Michael Moore: on tour with the NDP
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Michael Moore showed up at an all-candidates debate in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, “where he knocked on doors with the NDP candidate and mocked the local Conservative candidate”.
National Post writer Pete Vere says he was there because he lives in the riding and, “as an undecided voter I felt the debate presented a wonderful opportunity to question local candidates”.
What was Moore doing in The Soo?
“Moore was tight-lipped when I approached him,” says the story. “He was working on a movie, in colour and under two hours long. Beyond that he does not comment on his films while they are in production, he said.”
The problem?
“Last week, the Conservatives issued a statement questioning whether Moore and NDP incumbent Tony Martin violated the Canada Elections Act by hitting the hustings together in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont,” says the Canadian Press, continuing:
” ‘This canvassing appears to be a violation of the Canada Elections Act, which clearly states that only Canadians can actively participate in a Canadian election,’ a Tory statement read.”
Damn! – eh?
But not so fast.
Moore states flatly the Conservative charges are nonsense.
In a statement published in SooToday.com, “I called Elections Canada to report an attempt by a Conservative Party candidate to violate Canadian Election Law,” says Moore, continuing »»»
Last week, before entering Canada to film the Canadian election process with my documentary crew, we were invited by Ross’s campaign manager, Ian Shields, to go ‘door-to-door campaigning’ with Cameron Ross. We agreed. (I have sworn affidavits of two people to this conversation.)
But when the time came to follow Ross around after a local debate, he suddenly bolted out a side door and disappeared. Stranded and not knowing what to do, we were approached by one of Ross’s opponents, Tony Martin of the NDP (and the incumbent MP). He felt sorry for us and said we could film him going door-to-door instead. We did not know this man, but he seemed to be a normal Canadian who, I guess, was just being kind and polite to us lost and clueless Americans.
So my crew followed Mr. Martin into a neighborhood. The crew went with him to less than a dozen houses filming and merely observing his door-to-door campaigning. I did not join them. Rather, I stayed in the van, still sulking over the snub by the Conservative who deserted me.
Eventually, I joined the crew for the final two neighborhood homes and interviewed the residents about how they felt about Tony Martin. This was also all filmed by a CTV crew who was following us around.
Cameron Ross lured us into Canada to go door-to-door with him — and then filed a complaint that we were going door-to-door and interfering with the Canadian election! I should have seen the trap he was setting, but I assumed that because he was a “Conservative” (which I know is not the same as the breed of conservatives we deal with in the U.S.) he was not smart enough to be so devious.
Considering it was the Ross campaign who suggested we `interfere,’ we believe Mr. Ross conspired to break the law — and get us to break it with him.
Does Mr. Ross do this sort of thing often? Has he broken the law before? We don’t know this man, but I think someone at Elections Canada should investigate him.
(Also, I noticed he was NOT wearing a Canadian flag lapel pin. In my country this is considered unpatriotic.)”
– Michael Moore
Nice one, Mr Harper.
Yet another reason to vote NDP today.
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October 14th, 2008 at 10:23 am
LOL now thats funny!
October 14th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Wow totally left me laughing. Thanks for posting this.