Guelph, Grimsby, leadnow.ca and Robocalls

[Guest Derek L]

So after following the “robocall scandal”, and reading about the lead now.ca online campaign , I decided to do a little research on Leadnow….All the well adjusting to daylight savings and watching Raiders of the lost Ark.

This is what I've found so far:

http://leadnow.ca/en/about

The Campaigns Director is a fellow named Matthew Carroll. Now Matthew Carroll, per their website, lives in Grimsby, Ontario. Grimsby, Ontario, per Google Maps is about an hours drive from Guelph Ontario....Is that enough tin-foil for you?

Well if you go down to their list of advisors, we'll find the following:

Ben Brandzel – Int'l practitioner & trainer in online organizing; Former Director of New Media for Barack Obama, Founding Adviser/Board Member of 38Degrees.org.uk and Avaaz.org, Advocacy Director for MoveOn.org

Robin Sears – Partner, Navigator Ltd (Strategic Communications); Former Nat'l Campaign Director, NDP

Judy Rebick – Journalist, author, political activist and feminist; Founding Publisher Rabble.ca, Former Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University

Ian Capstick – Owner, MediaStyle.ca; Former Press Secretary to Jack Layton, Frequent Media Commentator

And this fellow:

Jamie Biggar is Leadnow's Exective Director. He has a background in large-scale online and offline collaboration to develop policy and campaigns. He has co-led online campaigns, such as Canadians for a Progressive Coalition and It’s Time to Listen, that involved tens of thousands of Canadians from across party lines. He began organizing in the youth climate movement, co-founding Common Energy and goBeyond to bring university communities across British Columbia together to catalyze regional climate action. Jamie’s academic research has focused on the need for institutional and governance innovation to address seemingly intractable social, ecological and economic problems. He has served on the boards of multiple environmental, social justice, and educational organizations, including his service as Chairman of the Sierra Club of BC.

Now are all these people really concerned with Canadian Democracy, or just opposing and discrediting the Conservative Government? I’m truly shocked they have a relationship with a former MoveOn.org and Obama media director……Perhaps the source of the American robocalls?

I guess we’ll find out more in the days and weeks ahead….

[scribblet]

They are not concerned about democracy at all IMO, they are just wetting their panties at the thought of another election so are using this to push this issue, as they believe they will benefit from the 'scandal'.

Of course, the 'Americanization' of politics only happens when it's the conservatives -

I actually sent an email from the leadnow website, but changed their form content of course it went through cos I got an robo response from guess who - yup - Elizabeth May.

[Guest Derek L]

They are not concerned about democracy at all IMO, they are just wetting their panties at the thought of another election so are using this to push this issue, as they believe they will benefit from the 'scandal'.

Of course, the 'Americanization' of politics only happens when it's the conservatives -

I actually sent an email from the leadnow website, but changed their form content of course it went through cos I got an robo response from guess who - yup - Elizabeth May.

Could you imagine if the CPC listed Karl Rove as an advisor?

[Guest Derek L]

And it goes further....

From Matthew Carroll's own webpage:

http://carroll.org.uk/about

Matthew has worked for and volunteered with Leadnow.ca, the British Columbia Provincial Government (Ministry of Environment), Sierra Youth Coalition, Youth Environment Network, Rising Tide, Climate Outreach Information Network, C-Change, University of Guelph, University of British Columbia, Free The Children, and the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition among others, and has served as a trustee for Woodcraft Folk and a council member for Energy Action Coalition. In 2005 he co-founded itsgettinghotinhere.org, Dispatches from the Global Youth Climate Movement, and has received the Crest Gold Award for science and technology research, the Millennium Volunteers award of excellence, and a Dr Bessie F. Lawrence ISSI Scholarship. In his spare time Matthew loves rock climbing, ski-mountaineering, singing, and eating cherries straight from the tree with no hands at his wife‘s 7th-generation fruit farm.

Hmmmmm....time to break out the Reynolds Wrap®

[jacee]

The Campaigns Director is a fellow named Matthew Carroll. Now Matthew Carroll, per their website, lives in Grimsby, Ontario. Grimsby, Ontario, per Google Maps is about an hours drive from Guelph Ontario....Is that enough tin-foil for you?

This is Southern Ontario. Grimsby's an hour from half a dozen cities.

What's your point?

[waldo]

This is Southern Ontario. Grimsby's an hour from half a dozen cities. What's your point?

well... he is following a pattern, the originator/OP title does include homage to "Pure tin foil". We read the two boosters hard bent on drilling for an, 'Americanization angle', with an added bonus drawing attachments to environmental groups. Clearly the thread orginator was firing on all his googly cylinders!

but never look a gift-horse in the mouth, hey? The real Americanization of the 2011 election, not some imagined tin foil hattery, was already touched upon in the main MLW RoboCon thread.

