Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Don't piss on me and tell me its raining

The latest robocall scandal is going to bite the Harper Cons in the ass, to coin a phrase.
They could have done a reasonably neutral poll to find out what Saskatchewan people actually thought of the urban ridings proposal.  This might have given them some valuable information about how widespread the desire for urban ridings actually is, information which they might have been able to use to build a case for rejecting the boundary changes.
But no.  The Harper Cons think they can create their own reality.  They got pushy and they got sneaky.   Result:  disaster.
Saskboy got one of the calls and reports on what the robo-voice said:
Last week I got a robocall from “Chase Research” and listened to it all, taking notes when I realized it was a Conservative push-poll and would cause a scandal....It referred to “drastic” changes to “traditional” riding boundaries and said the new way would pit “rural vs urban” against each other. After being negative about the situation, it asked for a yes or no option to the changes, or to have options repeated.
They embarrassed themselves and, now that the scandal has erupted, they have a poll that they cannot use. In fact, when Conservatives now start talking about how "the Saskatchewan people" want to keep the boundaries as they are, the press and the commission members can just laugh them out of the room.
...in question period, NDP MP Craig Scott, in a question, noted that no party with a "classic sense of ethics" would attempt to pressure a boundaries commission to reverse its proposals by using what he called "robocon propaganda." Surprisingly, it was Harper rather than one of his ministers who stood up to answer Scott’s question, perhaps an indication of how seriously the prime minister views the issue.
Harper replied, "There are actually parliamentary hearings into this. Obviously there is political input, although the final decision is independent,' meaning, perhaps, his office will not try to influence the Conservative MPs who dominate the committee.
Well, dream on about that. Still, thanks to their own clumsy hubris, the Harper Cons can no longer just quietly bury the redistribution report.

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