From the Edmonton Journal:
Wildrose candidate John Oplanich is offering a big-screen television and $25,000 in University of Alberta scholarships to constituents who visit him in his Edmonton-Castle Downs campaign office.
“Come in to learn how you can win a brand new 50-inch 1080p TV valued at $1,000 on election night,” Oplanich said in a local newspaper advertisement.
“If elected as a member of the legislative assembly of Alberta I will give away $25,000 of my own money on election night in the form of $1,000 post-secondary scholarships to 25 students in the Edmonton-Castle Downs constituency.”
Officials with Elections Alberta are investigating whether the offer is legal, but have not yet been able to reach Oplanich and have not issued a decision.
20 replies on “voted wildrose – got a free tv!”
so now Wildrose is running a raffle to attract voters…. hmmmmmm i smell something.. Desperation.
This was a rouge offer…..Carl Benito style. Story is good for a day, now time time to move on.
To the above poster: what’s so “rouge” about the offer? Can the TV only be red? I would have much preferred black, frankly.
As for it being only “good for a day”, you can stop right there with your partisan drivel. The offer is still under investigation and it better be reported until the authorities can get to the bottom of this.
Breaking the law is breaking the law. No party gets a free pass, even if its leader can presumably cure cancer with her tears.
She can’t cure cancer with her tears. That would mean she cries. When she think she’s feeling down, she just decides to be awesome instead.
Anyone remember when the Liberals tried this in the 2006 general election in Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River?
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=8efae281-8219-49c6-918d-1f6b268831f4
Anyways, I doubt Oplanich will be much of a threat to anyone but the Wildrose central campaign. After all that party only got 586 votes for 4.88% in Edmonton-Castle Downs in 2004 and didn’t even run a candidate in 2008.
@Some Guy
Nice attempt to drag liberals into this.
For the record, Alberta Liberal Party has no formal association with the Liberal Party of Canada.
Thanks for the comments, all.
Tom: The two parties have no legal affiliation, but at least 3 federal Liberal candidates from the 2011 election are nominated as provincial Liberal candidates for the upcoming vote.
Did I say anything about the Alberta Liberals? People usually refer to the federal party as the Liberals.
I’m just saying that Opalinch isn’t the first idiot to raffle off a TV for votes.
From the article I posted
Quote
“There were four major allegations made, with the first being that residents on a reserve had been encouraged to vote Liberal by being allowed to enter a raffle for a television.”
Hey Some Guy
Nice try, it was suggested that the Liberals did something but Elections Canada, an organization with a few actual teeth found “no evidence of wrong doing” and given that under federal law it is illegal to offer someone an inducment to vote for you the Liberals obviously did nothing wrong. In this case the actions of the wild eyed alliance candidate would clearly violate the federal standards, at least with the scholarship pledge. We have no idea how he is using the TV. Again you show your bias and mighty intellect.
Benito did something similar…..I won’t paint the entire PC party as complete idiots b/c of the actions of a single person(I WILL paint them as my second choice b/c of a promise to review my taxes AFTER the election, but I digress).
Dumb choice by this guy….nothing to do with Wildrose. Get over it.
There’s nothing that the Wildrose won’t do to win. Too bad they’re getting wiped out!
Neil, so what your saying is that its okay for someone in Saskatchewan who is a member of the Liberal Party to raffle a TV, but when it’s a Wildrose guy its a different story.
What happens when Elections Alberta finds no evidence of wrong doing?
If, not when.
Then it’ll stop being a story. Until then, it’s a story.
Get it through your thick skull, “some guy”.
Some guy
Seriously are you dense. Elections Canada investigated and said it did not happen they way you are implying. The story you quoted says that. In any case offering to give scholerships if elected would be against federal election law, it depends on the terms of the TV give away if it is ilegal or not. I said it was ok in sask because EC said it was. Elections Alberta lets everything slide and probably will here as well, they let everything slide in Alberta. Man you are sooo dopey.
Forget the T.V. Try telling voters that you support the legalization or marijauna. Doorknocking strategy of WRP candidate in Edmonton-Meadowlark. Then defending is doorknocking strategy to a 13 yr old helping out that night by saying the Wildrose would ‘tax the hell out of it’ and there would be different strengths for consumers to choose from not to mention, his advocation for pot use to a child. She clearly put him in his place that night but, it is sick how far these Wildrose candidates will go to get the vote.
Elections Alberta – the Keystone cops of politics
This is a non story at best. The “violations” that come up during elections and campaign are for the most part without merit and never go anywhere.
Stick to issues that count and quit the garbage collecting.
[…] Edmonton-Castle Downs candidate John Oplanich, kicked off his campaign by offering to raffle a free big screen televisionto voters who would support him. Andrew […]
[…] Downs candidate John Oplanich, kicked off his campaign by offering to raffle a free big screen television to voters who would support […]
Concerned citizen: nose is growing- must have been watching BC TV for 420- you know the day that all the teens go to downtown Vancouver and toke up, vomit, pass out and say hey cool man.
If you do not like the TV gut- donor vote for him move on