Conservative MPs used U.S.-based telemarketers - Calls masked to hide Ohio origins

CBC News has learned that more than a dozen Conservative MPs employed U.S.-based political telemarketing firms during the last federal election campaign, contrary to Stephen Harper’s statement in Parliament this week.

The prime minister and his parliamentary secretary, Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro, claimed in the Commons that the Liberals were the only party that used American calling firms.

But documents show

14 Conservative campaigns

enlisted the telephone services of an Ohio company called

Front Porch Strategies

.

A source connected to Front Porch tells CBC News that all the calls from Ohio to Del Mastro’s riding during the election were

programmed to show the telephone number of his local campaign headquarters, masking the fact the phoning was being done from Ohio.

Front Porch’s calls to 13 other ridings on behalf of Conservative candidates operated in the same way, the source said.

just who are these Front Porch guys, anyway! Robo-calls: Tory MPs used top U.S. Republican firm during May election

Front Porch has worked for the top echelons of the Republican Party, including George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, Mitt Romney during his bid for the 2008 nomination and the Republican National Committee. The firm has been especially active in trying to overturn the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that ensures a woman’s right to abortion.

In an interview, Duff Conacher, on the board of Democracy Watch, said American companies shouldn’t be involved in Canadian elections. “It’s legal to engage the services of anyone you want during an election campaign but it’s very disturbing to see the Conservative Party using companies with these kinds of partisan (Republican) ties.”

Ron Shaiko, a senior fellow at the Rockefeller Centre at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College, tracks get-out-vote techniques as well as “voter suppression” in the U.S.

“In the U.S. the people who work to suppress voter turnout are the Republicans for a simple reason,’ he said. “Historically, the lower the turnout, the better it is for Republicans. High turnout means Democratic wins.”

it's quite telling that the OP tries to equate leadnow's voluntary online form submission option to RoboCon tactics. Quite telling, indeed!

[mentalfloss]

Yea, maybe we should worry about Republicans taking over our democracy instead a few pundits creating a website, lol

Edited March 12, 2012 by mentalfloss

[PIK]

What a joke, the 10's of people that went out to show more fake rage ,made me laugh. The left have really done it self in this time, saying that harper is just as bad honsi mubarak (SP). I really hope some people on the left are down right embarressed by this display and try to end it. This is all about a new election, the left just can't accept they are not wanted anymore.

[olpfan1]

Nice attempt at damage control Derek .. but the other cpc lemmings have been conplaining about leadnow & avaaz for a week and a half

[PIK]

I see nothing on the fact that it was cons that started tweeting about the attacks on con members in guelph. It seems that they were tweeting 1st about phone calls to con supporters, why do we not hear more about that?

[Tilter]

I see nothing on the fact that it was cons that started tweeting about the attacks on con members in guelph. It seems that they were tweeting 1st about phone calls to con supporters, why do we not hear more about that?

Just another "green" organization to print more crap & cut down a bunch of trees for the paper.

[Guest Derek L]

Nice attempt at damage control Derek .. but the other cpc lemmings have been conplaining about leadnow & avaaz for a week and a half

I’m not complaining about them, since there has been zero evidence to suggest that they’ve done anything wrong……….The same can be said for the CPC and Guelph and the entire Robocall scandal in general, but that’s hardly stopped speculation.

You don’t find it odd that the head of LeadNow has ties to the very same University that Sona “stole” a ballot box from?

Using some more Google-Fu, I stumbled upon this Commentary piece by the Executive Director of LeadNow (Which was “created in March ‘11), released just over a year ago:

Jamie Biggar: Will spring federal election bring democratic despair or regeneration?

By Jamie Biggar, March 24, 2011

So it’s almost official: we’re having a spring election in Canada. Will this be an election that makes Canadians despair for the state of their politics? Or, can we begin to regenerate our democracy?

Hmmmm

The despair scenario is so painful because the stakes are high. Our country faces major and complex challenges. To pick two, how do we respond to massive environmental destruction and growing inequality? How do we address these issues in the context of a shifting global economy? Can a country that is divided and discouraged by its politics rise to these challenges, or the others like them?

His foresight is telling……..

We often talk about the importance of democracy only as an end unto itself. It’s worth thinking about the value of democracy as a means to a broader set of ends. Our democracy is how we agree to work together on issues that people care about. We need a healthy democracy to build support for shared action. We need a healthy democracy to make good choices that respect the diversity of values and interests in our society.

This election is an opportunity to start creating a new kind of politics. The kind of change we need goes farther and deeper then just substituting one leader for another, or one party for another. We need to enrich our democracy and create avenues for more meaningful participation.

