Elections Canada Should Investigate Voter Manipulation

Why is it that so many reports of voter manipulation come in against Conservatives and other related parties, like the United Conservative Party in Alberta?

What’s behind their modus operandi that compels them to cheat?

This story from the CBC is a great example of voter fraud and manipulation being spearheaded by a number of different groups that pretend to be proud of Canada, all the while trying to drag us back into the dark ages of coal and carbon production.

The group Canada Action has been one of the biggest spenders; it spent an estimated $21,000 on Facebook ads, most of them decrying the blockades by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters.

The group Proud to Be Canadian, part of the Canada Strong and Proud network of third-party groups, spent an estimated $4,400 on the ads, according to data obtained from the Facebook political ad library.

While the groups position themselves as grassroots campaigns in their marketing, they have ties to energy companies and conservative-leaning political groups.

Ads in support of the protests, mostly purchased by small activist groups, were viewed about 350,000 times by Facebook users. These groups collectively spent about $3,000 on the ads.

Another big buyer of ads opposing the blockades is Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole. His campaign ran 30 ads, in both languages, at an estimated cost of $14,000. Other leadership candidates, including Peter MacKay, Rick Peterson and Marilyn Gladu, also ran ads pushing their opposition to the protests.

Here are some of the spending amounts calculated by the CBC:

To add fuel to the fire, many of these groups are inadvertently (or maybe intentionally?) provoking memes against First Nations people and their supporters, including chants of racism and terrorism.

‘Astroturfing’ – the intentional manipulation and deception of voters created by buying ads through popular networks, be they social media, TV networks or magazines – should be banned on all fronts.

Ultimately, the only terrorists in this country are those that refuse to accept science and common sense as guiding principles and those who want to interfere with the lives of others because some ‘sky watcher’ known as God told them to do so.

Hate is an unacceptable way to drive your politics.

Find a better core or we will all wind up suffering for your stupidity and short-sightedness.