John Gormley's column in today's Leader Post (Harper's critics need to chill) takes a look on the consistently over-the-top attack on the Conservative Government (H/T NNW): This tendency by opposition parties and the Bandwagon Media to resort to spurious allegations and hyperbole has been dubbed Wafer-chasing by reader Wilson. Pat Martin suggested that the latest scandal du jour is our Watergate moment. He is sure that the crank calls were orchestrated from the top rather than the actions of some rogue campaign workers. (And FWIW I agree that anyone found guilty of trying to obstruct the voting process should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.)
The NDP's Martin said the Tories are "laying the foundation for throwing some kid under the bus" when it's clear there's been "a massive conspiracy to defraud the electoral system."A massive conspiracy... At least John McCallum has the sense to point out that there is no proof of that, but then he goes on to weave his conspiracy theory anyway (from the WFP link above):
"We don't have a smoking gun pointing to Stephen Harper and the Conservative party, but we do know that these actions benefited the Conservative party and we do know this strategy has been in their tool kit for some time. So there are definitely suspicions."Tonda Maccharles includes a response from Elections Canada in her somewhat-more-balanced report in the Spectator:
All Elections Canada spokesman John Enright would say is that federal elections commissioner William Corbett reported to Parliament that his office “is looking into several complaints surrounding crank calls designed to discourage voting, discourage voting for a particular party, or incorrectly advise electors of changed polling locations.” However, in the initial two weeks after the election, long before November when investigators apparently linked RackNine to the calls, Commissioner William Corbett appeared unworried that massive electoral mischief had occurred...The problem with resorting to these kinds of histrionics is that eventually people tend to tune out - especially those outside the Ottawa bubble. But for now let's allow the proper authorities examine the evidence and proceed accordingly. We're still living in a country where innocence is presumed until proven otherwise - at least in the real world.
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Update
Conservative government aide loses job over fraudulent ‘robo-calls’ - Toronto Star
Michael Sona Fired: Conservative Staffer With Ties To Guelph Riding Let Go - HuffPo
Stephen Harper and the Scandalettes - Adrian MacNair
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