Who really would gain from the RoboCall scandal? The “establishment” (CPC/LPC/NDP) or these new “End of Itself” politkers looking for a “new democracy”……….Pass the tin foil

[Battletoads]

Are these really the best damage control talking points the cons can come up with? Oh no, the opposition is taking advantage of con duplicity! The horror!

[Guest Derek L]

Are these really the best damage control talking points the cons can come up with? Oh no, the opposition is taking advantage of con duplicity! The horror!

Con talking points? Not at all, I also doubt the Federal Liberals or the NDP establishment has anything directly to do with this “scandal” either…………This, coupled with Anonymous, the Occupy movement and radical environmentalists, reeks of a good old fashioned Communist insurrection aimed at shaking the foundations of our democracy and society in general.

[Battletoads]

Con talking points? Not at all, I also doubt the Federal Liberals or the NDP establishment has anything directly to do with this “scandal” either…………This, coupled with Anonymous, the Occupy movement and radical environmentalists, reeks of a good old fashioned Communist insurrection aimed at shaking the foundations of our democracy and society in general.

Not the commies!

[Guest Derek L]

Not the commies!

Yup, the freedom hating, baby & puppy killing Commies

[capricorn]

So after following the “robocall scandal”, and reading about the lead now.ca online campaign , I decided to do a little research on Leadnow….All the well adjusting to daylight savings and watching Raiders of the lost Ark.

---

Now are all these people really concerned with Canadian Democracy, or just opposing and discrediting the Conservative Government? I’m truly shocked they have a relationship with a former MoveOn.org and Obama media director……Perhaps the source of the American robocalls?

Speaking of a plan to remove the Conservatives from government, seems NDP wannabe leader Nathan Cullen is getting a lot of help from his friends at leadnow and Avaaz.

Two online advocacy organizations are giving a potentially big boost to Nathan Cullen's underdog campaign to become federal NDP leader.

Avaaz and Leadnow.ca are promoting more co-operation among Canada's "progressive" political forces to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

And they're urging their members — almost 700,000 strong — to join federal opposition parties in a bid to influence their agendas, including their choice of leader.

Both have launched massive email campaigns over the last week, reminding their members that they must join the NDP by midnight Saturday to be eligible to vote for that party's next leader.

Since Cullen is the only one of seven NDP leadership hopefuls to fully embrace the idea of co-operation with rival parties, he stands to be the primary beneficiary of the online campaigns.

Cullen has proposed holding joint nomination meetings with Liberals and Greens in Tory-held ridings as the best way to ensure defeat of Harper's Conservatives in the next election.

The idea has been flatly rejected by rival candidates and greeted coolly by NDP rank and file. But the online groups represent an enormous potential pool of new support for Cullen.

Youth-led Leadnow.ca boasts a membership of 80,000 — roughly the same as the NDP's membership at the start of the seven-month leadership campaign. Avaaz has more than 13 million members worldwide, 604,547 of them in Canada.

"These two groups coming on board is huge for us," Cullen, a British Columbia MP, said in an interview.

"They have networks that go far, far beyond normal party structures. ... The sheer number, that's absolutely staggering."

Before launching their campaigns, both groups polled their members and say they found overwhelming support (95 per cent) for the notion of co-operation among progressive political forces.

--

Similar social media campaigns are credited with helping to vault Barack Obama into the U.S. presidency and Naheed Nenshi into the mayor's chair in Calgary.

--

Cullen said he senses that resistance to joint nominations is "softening a bit." The Avaaz and Leadnow.ca online campaigns may further persuade NDP militants that there's a market for the idea.

"What they're endorsing is an idea and it's showing other candidates in this race and my party and other parties that there's a population out there that wants to see something done."

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/cullen-gets-social-media-boost-for-co-operation-among-opposition-parties--139540393.html

Are leadnow and Avaaz using Cullen as a puppet to further their agenda of replacing the Conservatives by any means and at any cost? Or is Cullen a willing participant and nurturing the ties he has to these organizations as a path to the top NDP job? These are important questions since Cullen may end up the next Leader of the Opposition. My NDP friends should take note.

[Guest Derek L]

Speaking of a plan to remove the Conservatives from government, seems NDP wannabe leader Nathan Cullen is getting a lot of help from his friends at leadnow and Avaaz.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/cullen-gets-social-media-boost-for-co-operation-among-opposition-parties--139540393.html

Are leadnow and Avaaz using Cullen as a puppet to further their agenda of replacing the Conservatives by any means and at any cost? Or is Cullen a willing participant and nurturing the ties he has to these organizations as a path to the top NDP job? These are important questions since Cullen may end up the next Leader of the Opposition. My NDP friends should take note.

Interesting find Capricorn………The NDP being the victims of Communist subversion tactics………Perhaps we should also dig deeper into the useful idiots of the Environmental movement and their opposition of the tar sands……….

