A Few Quick Notes 591

-We're in the midst of another hot and humid day in Ottawa.  As we keep creeping further into September I keep tricking myself into thinking that we'll soon be past such days - but they keep on coming.

-Our squirrel keeps coming back, though it's damage from this morning's visit wasn't as bad as a few visits.  I guess I really need to consider ramping up my cayenne use if I want to got a few days without these guys visiting and tearing everything up.

-So it turns out that the Quebec election was pretty eventful.  Not only did the PQ do a little worse than expected (along with the CAQ), the Liberal outperformed expectations.  At the end of the day the PQ managed only four more seats than the Liberals (and they were about nine seats short of majority territory).  Maybe most impressively, the PQ, the Liberals, and the CAQ all received less than 1/3 of the total vote - though the Liberals and PQ were close with 31% each.

And the least expected development of the night was likely the shooting that occurred at the PQ election night party.  Fortunately I had called it a night by the time this happened so I didn't trick myself into thinking that I should watch the coverage as the details of the shooting emerged.

-Aside from the sinkhole coverage, the big news from Ottawa today is that by 2014 there should be a AA team based here.  While I'm a little bummed out that we'll have to wait another season, I'm definitely looking forward to attending some minor league baseball.

-So if you're looking for some ongoing courtroom drama consider following the case regarding Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford.  It seems that if this conflict of interest based case goes against Ford he could find himself out of a job in the near future, or at least that is one interpretation of the possible outcomes.

It's election day in Quebec!

Though I haven't been following Quebec's election too closely, based on the limited coverage I have seen I get the sense that we could be in for a bit of a change.  Of course based on the outcomes of recent provincial elections, polls don't necessarily seem to be wonderful predictors of the eventual composition of the legislature.

Of course predictable or not, I hope to catch some of the coverage somehow tonight.  I'm probably not quite motivated enough to head to a bar in Gatineau, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

It's not a surprise if it was advertised months ago

At about the time I was preparing to move to Ottawa (February 18th, to be precise) my father sent me a job ad for a job at elections Canada.  The basic ad included in the paper made it sound as though I might be at least semi-qualified for the position.  Of course, when I read the full job description on the Elections Canada site I was pretty sure I was nowhere near qualified to become the Commissioner of Elections Canada.

Now, about three months after the job was posted, the successful candidate has been announced (and because I've signed up for Elections Canada's news updates I received an email hours ago).

Just recently the Ottawa Citizen's story on the appointment was released.  I was quite surprised by one of their early paragraphs.

But in a surprise announcement Thursday, Elections Canada said Corbett had retired and been replaced by Yves Côté, the former associate deputy minister of Justice.

 At least to me it seemed hardly surprising that such an announcement was made given the months that have passed since the post was advertised.  Maybe they were using the word 'surprise' to refer to the successful candidate?

Despite the fact that I don't think that the early part of the story makes it clear that their 'surprise' relates to the appointee rather than the existence of an announcement, they do go on to paint a rather uninspiring picture of successful applicant.  In their profile a picture is painted of an individual disinclined to challenge the powers that be.

Anyway, whatever the case may be as far as the Citizen's use of the word 'surprise' may be this new Commissioner is going to have his hands full with the sizeable investigations currently underway by his office.

There are no dead voters in Newfoundland!

For the past few days I've been thinking quite a bit about the enforcement of electoral law at the federal level in Canada.  Consequently I've been reading about the offences that have been investigated/prosecuted over the past 20 years.

While after every election we tend to find that there are a handful of financing/advertising related cases, I was pretty shocked to see that duplicate voting seems to be one of the most common offences (and even as one of the most common offences there are only, at most, a handful of cases dealt with by Elections Canada after each general election).

Finally today, and I really don't know why it took me this long to make it here, I decided to see if provincial electoral laws had similar conviction/infraction patterns.  Not surprisingly, I decided to start my investigation in Newfoundland.

After quickly skimming Newfoundland's Elections Act and finding the relevant sections I made my way over to CanLII to see if any of the relevant sections have been cited in any cases in their database (I had to use this imperfect approach because unlike Elections Canada, Elections Newfoundland and Labrador does not have a section of its website that includes such information).

