This Is What (A) 'Democracy' (Centre) Looks Like.

AllTheTrainingThatFits

EthicalVoterSuppressionVille

If this is for real which, according to Dave, we have no reason to think that it is not, this is much, much worse than anyone has imagined so far.

From Monday March 5th's 'Letters to the Editor' page of The Globe and Mail:

In January, 2010, my UVic inbox had an e-mail invite from a democracy centre to attend a campaign school. Intrigued, I signed up for the three-day event.

Topics covered included voter identification. Discussion ensued about suppression techniques. Instructors explained voter suppression tactics were borrowed from those used by the U.S. Republican Party. Many kinds of suppression calls were canvassed. Another instructor gave detailed explanations of how robo-calls worked, techniques for recording messages, plus costs involved. He distributed his business card upon request.

Instructors made it clear that robo-calling and voter suppression were an acceptable and normal part of winning political campaigns. With election ethics like this, a more compelling case for changing to a system of proportional representation where each and every vote counts is hard to imagine.

John Fryer, adjunct professor, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria

Just think about that for a moment.

If people were actually being taught that voter suppression is an acceptable and normal way to 'win'....

Well?

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