Past disputes, present actions

A couple more interesting tidbits surrounding the sudden resignation of Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley. First, the Ottawa Citizen points out some recent areas of disagreement between Kingsley and the Cons aside from the convention-fee scandal:

Mr. Goodale, however, noted the government suddenly tabled a bill shortly before the Christmas parliamentary recess with a surprise proposal that Elections Canada would administer a companion plebiscite during federal elections to poll voters on their preferences for nominations to fill Senate vacancies.

The Liberal MP questioned whether Mr. Harper had consulted Mr. Kingsley before drafting the legislation...

Conservative MPs were surprised during Mr. Kingsley's recent appearance at the Commons standing committee on procedure and House affairs, when he warned MPs Elections Canada would begin a complete overhaul of the computer system it uses to deliver elections by July.

Mr. Kingsley also told the panel he expected it would take Elections Canada up to six months to implement provisions in a bill the Commons passed earlier this month requiring all voters to present government photo identification or two other pieces of ID at the polls. Mr. Kingsley has long opposed a requirement for voter ID, arguing it could be a barrier for students, low-income voters and new Canadians.

Then, as pointed out by Paul Wells among others, there's this gem from Harper's time at the NCC:

The jackasses at Elections Canada are out of control...

This is not the first attack on freedom by Elections Canada. Its heavy-handed chief, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, has been an advocate of the most minute of controls and regulations - and stiff punishments - on every aspect of "free" elections...

I believe the Jean-Pierre Kingsleys of the world fear Paul Bryan. Or more to the point, they fear what Paul represents - a free, independent-minded citizen using technology to give power back to individuals. After all, information is power. The less control the government has over the flow of information, the less control it can exert over its citizens. So Elections Canada has charged him withbreaking a law that's as dangerous as it is ludicrous.

Of course, the attitude of Kingsley shouldn't surprise us. After all, he's the chief backer of Bill C-2 - that other election gag law - which makes it a crime for citizens to spend their own money to promote their own views during federal elections.

That too is another example of Kingsley trying to control information. Simply put, Kingsley is a dangerous man. It is appropriate that journalists have dubbed him Canada's "Chief Electoral Ideologue," and "Chief Electoral Nanny."

While many have pointed out the sheer tastelessness of the letter, it's worth citing as well as an example of just how little respect a supposed "law and order" leader actually has for the law, having no shame about unloading with both barrels on a non-partisan official merely trying to enforce the law itself.

Returning to Kingsley's resignation, as Yvon Godin noted in the Citizen's article, the Cons would have had absolutely no way to push Kingsley out of office directly.

But it's worth wondering whether Harper may have made it clear that he'd make Kingsley's remaining time in office as difficult as possible due to his willingness to properly investigate the Cons rather than buying their transparent excuses. And it may not be beyond the realm of possibility that Kingsley in turn could have seen some value in stepping down in the midst of a minority Parliament - in part to help ensure that neither PMS nor any other future leader would get to choose a successor with as misguided a focus as Harper and the Cons seemed to demand from Kingsley.

Update: More from the CP:

Before becoming prime minister, Harper said Kingsley acted "more like a state policeman than a public servant" and on another occasion accused him of iron-fisted bully tactics...

Harper was equally scathing as Canadian Alliance leader, when two party workers were charged with breaking the Canada Elections Act on public-opinion polling.

Two workers were charged with placing a newspaper ad that claimed a local lead in an Ontario riding, without disclosing that their own party had conducted the poll. The elections act forbids publishing poll results without providing basic methodological details about how the survey was conducted - or by whom.

"This is the kind of garbage we're getting into - and more shockingly the kind of garbage that Jean-Pierre Kingsley and people at Elections Canada increasingly think is their business," Harper said in 2002.

Indeed. The Chief Electoral Officer overseeing an election and prosecuting violators of the Canada Election Act - what could be more "garbage"-like than that?