Anyway, the CanLII information was quite revealing.  Apparently there are no cases that cite the passage about duplicate voting (which I feel I must include here for its humour value)

193. (1) A person is guilty of an offence who, at an election,(a)  applies for a ballot in the name of some other person, whether that name is that of a person living or dead, or of a fictitious person;(b)  having voted once at that election, applies at the same election, for another ballot; (c)  votes in more than 1 electoral district; or(d)  aids, abets, counsels, procures or endeavours to procure the commission by a person of an act described in paragraph (a), (b) or (c). 

As it turns out, there weren’t even any cases citing s. 194:

194. A person is guilty of an offence who, at an election, votes or attempts to vote knowing he or she is disqualified from voting or not qualified to vote at that election.

I thought it was also noteworthy that while one of the offences common at the federal level (the failure include a statement from the official agent authorizing the publication of election material) is also against the law in Newfoundland (s. 198) it seems that that section has not been cited in any cases included in the CanLII database.  Overspending expense limits is another potential violation that has come up from time to time federally but not once provincially.

I can’t help but wonder if it is really the case that those involved in the electoral process in Newfoundland are really more law-abiding than those involved in the analogous processes federally?

Or, maybe, it’s not that the case that these infractions aren’t taking place, but that they aren’t necessarily being investigated to the same extent.  If one takes a look at the organizational chart for Elections Newfoundland and Labrador there it isn’t obvious that any of the positions mentioned would conduct investigations into such matters after an election’s results had been made official (though the Elections Act does confer such an investigatory power upon the Chief Electoral Officer, at least in relation to the examination of records relating to party or candidate finances).  And I hope I’m mistaken, but I did not see anything in the act that would conclusively give the Chief Electoral Officer the authority to investigate potential infractions committed by individuals or entities other than parties or candidates (ex. voting for a dead person).

And in case you’re curious, if you ever are found guilty of voting for a dead or fictious person the punishment can be severe. 

208. A person who is guilty of an offence under section 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198 or 199 is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both a fine and imprisonment. 209. A person who is guilty of an offence under this Part that is not an offence referred to in section 208 and for which no other penalty is specifically provided, is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months, or to both a fine and imprisonment.

So I’m not really sure where all of this gets us, but I do feel it’s at least something to know that there isn’t much evidence of Elections Newfoundland and Labrador going after people in the courts for election finance violations, advertising violations, or voting violations.

And now it's the basis of a lawsuit

You may recall that a few months ago I brought up the issue that in Newfoundland and Labrador voters were able to cast special ballots before an election had been called.

Though I didn't hear anything about this issue from any of the parties during the election, it seems that a close election result in Burin-Placentia West has lead to a lawsuit being filed on this very issue. The NDP candidate is claiming that these provisions violated the Charter.

While I have no idea how this lawsuit will play out, I am certain that this is an important issue.

Hopefully a better process will be in place before the next provincial election.

Special Ballot Application Update 2

Well, when I went out to check my mail this evening I found that my special ballot had arrived. This is actually a fair bit earlier than I expected it to arrive. It seems that the factor that I wasn't accounting for was that Elections Newfoundland and Labrador sent my ballot via Xpresspost - something that I may have to do to return it before the deadline.

Of course, my special ballot did not come with a list of candidates or parties that have candidates and as the Elections Newfoundland and Labrador website doesn't provide such information I guess I will have to rely on the party websites to know who are the candidates in my district.

Anyway, I am just glad to have the ballot with enough time to submit it before the October 5 deadline.

Another problem with the current electoral system in Newfoundland

A few posts ago I mentioned the seemingly absurd situation in Newfoundland that allows people to vote weeks before the election has even officially been called or candidates are recognized as candidates

A recent news story about one candidate breaking fundraising rules has brought another aspect of this situation to my attention. For over a month voters are voting but candidates are not allowed to raised funds and engage in a full-fledged campaign. This seems a little less than ideal.

Though it is unlikely, one could theoretically lose the election before they are even nominated or allowed to raise a dollar.

This sounds like a great system. It's like buying a lottery ticket after the numbers have been drawn.

This voting before candidates are nominated or officially fully functioning candidates thing has to stop. It just isn't reasonable to allow this type of situation to exist. Not only does it give a huge advantage to the incumbent (particularly if they are a minister), but it creates a situation where there is a huge incentive to break the rules and begin campaigning early.

Campaign Literature Update

A few days ago I mentioned that we had not yet received any campaign literature.

It seems that yesterday may have marked a turning point as we received literature from three of the four candidates. Then today I noticed that our lobby has been again filled with literature from the Liberal and Conservative candidates. Perhaps not surprisingly, we have yet to receive any literature/flyers from the Green Party candidate.

