Canadian Mayor seeks citizenship for Michael Moore

[Sticky]

If Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley has his way, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore will soon be an honorary citizen of his town.

Bradley has offered Moore the key to his city in an attempt to stave off what he believes would be a "frivolous abuse" of the elections law by a group of young Ontario Conservatives.

A Queen's University student and president of the Ontario Campus Conservatives has launched a Web site and online petition calling on Elections Canada to charge Moore with interfering in the recent federal election. When Moore was in Toronto during the election, promoting his film Fahrenheit 9/11, he urged Canadians to rally against Conservative leader Stephen Harper.

According to the Canada Elections Act, it is an offence for anyone who is not a Canadian citizen and does not live in Canada to "in any way induce electors to vote or refrain from voting or vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate" during an election period.

So Bradley, not short on creativity or humour, wants to make Moore a "de-facto Canadian" with all the rights and privileges that come with citizenship. And he's written to Canada's chief electoral officer advising him of his offer.

"Making him a honorary Canadian will give him the right to whine, bitch, moan, complain about taxation and the high level of taxes and then move forward and pay his tax bill and vote for the government in power," he wrote in his cheeky letter to chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley. "While we do not have equality with the value of our dollar with the United States, we certainly have equality with the right wing and their stupidity," he wrote. "It was always amazing to me that a group of individuals who promoted and believed in free trade do not believe in the freedom of ideas and political opinion."

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[Bonhomme Richard]

1. Funny......but he's one citizen...............

we couldn't afford to lose.

[Sticky]

2. Can we share him?

I like that he came here and kicked ass. LOL

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. I loved the part of Bowling for Columbine..........

that showed the difference between our two cultures regarding fear, locking doors, etc.. It was great, although I still do not lock my doors here. Keep it a secret.

[Sticky]

4. Hmmmm...

maybe I'll sneak in and make a sandwich some night. :-)

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. Boomer, the dog, might .....................

have something to say about that. Then again he's so friggin old and so used to kids coming into this house at all hours that he probably wouldn't even get up.

[Hoping4Change]

6. I am actually troubled by what Moore did because if his

remarks go unpunished what will stop rightwing American a**holes like o'lielly in the next election going to bat for Conservatives in Canada?

With no deisrepect to Moore, I support prohibitions on foreign nationals adding their 2 cents during our elections.

[Spazito]

7. I believe the word "induce" means more than giving one's verbal...

opinion, it leans more to monetary or other material inducements, at least I hope it does. If any Canadian was convinced to change their vote from the faux Conservatives simply because Michael Moore suggest they do so, what does that say about them?

This is a frivolous, specious petition being promoted by the Canadian version of the US rightwingers.

[Lisa]

8. the constitutional lawyer on the CBC last night didn't give much credence

... to that lawsuit. He didn't think it would stick.

Meanwhile we have US Ambassador Cellucci accusing one of our people, Maher Arar, of being a terrorist -- boasting to the media that he has inside information which incriminates him -- then refusing to testify to the commission investigating the whole episode. If they're going to drag Michael Moore into court for an offhand comment made during an interview -- dibs on Cellucci for slandering a citizen and trying to influence Canadian public opinion!

p.s. Note that our ambassador (Chretien's nephew) actually said he was in favour of Al Gore in 2000! He did step down afterwards, but I don't recall any charges -- so US election law may be different?

I think if many Canadians heard Americans like Pat Buchanan or Fred Phelps lauding the Conservatives, it might actually have the opposite effect -- they'd vote Liberal or NDP instead just to distance themselves from that position!