Americans please take note. There is an emerging continental trend towards the social engineering of the democratic franchise, and it may well be coming to a polling station near you.

Tower Road used to run from the gates of Point Pleasant Park at the southern tip of Halifax to the gates of the Public Gardens at the heart of the city. It was named for the Martello Tower at Point Pleasant, pictured above.

A few years ago the extension to a hospital parking lot cut this road in two, and the north section, just down from the medical school campus of Dalhousie University, was recently rebranded "Martello Road," with startling and unforseen consequences. This story [1] suggests that record voter apathy ruled in yesterday’s Canadian federal election. It was no such thing — rather frustration and outrage.

Halifax Citadel MLA Leonard Preyra knows of at least one constituent who says he’ll never vote again after being turned away from the polls Tuesday.

The man, who declined to be interviewed, lives on Martello Road, which used to known as Tower Road.

Because the man could not produce a piece of identification with the new road name on it, he was not allowed to vote, even though everyone at that polling station would have been aware of the street’s name change and likely were residents of the street themselves, Mr. Preyra said.

 

This is a transparently obvious strategy to selectively spike voters whose circumstances are even a bit irregular and is fundamentally and intolerably undemocratic. Thousands of Canadian college students were turned away yesterday, which was certainly a main goal of the plan, but many of the plan’s core supporters were comically swept up in the net. As reported by CBC Radio, a voter in Newfoundland who brought his PASSPORT to the polling station was only saved because his father brought his FISHING LICENCE and could vouch for his son.

That hurricane damage pictured above precisely symbolizes yesterday’s trashing of our democratic rights. After five years the Park is recovering around the Tower, but yesterday’s damage to our country’s 250 year old institution will not be restored without the dedicated work of ordinary Canadians. That rebuilding starts today.

Please be warned, America.

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Notes and References

[1]: "New low for voter turnout: Only 60.7 per cent of eligible Nova Scotians cast a ballot", by Amy Smith and Davene Jeffrey, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, October 16, 2008. Hat tip to Mrs. M, who found this item (really the last straw) while we were enjoying coffee and some really nice carob / chocolate treats from Satisfaction Feast.

 

Update: forgot to credit the WikiPedia article on Point Pleasant Park for the image above.

I’d forgotten something about that hospital whose parking lot expansion started this mess.  Just after the hurricane hit I spent some time sitting in the place and wrote the following poem.  It’s posted at The Telegraph’s unstable MyT platform (link in the title), but I’m going to reproduce the whole thing here.  Anyone who sees Ms May in the next while might want to pass this along.  Seven percent and no seats is another outrage, but at least that should be readily fixable :)

 

 

The Rapture
Africa’s gone
The top of the Andes still stretches almost to life though
And it won’t be hard to choose
The hundred and forty four thousand after all
There’s less than a million of us left

Groups leave from the far north
The far south
Trekking to where Quito was
To the Elevator
Traveling in space suits
Because the Middle is already an alien place

Meanwhile Science has advanced so far
We know our world will be a better planet
For those billions of tons of buried carbon we burned
Just not for us

That Ark up there is but a lottery ticket
In our heart we know
Our real children will be born right here
In fifty million years (or so)

Halifax, October 24, 2003, QE II hospital