Given that we have now received flyers for two days in a row I suspect that we may be in for another batch tomorrow, and then maybe even over the weekend.

What we still haven't received are either calls from pollsters or at-the-door visits from any of the campaigns. I am starting to hope that our recently acquired campaign flyers are a sign canvassing teams are just around the corner, though this is likely a little too optimistic a stance to take.

Campaign literature aside, I really don't have much of a sense of how the race in this riding is likely to turnout. Though this has long been an NDP riding and the current incumbent is NDP the Liberal candidate really seems to be pushing quite hard and may have more signs throughout the district (and we have certainly received more campaign literature from him). On the other hand, that the Green Party and Conservative candidates are unlikely to win does seem pretty clear, at least if numbers of signs is a good indicator of likelihood of winning.

Don't look too closely, things might not be pretty

A few days ago Twitter was abuzz with complaints about Elections Canada advance polling staff not knowing many of the rules relating to acceptable forms of identification when voting. Sadly, I can't say that I was the least bit surprised that this was the case. Actually, I would have been more surprised if polling station employees had known all of the rules and had applied them properly.

I say this for two related reasons. Firstly, a few years ago my father and brother had the pleasure of working as scrutineers for a friend who was a candidate and were able to witness first hand the many errors made by polling station staff. Secondly, just a few days ago a friend of mine who will be working at a polling station for election described the training he received and the conditions under which he would be work, and lets just say that both are less than ideal.

One thing that my father, brother, and friend pointed out is that polling station employees have to put in brutally long days before they even get around to counting the votes. According to my friend, not only do the same two polling station attendees have to guard/watch the same ballot box from the time polling starts to the time it ends, they also don't get a break and need to shut down their box any time anyone needs to step away from the polling station (like when someone goes to the bathroom).

So then after already putting in a 12 or 13 hour work day these same polling station workers finally get down to counting the votes and filling out the associated forms. According to my father and brother the polling station attendants they worked with weren't particularly good at filling out these forms and sometimes didn't do it accurately. And why would they be familiar with these forms - many of them haven't filled in these forms before and those who have wouldn't have done it since the preceding election (which, in this case, was now three years ago). Of course, there are also issues relating adding and counting that could crop up under close scrutiny (so one hopes that there are scrupulous scrutineers).

Oh, and did you know how much training polling station employees have? According to my friend he received 3 hours of training. That's right, just a single three hour training session. He also suggested it wasn't a particularly effective 3 hour training session. I should note that one of the things my friend said he did learn was that in cases where the records would indicate that someone has voted but the voter claims they have not the polling station attendant is supposed to allow them to vote.

So of course given the limited training provided and that polling station employees are not overly familiar with the proper procedures and protocol and then when you throw fatigue into the mix does it surprise anyone that there are polling station employees making mistakes?

I guess I find it funny that so much time and effort has gone into policing campaign expenditures and donations yet relatively little effort seems to have been placed on ensuring that the actual voting process/vote counting process is not amenable to error or manipulation. And such issues will be come all the more important in cases where there are close races when a handful of votes actually makes a difference one way or the other.

Advance polling numbers from Election Canada

Elections Canada just released preliminary numbers on this past weekend's advance polling. It seems that close to 500 000 more people than in 2008 voted during the advance polling period (and this count doesn't include the number of special ballots that have been cast) bringing the total advance polling votes to just over 2 million.

Given that the advance polling period took place on a holiday weekend I am not sure how much of this 34.5% bump in turnout is really indicative of an overall increase in turnout, though I guess I would be a little surprised if we saw as low a rate of turnout as we saw in 2008.

The eventual overall turnout aside, I think that these advance polling numbers certainly don't pose a serious threat to the argument that holding the primary polling day on a non-working day might improve turnout/participation.

Oh, if 2008 is used as an indicator of turnout, the advance polling numbers might mean that upwards of 1/7 of the total number of votes have already been cast. I guess now I am curious to know if any polls have been conducted to figure out how these 2 million voters voted.

I should also note that I am quite pleased with Elections Canada for releasing these numbers so quickly.

Campaign Literature

We are now exactly one week from the end of this campaign period and our apartment has still not received a single piece of campaign literature or a visit from any of the local campaigns. How can this be? Are none of the parties interested in our votes/feedback?

