Friday, September 12, 2008

Campaigning should not be dangerous!


In the heat of an election campaign, this may be considered old news as it was posted 18 hours or so ago, but I think it bears being highlighted again.

Garth Turner’s blog for Day 5, posted late last night, describes some of the intimidation tactics that are being used against him and his family in response to his campaign. Anonymous threats, vandalism, electronic tampering – all very frightening and worrisome. Like the Guelph incident, there is as yet no proof that this behaviour originates from any particular party or its supporters, but as I posted a few days ago, it would not be surprising to find some impressionable neanderthal responding to Harper’s compulsive hatred of all things Liberal with this sort of behaviour.

Let’s just hope that before they progress beyond making threats these morons are caught and dealt with to the maximum extent of the law for what really amounts to hate crimes based on political beliefs.

And it wouldn't hurt to have all party leaders make a clear and unambiguous statement that this behaviour is not only not acceptable but it's criminal and anyone caught will be charged, along with anyone who has directed or otherwise encouraged such behaviour.

It needs to stop. Now!



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think it's fair at this stage to blame the Cons. After all, it is Garth you're talking about, and alot of people dislike him. In Winnipeg where I live, there's always signs that are trashed and vandalized. It usually comes down to some bored teenagers.

Canajun said...

Anonymous:
I'm not blaming the Cons. What I am saying though is that their continued aggressive belligerence against anything Liberal (or liberal) creates an environment in which such behaviour can be seen to be acceptable by some marginal members of society. It remains to be seen who is actually responsible, but this seems a little more focussed and better organized than simply the work of some "bored teenagers" who, on the spur of the moment, wipe out some signs.