Month: January 2006

In the interests in our freedom from incarceration, yet against the interests of liberty, Craig and I have decided to stop the Blogging Tories aggregator between 7:00pm EST and 10:00pm EST.

According to the Elections Canada Act,

329. Prohibition – premature transmission of results

“No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another electoral district before the close of all of the polling stations in that other electoral district.”

I have a few points I’d like to make about this section of the law. First, restricting speech by prohibiting the reporting of available results is abhorrent in a free society such as Canada. That being said, the results on the east coast should not serve as decision making information for a voter on the west coast. Yet, anyone with satellite television or the Internet can circumvent the law and a fair democratic process.

It is my opinion that the act should reflect the current reality instead of attempt to direct people how to behave.

Therefore, the EC act should be amended to either restrict opening ballot boxes until the last poll closes in BC, or all polls should close at the same time.

If we represent the nanny state as a mother, and the citizenry as a child, the relevant section of the Elections Canada act could be represented by the mother placing an ice cream sundae next to the child’s dinner (with lots of vegetables, natch) and telling the child not to eat his dessert before his dinner. If the child does not comply, the child is then fined millions of dollars and/or serves a prison term.

It would be much more acceptable if dessert was available only after dinner.

Furthermore, if you’re looking for early election results you need to look no further than a certain popular American blogger that helped us circumvent Gomery’s publication ban on the Jean Brault testimony.

The violation of unjust laws is a practice that makes any “free” society that much more. I am sadly disappointed that in Canada, we do this by proxy.

Here’s a picture from Don Newman’s Politics show. On every morning’s broaaadcast Newman featured three spinners from each of the federalist parties.

Can you spot the Liberal?

(Pictured from left to right are: Susan Murray (LPC), Brad Lavigne (NDP), Sandra Buckler (CPC))

While you’d expect that I have nothing but adoring praise for the CPC spinners during the election (Tim’s Chicken Little moment and his baiting of John Duffy’s reiteration of the beer and popcorn comment were great moments. Sandra’s also been fantastic on Politics day in, day out.), I must also give credit to the NDP spinners especially Jamey Heath and Brad Lavigne. These two certainly delivered Jack’s message better than the mustachioed one ever did.

The Liberal spin team was so disasterous during this campaign that it literally made headlines (Scott Reid’s beer and popcorn remark, the Duffy vs. Duffy moment, and Susan’s “BS” moment were low points during the Liberal campaign).

When a new pope is selected by the college of cardinals in the Vatican, the ballots are burned resulting in a plume of white smoke to indicate that a new pope is elected.

While in Canada, at the PMO’s office in Langevin block, it is the black smoke of burning documents that signifies not the election of a new Prime Minister but rather the outgoing of the former holder of the office.

Click thumbnail of photo illustration to enlarge