Twenty-nine Ridings and Counting…

The Liberals and NDP have collectively counted 29 ridings that were affected by Harper’s robocall scandal during the May 2011 election campaign.

The opposition has come out in full force slamming the legitimacy of the current House of Commons in both the NDP news conference held by MP Pat Martin and in the letter asking the Speaker of the House of Commons for an emergency debate on the matter.

In an interview with Evan Solomon on CBC’s The House, Liberal Interim Leader Bob Rae said, "There's a very disturbing pattern underway of direct misinformation, essentially lies being phoned in to a variety of ridings" during the last election.

"This isn't voter suppression, it's the equivalent of stuffing a ballot box."

The allegations and fury come as The Ottawa Citizen released its own investigation revealing that Elections Canada traced fraudulent phone calls to Racknine.

Conservative Party Spokesman Fred DeLorey told CBC in an email, "We are not aware of substantiated allegations in any of these other ridings."

"The Conservative Party of Canada ran a clean and ethical campaign and would never tolerate such activity. Anyone who has information has an obligation to get it to Elections Canada immediately."

However, Election Fraud dates back with the Tories to 2006 where they overspent and pleaded guilty to avoid jail time for four prominent members.

If proven through a criminal investigation that the Conservatives were behind the robocalls directed at strategic Opposition ridings, then they may face $5,000 in fines and/or 5 years in prison for breaking the Canada Election Act.

Young Guelph staffer Michael Sona has already resigned and is being pinned as a rogue operator however no one is buying the idea that one man could single-handedly run a fraudulent campaign in over 29 ridings. The same man is responsible for voiding a ballot box in advanced voting sessions at Guelph University.

Election Fraud is a serious issue. While it may happen in other countries and while the Conservatives are claiming that it didn’t change the outcome in Guelph, there is no reason or excuse to break the fundamental right to democracy which past generations have fought long and hard to get for us. Those who are willing to ignore these sacrifices and take our rights for granted are unworthy of such rights. There is nothing worse than having the right to democratic procedure taken from you through deception which is the equivalent to having ballot boxes stuffed and people with clubs blocking the entrance to the ballot box.

Anyone who is caught disrupting democratic process should be punished under the highest extent of the law. It is already bad enough that four Tory members avoided prison by pleading guilty to the In and Out scandal. Here’s hoping that if proven to be guilty of the Robocall scandal that they get the maximum available prison sentence regardless if they plead or are proven guilty. Otherwise, where is the justice and legitimacy of our election system if we give fraudsters a slap on the wrist for such a heinous crime?

Did the Conservatives really win the election? Should we hold a new election?