Clearly back in the 80s it was found that many of the environmental & no-Nukes groups were funded by the USSR……..Look at the situation today………Who would really benefit from the obstruction of North American fossil fuel production, unrest in the fossil fuel rich Middle East and the inherent rise in the price of fuel………..Why the other fuel rich, Northern Hemisphere producer………Putin’s (former head of the KGB) Russia, which has its Empire’s revitalization plan pegged on the cost of oil & natural gas.

Better Dead than Red

[waldo]

Are these really the best damage control talking points the cons can come up with?

can't you tell the OP is conflicted? He's struggling finding the right balance; on one hand posturing over his determined, 'innocence for all', declaration... on the other hand beavering away to impress the Americanization by leadnow, to selectively emphasize aspects of leadnow associate's past affiliations and writings and to wrap it all under shiny tin foil. Of course, the tin foil is a classic detractor's move... it gives him the 'out' to claim he wasn't serious; that he wasn't actually enabling tin foil conspiracy... he was simply playing its devil's advocate!

what's this - the enabler wants to add a few more layers of tin foil! Putin!!!

[Guest Derek L]

can't you tell the OP is conflicted? He's struggling finding the right balance; on one hand posturing over his determined, 'innocence for all', declaration... on the other hand beavering away to impress the Americanization by leadnow, to selectively emphasize aspects of leadnow associate's past affiliations and writings and to wrap it all under shiny tin foil. Of course, the tin foil is a classic detractor's move... it gives him the 'out' to claim he wasn't serious; that he wasn't actually enabling tin foil conspiracy... he was simply playing its devil's advocate!

what's this - the enabler wants to add a few more layers of tin foil! Putin!!!

Struggling? I won’t be once my official Glen Beck chalkboard arrives.

[Shady]

I wouldn't characterize this as American style politics, but Saul Alinsky style politics. So it doesn't suprise me that there's Obama and MoveOn.org officials involved.

[capricorn]

Interesting find Capricorn………The NDP being the victims of Communist subversion tactics………

It should be a concern to all parties.

Here's another gem.

There are only two problems facing those who want an "electoral coalition" to defeat the Stephen Harper Conservatives in the next election. It's undemocratic. And it won't work.

Despite that, social media group Leadnow.ca is promoting efforts for the New Democratic, Liberal and Green parties to "cooperate" to field a single alternative candidate to defeat the federal Conservatives in key ridings and end the Harper government.

And Internet activist group Avaaz.org goes one step farther, even advocating in an email that its supporters consider joining the Conservative Party to oppose Harper policies from the inside, as well as join the other parties to push to "make democracy work."

Both groups support NDP leadership candidate Nathan Cullen's idea that the NDP hold joint nominating meetings with the Liberals and Green Party in Conservative-held ridings for the 2015 election.

Despite their enthusiasm, the electoral cooperation approach has failed repeatedly in the past, most recently in last year's vote that saw Harper win his first majority.

--

Using dubious scare tactics to force Canadians to accept lowest common denominator politics is reprehensible.

What Harper is doing is highly objectionable to those who voted against him. But the Conservatives earned a mandate in an election where strategic voting to block them was widely advocated and failed.

And these groups forget about right-wing policies held by both the Liberals and Greens -- both are deemed "progressive" -- because they aren't Conservatives. Many NDP voters don't share that perspective.

It's as if these groups effectively want to create a new centrist political party out of the three existing and quite different ones.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/02/21/Against-The-Coalition/

The enemy within.

[Guest Derek L]

I wouldn't characterize this as American style politics, but Saul Alinsky style politics. So it doesn't suprise me that there's Obama and MoveOn.org officials involved.

Let's not forget George Soros and Adbusters......

[waldo]

I wouldn't characterize this as American style politics, but Saul Alinsky style politics. So it doesn't suprise me that there's Obama and MoveOn.org officials involved.

channeling Newt now, hey! It really was quite comical that after the first debate where 'the Newt' dropped the 'Saul Alinsky' name, pundits far and wide scrambled to find out just who the guy was! So now, of course, he's a ShadyTalkingPoint!

[Guest Derek L]

It should be a concern to all parties.

Here's another gem.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/02/21/Against-The-Coalition/

The enemy within.

Oooohhhh.......This gem:

So far an online poll by Leadnow called “Cooperate for Canada” has accumulated about 15,000 signatures calling on the NDP, Liberals and Greens to cooperate in key ridings to defeat the Conservatives. The NDP membership is expected to easily top 100,000 as of the Feb. 18 cut off date to be able to vote in the leadership contest.

"During the next election, the NDP, Liberals and Greens can cooperate in key ridings to defeat Stephen Harper's government, and then pass electoral reform to make Canada's democracy work better for everyone," Leadnow says.