The deceptive Tory retreat on the elections bill, and the corporate media's sleeping pill

Yesterday the Conservative Party announced changes to their reactionary elections legislation. Here Darrell Rankin, leader of the CPC Manitoba, calls for continued mobilization and action in a message to Manitoba activists. This note has been edited.

By Darrell Rankin,
Special to Rebel Youth

We need to challenge the media spin that the Tory amendments address our real concerns.

I've looked at the amendments. The Tories are trying to appear they are listening.

But they are still mutilating the principle of one-person, one vote. They have backed down on allowing the winning party to appoint officials who count the ballots. (This may have come back to bite them in 2015.) But the main problem is not fixed.

Perhaps hundreds of thousands of Canadians will still be disenfranchised, most of them people who do not support the parties of big business -- Aboriginal people, women and seniors, the poor and disabled, youth and students.

Protests demand Fix or scrap "Fair Elections Act”

A member of the YCL being arrested at a
recent anti-Harper protest action in Vancouver

 Canadian Federation of Students

Canadians rallied at over 25 Conservative MP offices today to oppose the government’s proposed changes to election law and tell their MPs to “Let People Vote!”

Citizens delivered an 80,000-strong petition that opposes the unnecessarily strict voter ID requirements that could stop hundreds of thousands from voting in the next election, and calls for election fraud investigators to be given the power to compel political operatives to testify.

The “Let People Vote!” national day of action was supported and facilitated by Leadnow.ca, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Federation of Students.