Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office, said in an e-mail to the Canadian Press on Saturday that "Alfonso Gagliano receiving a loan from Farm Credit Canada was disturbing.""The Conservative Government believes that money should go to help farmers, not former Liberal cabinet ministers," he said.
5:15 am – I suddenly come to the realization that the Bloor-Danforth subway doesn’t actually start running until 5:50. So much for public transit. I won’t be able to look Al Gore in the eye….
6:00 am – A taxi ride later, through the airport check-in, and now U.S. Customs, where the official doesn’t buy the argument that Denver is “on the way” to Vancouver from Toronto, or that someone goes to a political convention just for the hell of it. He’s mildly insistent that I must be going there for work. Part of me wishes he was right.
6:20 am – “Airport Internet” equals “Highway Robbery”. But you probably already knew that. Hence, this isn’t really “live” blogging. And won’t be.
7:15 am – How on earth did I get fooled into thinking “all remaining passengers” meant “final call”. Cripes, I am on this plane twenty minutes early. I hate not being the last person to board.
7:20 am – flipping through the route maps in the on-board magazine. Customs dude was right.
7:55 am – Two minutes of taking off, followed
"...In this minority Parliament, two of the parties, the Bloc and the NDP, have indicated for some months now that they want elections immediately. Mr. Dion has indicated that the government should be defeated, but he is not sure when he will do that," he said.
In just over two weeks, voters in Baie Verte-Springdale and Cape St. Francis will go to the polls to elect their new representatives for the House of Assembly. That is, if they haven't already.
In Cape St. Francis, voting has been officially underway for two weeks. It's theoretically possible that a winner is already determined, despite the fact that legally candidates could only start filing their nomination papers this week.
These byelections raise troubling questions about the propriety of the province's special-ballot provisions.
The chief electoral officer says these provisions are for the benefit of voters who know they'll be away on polling day. But how can you have any reasonable knowledge of whether you will be away on polling day, if the government won't tell you when polling day will be? Furthermore, since your eligibility to vote is determined by your residence on the day before polling day, your eligibility to vote requires some date from which to draw that reference.
In the leadup to a byelection, when there are no candidates in the running, these provisions are just plain silly. But in the weeks preceding a general election, they afford a tremendous advantage to incumbents. It is hard to imagine a greater democratic injustice than rules permitting incumbent candidates to campaign (and do so free from electoral-spending scrutiny) and collect votes while their potential opponents cannot even register. It's no wonder the amendments passed through the House of Assembly with no opposition.
The chief electoral officer claims these provisions help seafarers and migrant workers who might otherwise miss the chance to cast their ballots. This is nonsense.
If those concerns were really at the heart of these recent amendments to the Elections Act, the provincial government could just as easily have changed the minimum writ period from 21 days, which happens to be the shortest of any jurisdiction in the Western world. They chose not to. The thought that any of these migrant workers or seafarers might want to exercise their democratic rights beyond voting - such as running as a candidate, or even knowing who their candidates are - wasn't worthy of any MHA's consideration.
Over a decade ago, a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada stated: "Elections are fair and equitable only if all citizens are reasonably informed of all the possible choices and if parties and candidates are given a reasonable opportunity to present their positions. ... "
More recently, this court ruled the provisions of Canada's Elections Act, which effectively ensured "that voters are better informed of the political platform of some candidates than they are of others," violated Section 3 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and struck them down.
In the words of the Supreme Court of Canada, our rights under the charter go beyond the "bare right to place a ballot in a box"; they "grant every citizen a meaningful role in the selection of elected candidates."
But don't take my word for it. Heck, don't take the Supreme Court's word for it. The results of these foolish provisions speak for themselves.
The chief electoral officer's own report on the 2007 provincial election (www.elections.gov.nl.ca/elections/) revealed the rate of rejected ballots among special ballots was seven times greater than that of regular ballots. Yet his only remorse seems to be that, despite their advertising efforts to encourage the use of special ballots, there weren't more of them.
Stuffing ballot boxes before elections are even called is no means of encouraging a reasonably informed electorate. Allowing votes to be cast before candidates can even be nominated defiles the very concept of reasonable opportunity. And worst of all, encouraging this silly special-ballot regime for weeks when incumbent government and opposition MHAs are under no electoral-spending scrutiny, and have full access to their members' allowance and departmental budgets, is grossly unfair to anyone who would dare consider challenging them.
These special -ballot provisions are the sort of thing which our delegations abroad discourage in emerging democracies. They contradict the very Elections Act in which they appear, and they likely wouldn't withstand a charter challenge. Surely this is not what the premier had in mind when he promised us "fixed" elections.
We already have the shortest required election period of any Canadian province, despite our challenging geography. We have had successive appointments of chief electoral officers whose partisanship wouldn't pass the sniff test in any other jurisdiction. Our electoral boundaries commission has a permanent three-fifths majority of direct appointments by the major parties.
Now, we're actively encouraging voters to cast scribble-in ballots before they even know who they're voting for. All of these provisions afford tremendous advantage to the 48 members who sit in the legislature. Isn't it time our election laws represented the interests of the voters instead?
"This is the Quiet Devolution, a transfer of authority from the centre to the regions. It has been going on unnoticed since the collapse of the constitutional talks in the 1990s. Knowing that mending the Constitution is almost impossible in Canada, administrative federalism has become the new modus operandi.
At a time when Canada is falling behind the rest of the industrialized world in health care, urban renewal, high speed rail, energy conservation and other critical areas (see the recent report card of the Conference Board of Canada), the federal answer is not to lead a national effort seeking national solutions. It is not to speak for Canada.
It is not to worry about the balkanization of the world's most decentralized country. Or the rise of a destructive sectionalism. Or the ebbing attachment of its citizens to the idea of Canada, which is now becoming an association of princely states, duchies and caliphates run by regional pashas.
No, it is to impoverish and diminish the federal government and to do it by stealth."
Premier Williams has been known to personally call editors and letter writers who offer criticism of him and his government's decisions.Courtesy of the Gulf News.
While his stated aim is to "set the record straight" the tactic probably leaves ordinary letter-writing citizens with the sense of "better be careful what you say because He is watching."
This government, quite simply, likes to control the message.
Take it to the limit.
Take it to the limit.
Take it to the limit one more time.- The Eagles
Today, Premier Danny Williams (or someone in his office with access to letterhead in his absence) finally called the byelection in Cape St. Francis. The byelection became necessary after the unfortunate passing of MHA Jack Byrne on June 4, 2008.
That was sixty-one days ago.
Which is interesting, given that the House of Assembly Act clearly states:
Writ of election
54. Where a vacancy occurs in the House of Assembly, the Lieutenant-Governor in Council shall, within 60 days after the seat becomes vacant, issue a proclamation for the holding of an election and return of a member for the district in respect of which the vacancy has occurred.
Polling day
58. The day of polling to be fixed by the proclamation required under section 57 shall be a day not less than 21 clear days from the date of the proclamation nor more than 30 clear days. Interpretation Act
(k) where a number of days not expressed to be "clear days" is prescribed the days shall be counted exclusively of the 1st day and inclusively of the last and where the days are expressed to be "clear days" or where the term "at least" is used both the 1st day and the last shall be excluded;
"Our right to vote is sometimes taken for granted. In order for any democracy to function effectively, it is important for all eligible voters to take part in the selection of their elected officials."