I have also noticed that I have only seen any of this district's candidates at the various leaders' events that I have attended this campaign period. That being said, these events have provided me with opportunities to see all candidates from the major parties with the exception of the Conservative - an individual that I still haven't laid eyes on.

On a related note, just recently I realized that I don't think that Harper and the Conservatives have yet had a major campaign rally in Halifax or Nova Scotia. I have to imagine that the last week of the campaign won't be when they decided to dial up their efforts in Halifax.

Anyway, all of this to say that I don't think that it would be fair to say that Halifax has really been a battleground area this time around. I guess depending on how well the NDP do in this election this area may be a little bit more of a key area in the next election.

A Few Quick Notes 536

-Today turned out to be a pretty nice day. I guess it was fitting for Earth Day.

-Today,for the first time in quite a while, I took an afternoon nap - it was great.

-I made some chili for dinner tonight.

-As Easter is fast approaching I will soon need to start work on my Easter bread baking project. As things stand right now I will likely be taking care of most of this baking tomorrow afternoon or evening.

-Today was an advance polling day in the current Canadian election. Based on polling station reports from Neil and Rebecca and comments I have seen on Twitter I get the sense that these events were well attended. Actually, I am curious if we will ever see exactly how many people voted this way and if the numbers were higher than in past years when the advance polling day happened on a not-holiday.

-Actually, the more I think about it the more I think that voting day should be a holiday/non-work day. Such a change might also provide Canada Post of being a little more useful in terms of collecting special ballots on the final day of the election.

Internet coverage of election night

It seems that just recently some members of the media, including former member of Moxy Fruvous and current CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi, have just recently figured out that tweeting about elections results before all of the polls have closed is prohibited by the Canada Elections Act.

The most important section of this act seems to be s. 329, which would appear to pretty clearly prohibit such behaviour.

329. 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 guess what I find a little strange about this coming up now, especially coming from CBC employees, is that television and radio broadcasts produced by their employer have had staged broadcast coverage for years precisely because of this clause.  Did they fail to notice this fact during their coverage of the last election?

That being said, I think it is pretty clear that this section of the law was written without the understanding that it would restrict millions of people from engaging in everyday social media behaviour. Furthermore, given that it is almost impossible to expect 100% compliance with this law might it not make a little more sense to find a way of modifying the law so that loopholes/non-compliance don't negatively impact those who do comply with the prohibition?

This 'vote mob' thing has gone a little too far

A few weeks ago some University of Guelph students engaged in pseudo-protest/public action that they called a vote mob. As far as I can tell their action involved them standing across from a Harper/Conservative event and indicating that they, as youth, planned on voting in this election.

Since this time the 'idea' has spread across the country and other university groups have tried to engage in similar behaviours. A few days ago CBC reported on 'similar' activities that had taken place throughout the Maritimes. Then just today I saw that MUNSU has posted a video of their attempted 'vote mob.'

Since first hearing about the concept I have been a little unclear about exactly what these actions were hoping to achieve. Now, as the idea travels further and further from the originators, the connection to a goal related to voting seems increasingly unclear. For instance, what is the MUNSU thing supposed to do? If anything I suspect that a video that shows a 'vote mob' of about 30 (if that) in an otherwise empty university campus might actually confirm that youth really aren't that engaged in voting. One would think that if students were engaged in voting and the whole 'vote mob' idea Atlantic Canada's largest university could pull enough attendees to at least fill a regular classroom.

So as much as flash mobs social networking based protesting are all the rage right now I think that the Canadian university student community might actually be better off if they just forgot about the whole 'vote mob' thing for the time being, or at least until they can figure what it means or how to actually get mass participation (and this participation problem may be tied to the first problem). As it stands right now, I can't help but feel a little embarrassed for the members of these vote mobs.

Democracy in Action

As I believe I recently mentioned, on Friday I got around to casting my special ballot.

As you can see, it was a pretty special moment.



[Embedded video]

I just hope it makes it to Ottawa in time to be counted.

Campaign Events 3

Word on the tweet is that Jack Layton is at the local farmer's market at the moment. We are thinking about heading over so that we can complete the set - Opposition Leaders who aren't Gilles Duceppe.

I am no longer with Ballot

Earlier this evening I finally got around to placing my completed special ballot in the mail. Hopefully it will arrive in Ottawa in the next few days.

