Fone Fraud: The Solution

Since most Canadians aren’t believing the Conservative mudslinging and lies associated with Robo-call scandal, the prospect of anyone believing anything they get via phone calls in future elections become close to nil.

However, my bet is that the Conservatives (and possibly other parties) will still test these waters, regardless of existing or future implications.

With this in mind, there’s an astoundingly simple way that we can ensure that Canadians can identify who’s calling them during elections.

It’s called opting in.  Political parties, pollsters and other operatives related to any election would have to receive the permission of the person on the other end before making a call.

While the CRTC has a ‘do not call’ list, it is only applicable to corporations and other specific organizations.  Interestingly enough, these rules do not apply to political parties or charities.

It’s time those rules were changed.

Since Elections Canada and the CRTC probably lack the fortitude (and budgets) to establish these new databases, it will be up to the non-Conservative parties to take the high road and institute their own ‘do not call’ registries for all Canadians, along with necessary tracking associated with the calls that were made to either confirm these requests or willingness to receive future calls.

The technology exists to do this and I know of at least two parties that track ALL requests associated with calls and human interactions.

From that point on, those that take the high road will be able to point to anyone they’ve called, what the purpose of that call was and what the response was.

By process of elimination, we’ll know that the Conservatives will be finally caught in their own webs.

Which reminds me:  is it any wonder the candidate in Jack Layton’s riding got blown out of the water?