‘It’s better when you’re turning people away than when you can’t get people to come’
“It’s better when you’re turning people away than when you can’t get people to come,” Stephen Harper said at a campaign stop in Markham Wednesday morning in reference to accusations that his Conservative Party has been doing background checks on attendees at campaign rallies, and barring those with suspect partisan loyalties. For example, one young woman was apparently ordered to turn her T-shirt inside out because it had a slogan endorsing environmentally-friendly fuels. Another girl, a 19-year-old student, was booted out of a rally because her Facebook page contained a picture of her with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. These actions, Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton say, are undemocratic, even “un-Canadian.” But so far, Harper has refused to comment on the specific incidents, and fluffed off the charges that they would stifle democracy.