Rick Mercer gets the youth vote out, Conservatives shut it back in
Rick Mercer might actually be the most powerful spokesperson for the youth vote in Canada. After years of national hand-wringing over declining turnout, and particularly the anemic youth voting, Mercer’s rant (above) has helped mobilized an actual pro-voting uprising among Canada’s 18- to 24-year olds. Who could argue against an organic surge in the youth vote? According to the Guelph Mercury, the Conservative Party of Canada:
The [Conservative] Party wrote Elections Canada on Thursday to request that none of the votes collected during the University of Guelph session be included in the final tally of votes in the Guelph riding. The letter was sent by lawyer Arthur Hamilton, of Toronto-based law firm, Cassels Brock.
The move has generated considerable controversy at the university, home of the first youth “vote mob” encouraging students to vote.
In his letter, Hamilton alleges the polling station was illegal and also that partisan election material was present at it, which is a violation of the Canada Elections Act.
The Tories fought back this morning, restating that the Guelph poll in question was illegitimate, but they’ve opted to leave it to Elections Canada to enforce rules:
Pierre Boutet of Elections Canada informed our legal counsel that the Guelph poll was not authorized by Elections Canada. Given the admission that the local Returning Officer acted without authority, we leave it to Elections Canada to enforce the rules and uphold the law….In 2006, the Liberal Party successfully petitioned Elections Canada to quash an unauthorized poll set up on the University of Toronto campus by the Returning Officer in Trinity-Spadina. The issue was then, as it is now, ensuring that the rules are followed.
Obviously, if there was serious law-breaking going on, it needs to be dealt with immediately, but it’s hard not to compare the Conservatives’ sudden passion for the sanctity of democracy with Stephen Harper dismissing the contempt of Parliament as “bickering.” Do we even need to point out that university campuses aren’t a hotbed of Conservative support? Or that Guelph is a swing riding that the Liberals won by only three points in 2008?
There are 18 more youth-oriented vote mobs planned before the end of this campaign. If the Guelph controversy teaches the organizers anything, it’s to make sure all 18 of them are beyond reproach.
• Conservatives want to dump Guelph U student votes [Guelph Mercury]
UPDATE (April 25, 2:18 p.m.): Elections Canada has allowed the votes from the University of Guelph special ballot to be counted in the election. “All information at our disposal indicates that the votes were cast in a manner that respects the Elections Canada Act and are valid,” the body said in a statement.
If it is not authorized by Election Canada then it is illegal.
It is very simple. If Election Canada has no control of election process then we are going end up with election like it was in Afghanistan.
I don’t know how anyone would get all the different (and current to this particular election)official forms and materials needed for an election except through Elections Canada. In order to do this, the special poll would have to be authorized.
I do know, from a friend at Guelph, that the University has held this special poll for the two previous elections without incident. The purpose of the special poll was to provide students with an opportune time to vote that did not clash with final exams.
Mercer has done the unthinkable … gotten through to the generation that will be utterly screwed by the Harper Regime spendthrift ways, and actually produced a result. elections Canada did both the right thing (accepted the ballots) and the wrong thing (shut down more vote-mob poll astations)
So now it is up the the politicians to prove to the kids who will pay for present policies that it is all worth it. otherwise, why should any kid, any you th, anyone really, stand up and sing with price “o Canada we stand on guard for Thee”, because we don’t really have an answer to the best question, O Canada, we stand on guard for … what?
Good for you, Rick. thanks.
vote splitting could be a good tactic to keep this a minority parliment.
who’s the prime minster?
rick didnt anser that question .. but i am sure the youth will change a lot of ridings. i wonder how the green party will do.
In national polls of party preferences, aren’t only those with land lines phoned? The majority of 18 to 24 year-olds use cell phones, so any data generated by Ipsos Reid, EKOS, Nanos, or other research firms may be less accurate than it seems to indicate.
If the youth vote doubles from 2008, I think it’s likely an NDP or Liberal minority. If the youth vote triples, an NDP or Liberal majority.
If one looks at various vote mob websites, even though they say they are “non-partisan”, you sometimes see links to articles critical of the Conservatives, but rarely, if ever, a link to articles critical of the Liberals, NDP or Greens. Ditto for opinion pieces posted on university
student websites such as UVic’s student newspaper, The Martlet (www.martlet.ca/sections/opinions/)
And if you research the backgrounds of those organizing vote mobs, many have been actively involved in issues associated with the progressive side of the political spectrum.
There is speculation as to what percentage of those participating in vote mobs will actually vote, but the youth vote has been vastly underestimated by the pundits and the pollsters.
The youth vote may in fact be the “sleeper” component of this election.
===
Song for Harper
On March 29 Prime Minister Harper played keyboard while singing John
Lennon’s Imagine at a Winnipeg photo op.
Another song on Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine is How Do You Sleep?, directed
at Paul McCartney.
Once you’re familiar with the melody, try these new lyrics. All together now!
Mr. Harper, How Do You Sleep?
So the contempt vote took you by surprise
You better see through the people’s eyes
Those guys were right on the price of the jets
Cost twice as much but what about our vets
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
You made coalition a dirty word
Most Parliaments have them, haven’t you heard?
Policies favoured by most in their land
More moderate than left and right demand
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
Prorogue the Parliament, twice down the drain
Can’t hear Afghan detainees scream in pain
Large tax cuts for the largest companies
And for the Tar Sands boys more subsidies
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
At the climate talks, what do we have here
Four times awarded Fossil of the Year
Those Action Plan ads cost twenty-six mill
The G8 and 20, over one bill
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
Why did you lose the seat at the U.N.?
Who inserted the word ‘not’ with a pen?
Five times Bruce Carson convicted of fraud
Then secret clearance in a PMO job
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
Only five questions, ’cause you are the king
Jump when reporters ask you anything
You keep them more than forty feet away
Behind steel fences, just another day
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
You challenge Michael to a face-to-face
He tell you any time, any place
Next day you say that it can’t be done
You’ll just abide by the consortium
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
Get back on the ‘rights’ track says Amnesty
And how do you define democracy?
Your London rally, two students kicked out
‘Cause of a picture on a Facebook account
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
The AG’s words recycled by mistake
But who says he’s sorry for that fake lake
Why does food with GMOs get no blame
Why is Helena the one you can’t name?
How do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
David Buckna
For further reference:
How Do You Sleep? by John Lennon
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNjTPZW7GCU)
Getting Back on the ‘Rights’ Track
(www.amnesty.ca/files/HRA.pdf)
Hey Canadians!
(www.arcadefire.com/blog/hey-canadians/)
Harper missing the point on F-35s
(http://embassymag.ca/page/view/edit-03-16-2011)
Auditor general to probe lump-sum disability payments for veterans
(www.leaderpost.com/story_print.html?id=3948651)
Government sees no need to test GMOs
(www.commonground.ca/iss/237/cg237_gmos.shtml)
Are we going to reward contempt of Parliament?
(www.ottawacitizen.com/story_print.html?id=4564215&)
The grades are in: the Conservative party fails students’ test
(www.cfs-fcee.ca/html/english/media/mediapage.php?release_id=1232)
The Government of Canada’s record on climate change
(www.climateactionnetwork.ca/e/news/2011/release/index.php?WEBYEP_DI=8)
CYCC Climate Report Card Project
(www.ourclimate.ca/wordpress/how-do-they-stack-up-the-cyccs-climate-report-card-project/)
Tories used praise for Liberals to defend summit costs: Fraser
(www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-election-weston-ag-fraser.html)
It seems that the Cons lied again. Go figure.