Anna Mehler Paperny – Global News
Michael Sona told “several” friends he was involved in making misleading calls directing Guelph voters to nonexistent polling stations in the May, 2011 election, court documents allege.
Marc Mayrand
The price of democracy: Canada’s election costs have skyrocketed in the past decade
Saturday, April 2, 2011 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
When Canadians vote on May 2, they’ll be paying for a federal election whose cost has grown 50 per cent in the past decade, thanks in large part to the money given to political parties.
This year’s election is expected to cost $300-million – up from $198-million in 2000.
The amount spent by Elections Canada covers everything it takes to rev up a cross-country electoral machine at the drop of a writ – from hiring and training about 200,000 people, many of whom will only be needed for a day or two, to renting polling stations and conducting campaigns to boost voter turnout (which dropped to only 59 per cent in 2008).
a business of misfits 