't policy towards families have been made so that previous Liberal gov'ts could justify increasing immigration because they saw that immigrants voted consistently Liberal.”
I would put nothing past the Liberals. Nothing.
The other thing they did to discourage families with kids, was to encourage women to work outside the home. The Liberal taxation policy for families living on one income with a parent home–usually mom–to care for the kid/s was to tax us to the max.
Advantage for the Liberals of having women stream into the workplace? They collected taxes/revenue from them. My staying home collected no revenue and pretty much assured an independent voice speaking out against a lot of their social engineering policies.
Liberals = bad news for families with kids
Liberals x 13 years = families with very few kids, big “need” for immigration
'Anyway you cut it, women in the workplace, immigration meant BIG BUCKS and LOTSA VOTES for the Liberals.
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 am
Actually, just in Manitoba. Its the province's telecom company, offering landline, cell phone, internet and cable services. MTS = Manitoba Telecom Service
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:57 am
Ok, I'm not even going to touch the comment about him poking fun, but for conversation's sake, lets say he did. He didn't, but lets say he did.
So, minister makes an inappropriate comment. Hmm, yep. According to our laws thats not a crime.
Impersonating the leader of the country, umm, yep, that is a crime.
Your attempt at linking the two events is pathetic, as is your understanding of reality.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Im still not voting conservative, that prank was not done by any party LOL anyways those of you who insist on voting for harper have a look here. http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/exe... and then read this. the fact is harper screwed eastern canada, were not going to vote conservative. just vote ABC its that easy
http://anythingbutconservative.ca/
October 12th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
A voters dilemma and a way out.
Harper is reforming the Conservatives in a way that the majority of Canadians fear. If he gets in with a minority he will act as if he is the majority and who would dare bring him down and precipitate a new election. A strategy is needed to unify the vote against Harper.
To a person other parties leaders are against him. Elizabeth Mae said she would like to see a Liberal minority. Ducette shows nothing but contempt. Dion accuses Harper of lying. But Jack Layton gave the clue to Harper's defeat.
Jack Layton urged NDP supporters to vote NDP because it would mean $1.63 into NDP coffers for the next go around. The same goes for all other parties. To vote for your candidate of choice is – and we all know this – a wasted vote that in many cases will enhance the possibility of another Harper minority. We get Harper and your party gets another $1.63.
Donate $3.66 to the party of your choice and vote for the candidate most likely to defeat the “Conservative” in your riding. The result of this would be to double the finances of the party you choose, publicly demonstrate the popular support they have and it may be the only way to defeat Harper.
I have my cheque ready. Will you join in this effort? Like the election to the south of us it would revitalize the grass roots, take the power from the board rooms putting it in the kitchens of the nation.
Act now to spread the word. Little time left to save this nation from the Harper economics.
Rod Dawson onecorsair@yahoo.com
May 17th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Hey John, your observation is completely valid, I suspect the same!
Emma