I am glad that my special ballot wasn't caught up in the same kind of stink that some special at the University of Guelph were earlier today. Later in the day Elections Canada confirmed that the votes that had been cast through the contested process will stand and that similar practices will be discontinued for the duration of the election.

Are elections really that onerous?

Just a few minutes ago I was listening to this morning's episode of CBC's The House, a radio show/podcast about Canadian politics, when I heard Tom Lukiwski, Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader, suggest that Canadians don't want an election.

For years I have wondered about this oft-repeated claim. Do Canadians really find elections elections distasteful? Is listening to coverage of an election and seeing election signs so troubling that Canadians would rather not experience an election at all? Maybe most troubling is that those making this claim almost never provide evidence to support their position, it is simply stated as though it is an obvious truth.

I find this claim troubling on two fronts. Firstly, elections in Canada aren't a big imposition for the average person. Aside from slightly different news coverage and a few more signs, I am not sure how most Canadians actually impacted by the process of holding an election (election outcomes are a slightly different story). Secondly, given that very few Canadians actually take the time to vote (about 59% in the last election) it seems fair to say that for many people elections don't even impose a significant time burden on much of the population (the same could even be said for most of those people who do take the time to vote). So what is it the cause of the supposed animus towards elections?

That being said, I also wonder if there is a difference of opinion about the desirability of elections between those who vote and those who don't. Off the top of my head I can't think of too many voters that I know who are too upset by the prospect of more voting. Actually, some of these voters quite like the idea of being able to exercise their right to vote more than once every four years. If this is the case and we have such low rates of participation is it really fair to speak about 'Canadians' as a whole and not disaggregate those who won't participate no matter how infrequently elections are held?

Maybe, and this seems the likely answer to the riddle, when politicians say that Canadians don't want an election what they actually mean is "We don't want an election." Unlike the average voter in a Canadian election, politicians and political parties do face substantial burdens because of elections. Not only do they have to campaign and fundraise, many of these people also face the possibility of losing their jobs. Calling an election a year before necessary is a non-trivial matter, in some cases it could means hundreds of thousands of dollars in future pension earnings, or a loss of control of the legislative agenda.

Anyway, though I don't expect to settle any of this definitively here, I guess I just wish that in the future when politicians make such claims that the journalists present would request that they provide evidence to support their claims, or otherwise justify them. As it stands now far too many politicians are allowed to get away with making this questionable claim on a relatively regular basis.

A Few Quick Notes 509

-We experienced something of a temperature drop today. When I woke up this morning it wasn't far away from zero and it is now -11. At times throughout the day we even had the pleasure of catching a few flurries.

-Though I didn't plan on it, I did manage to hear a little of tonight's Sloan show. For better or worse, I was only able to hear somewhat muffled music only when I had my window open and only when the wind temporarily died down. Consequently, I didn't get as much out of tonight's show as I did last night's show.

Much to my surprise, my video of last night's attempted 'flash mob' now has more than 800 views. I am a little surprised that it has become such a popular video, though it does seem to be one of the view videos to have yet been uploaded of the event.

-Tomorrow night Peter and I will be going to see St. John's band Hey Rosetta! I feel a little embarrassed that when you consider how long they have been around and that I went to high school with the frontman that I have never seen these guys perform and that my the first show of theirs that I will see is a free show. I guess better late than never, or something like that.

-Earlier this evening, while poking around on the internet, I happened to find a newly released short film starring a good friend of Neil's, Andrew. What I found particularly amazing about my discovery is that not only did I happen upon Andrew's YouTube channel today, but today was the day he posted this film. If you wan to see it can be found below.



[Embedded video]

Oh, and this film was directed by Republic of Doyle's Des.

-It seems that the Humber West by-election has lead to the election of the PC candidate.

Score
Cameron 41
Neil 0

West Coast By-election

Just few days ago I learned that a acquaintance ours, Rosie Myers, is running for the NDP in the by-election in Humber West to replace the recently departed Danny Williams. This has made the by-election a little more interesting.

It seems that the results just started to come in and will continued to come in for the next while. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Elections Newfoundland and Labrador even has a live elections results page. (At the moment only one polling station has reported any results).

Anyway, some will probably suggest that this by-election is an early test of the Dunderdale administration and the post-Danny PCs.

I never know how to understand by-elections, there is just so much that can be going on that they seem hard to decisively read.

Anyway, no matter what happens people will surely have plenty to say about the results.

Score
Cameron 40
Neil 0