The Shameful Disgrace Behind The RoboCall Scandal

A hypocrite is someone who is defined as pretending to have values, morals or principles that they don’t actually possess or live. A politician is defined as someone engaged in politics and as someone who acts in a manipulative and malicious way usually to gain advancement.

If anything more clearly demonstrates that both of these definitions are alive and well in government, it is surely the RoboCon scandal in Canada. The level of political hypocrisy has become so repugnant it is threatening to deflect attention from the issue itself and redirect it to the disgraceful response by politicians on all sides of the political divide.

Just a week ago, Bob Rae interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, apologized for the behavior of one Liberal staff member for VikiLeaks, a dirty little smear campaign by a rogue employee of the Liberal Party. I believe Mr. Rae’s apology was sincere and that he, as leader, knew nothing about the staffer’s activity. He clearly expected the Conservatives to believe that when he apologized. It did not, however, prevent Mr. Rae from attacking the Prime Minister for the very same thing he just denied applied to himself



Liberal Party Interim Leader Bob Rae

“The prime minister has created a Nixonian culture. This stuff doesn't happen unless the boss lets it happen. He has allowed to seep into his party and into his organization a culture of attack and, frankly, a culture of deception and dirty tricks..."

NDP Member Pat Martin has been so careless with his accusations and vitriolic that he is now being sued by RackNine for defamation, a lawsuit that Mr. Martin dismisses as an attempt to shut him up. Exactly! It is more than an attempt; it is a desperate move to put some sense of responsibility back into the issue. Mr. Martin has no evidence whatsoever that RackNine has done anything improper or illegal but it hasn’t prevented him from smearing the company with careless innuendo and defamatory labels like “RackNine rascals” in attempt to further his self-serving attack on the Conservatives.



For their part, the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper have conducted themselves with no more dignity or integrity. Instead of taking a leadership role in uncovering the truth of what happened and working cooperatively with all parties the paty has done the usual circle the wagons defense and then counterattack strategy. They have hurled outrageously stupid accusations back at the opposition parties that border on lunacy. It almost makes you believe their political strategies are developed by children who have too much sugar in their systems.



Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

 It is an ongoing disgrace and an overwhelming insult to Canadians and to our democracy.

Our electoral system has long been demeaned by cynical political parties who promise much during campaigns and deliver little but more of the same inefficiency, lack of vision and hypocrisy once elected. Now our electoral system, our very democracy, is being attacked by those who believe our right to vote is merely one more commodity to be manipulated on the way to victory.

What are our politicians doing about it? Nothing!

They pontificate, they yell across the floor at each other in the House of Commons and they strut their arrogant self-righteous rhetoric before the public at every televised opportunity they can arrange but in the end, they are doing nothing of any real value.

The simple truth is that there isn’t one politician sitting in the house who really gives a tinker’s damn about our democracy. RoboCon is a ‘made in Heaven’ opportunity for the opposition parties to advance their political agenda against the government while to the government it is just one more attack to be deflected. Nobody really cares about what RoboCon or the subsequent gamesmanship that is now going on is actually doing to our society, our government or to our democracy. It's all about winning political points.

Far from demonstrating that they are interested in discovering the truth, the actions and words of all politicians are undermining what little confidence Canadians had left in their democratic processes and the integrity of government. If the only response politicians can offer when our right to free and fair elections is under attack is more partisan name-calling and unproven accusations protected by parliamentary privilege, what use are they?

Automated calling systems are used by all political parties. The misuse of it as appears to be the case in the 2011 election has serious repercussions for the integrity of our elections and, therefore, our democracy. Anyone and everyone involved in voter fraud should be charged and punished to the full extent of the law. That is something all political parties should be working cooperatively towards.

Instead, we are given just more of the same self-serving partisanship because our electoral system has been hijacked by those to whom it was entrusted. Political parties, their politicians, staffers and backroom strategists have turned our elections into little more than a game in which they treat voters as little more than the pieces to be manipulated and moved around the board at their discretion. It is this attitude by all politicians and their parties that have led to corruption like AdScam, VikiLeaks and now RoboCon.

I'm tired and more than a little disgusted by the self-righteous rantings of members of Parliament like Pat Martin and the simpering hypocrisy of NDP Interim-leader Nicole Turmel. I'm tired of the folksy, dishonest arrogance of Liberal Interim Libear Leader Bob Rae and I am tired of Prime Minister Stephen Harper putting his viscious partisanship ahead of the welfare of the country.

If nothing else, RoboCon has demonstrated once again how little respect politicians and their parties have for the people they claim to represent and the Parliament in which they sit. It demonstrates once again how little integrity and decency they bring to politics and to the people's government.

Politicians claim to represent us but they don't. They don't share our values. That is the real meaning of RoboCon and it is nothing less than a disgrace.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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