[LINK] "Fear the People"

[rfmcdonald]

James Bow is decidedly unimpressed with the Conservative Party's efforts to control their party's electoral campaign. I have to admit to being impressed by these efforts; clearly, they care, a lot.

A few days ago, 19-year-old London Ontario resident Awish Aslam decided to take a interest in this current election. As she was voting for the first time in her life, she set out to examine the parties closely, attend their rallies and speak to their candidates before making up her mind. Michael Ignatieff happened to come to town soon after the election was called. She came out to his rally, met the man, and had her photograph taken with him — a photo which appeared on her Facebook page. She also managed to get her picture taken with Jack Layton, but this didn’t feature quite as prominently.

Hearing that Stephen Harper was coming to town, she decided to attend his rally. With the help of a friend’s father, a card-carrying Conservative, she registered for the event. But when she and her friend showed up, she was in for a surprise:

About 30 minutes after arriving and signing in, the two girls were asked by a man to follow him out of the rally, Aslam said. Though confused, they complied.

In a back room, Aslam said he ripped off their name tags, tore them up and ordered them out.

“We were confused. He said, ‘We know you guys have ties to the Liberal party through Facebook’. He said … ‘You are no longer welcome here.’”

It’s important to note that this account is hearsay; for now, it’s her word against the rally organizers, although campaign official Dimitri Soudis has offered a pre-emptory apology. However, since this incident came to light, separate but similar incidents have also been reported, suggesting a pattern of behaviour within the Conservative party. At the same London rally, Ali Aref Hamadi was asked to leave simply because he had an NDP bumper sticker on his car (it’s not known whether Tory operatives confronted him as he left his vehicle, suggesting that they were stalking the parking lot for such attendees, or if it was the fact that his face was on another bumper sticker — he’s considering running as an independent in the upcoming provincial election — allowed the Conservative staffers to identify him in the rally itself; personally, I’m not sure which option is more sinister). In Guelph, students hoping to stage a non-partisan event (delivering a message saying “Surprise! Youth are voting!”) were also identified and asked to leave the venue. Another young woman, who said she just wanted to hear Stephen Harper speak, claimed she was turned away when screening by the RCMP turned up evidence of her work with the environmental group, the Sierra Youth Coalition.

The other parties are starting to make a lot of hay out of this, especially in light of the continuing scandal of Bruce Carson, an advisor to the Prime Minister, gaining access to high level documents despite convictions for five counts of fraud. The Prime Minister seems to like to keep his political rallies far more secure than his own political office, they said.

But the core of this story is this: you apparently have to register to attend a political rally held by the Conservative party these days, during a political campaign where, theoretically at least, Conservative politicians like Stephen Harper want to talk to Canadians to secure their vote. The Liberals don’t have this restriction. The NDP’s Jack Layton showed up with his bus in downtown Kitchener the other day, and I’m pretty sure that if I’d chosen to, I could have walked up, shaken his hand, and asked him a tough question about vote splitting.

Go, read.