Jack Layton just called me!!!! Sort of....

[ClusterFreak]

Well....a disembodied, voice message just did anyway. Has this happened to anyone you know?? The phone just rang, I answered, I heard some man's recorded voice saying something about push 1 or 2. For a second, I thought maybe I had a parcel at Sears I had to pick up and had forgotten about!! LOL!! Anyway, next thing I hear is "Hi, this is Jack Layton, federal leader of the NDP..." (I'm paraphrasing) Jack then goes on to extol the virtues of his party and asks me as someone who has voted Liberal or PC in the past, to consider voting for the NDP this time. This is supposed to be impressive? This is supposed to win my vote? Taking a telemarketing approach to asking me to vote for him? It's one thing for some pencil pusher at my local Liberal incumbent's office to make a live phone call to me to ask if I'm voting for the incumbent again....it's another thing to put my number on auto-dial and play me back a recorded message from the federal NDP leader. Liberal, Conservative, Green leader...it doesn't matter. It's about as desperately unimpressive a way to attempt to win my vote as I can think of.:puke:

[elare]

1. I got the same call

and since we have a family member in hospital and I thought it might be some kind of collect call, I did push 1. Then I hung up when I heard what it was. I was totally unimpressed ... even the Conservatives called personally (they got an earful from my husband, but at least it was a live person on the other end of the line)

[ClusterFreak]

2. Yeah...now that you mention it...the voice might have said "collect"...

It was confusing at first...maybe I'm going to see a collect call from the NDP on my next phone bill??? Better friggin' not...I'll deduct the 30 cents or whatever for the cost of the call, from the total bill!! Anyway, I listened to the whole message....which lasted about 30 seconds or so I guess....and I spoke clearly into the receiver too, hoping some live body might come on the line at the end. I said "Is anybody there? I'd like to talk to a live person, please!" To no avail...

[iverglas]

6. what is this?

Why would anybody even think, let alone say, that this happening? What earthly possibility is there that the NDP is using COLLECT CALLS to contact voters?

Here's my guess: NONE. If anybody has any remotely credible reason to say otherwise, perhaps s/he would speak now or forever hold his/her peace.


PS: do you suppose, just maybe, that the instruction to push a button had to do with getting the message in a different language? This being Canada and all ...

[ClusterFreak]

7. There is absolutely nothing I could ever say to defend myself....

If you disagree with me. So I won't bother. It is not possible to be right, when discussing anything with you. Anyone who's ever gone toe to toe with you would concur. You are always right in everything that you have said, are saying, and ever will say...in perpetuity.

[iverglas]

8. thank you

We've established now that you have no reason to think, let alone say, that the NDP is making collect calls to random voters. Now we just have to figure out why you suggested it might be.

You are always right in everything that you have said, are saying, and ever will say...in perpetuity.

You know what the funny thing is? Everybody could be like me!

All anybody has to do is refrain from saying things that are untrue, false, inaccurate, discredited, disproved, unfounded or baseless, or otherwise designed to make someone believe something that is untrue, false, inaccurate, discredited, disproved, unfounded or baseless.

Now you know my trick.

[ClusterFreak]

9. I know you are but what am I?

[iverglas]

10. uh

A Liberal?

That's about the worst I think I could say and have it left standing.

Yes, it's an insult, but it seems to be tolerated around here.

[ClusterFreak]

11. Nyah nyah nya na naaaaa!!!!

:*

[Minstrel Boy]

3. I got a lot of them in '04

when Toronto Danforth was close. Only one so far this election.

[iverglas]

4. oh for pity's sake

All parties use campaigning methods that somebody isn't going to like. Do I want somebody at my door at 10 a.m. on a Saturday? Not on your life. That's why I sent letters to all the local JoHo halls telling them they'd be charged with trespassing if they did it one more time. (It worked, in case anyone else wants to try.) Am I going to get in a big huffy snit about a canvasser for my own or some other party doing it during a campaign? Hardly.

I don't happen to like live telephone canvassing, myself. A person with a script is one of the most ineffective things there is; communicating effectively with strangers by telephone is a particular skill, and people who aren't professional inside sales ... or lawyers ... don't generally have it. But it's a fact of modern campaigning -- and besides, nobody's trying to persuade voters on the phone or at the door anyhow, they're trying to identify their supporters. If you get snitty with the campaign of the candidate or party you support -- well what's the point?

I've had several recorded calls from my party this election. B.F.D. I was actually curious to hear what the message was, so I listened and hung up.

When I was a candidate, I met people at the door who told me that such-and-such a candidate hadn't been around and so they didn't think they'd vote for him. Well, fine by me, but what an incredibly dumb way to decide how to vote. Thousands of households in a riding; all you're going to get from somebody trying to cover them all is exactly what they got from my Liberal opponent -- a swarm of party workers descending and banging on doors, the candidate making a flying dash through the building or down the block. Oooh, impressive, that.

Not everybody watches the debates or The National. For some people, a message like that might be one of the few times they hear the candidate or leader. Some people might actually feel like this was a party leader/candidate making an effort to get their special personal vote, which seems to be something some people seem to need to feel. Different things affect different people differently. It would be stupid for any party/candidate not to use all possible ways of reaching voters.

And frankly, anyone who actually used such a very silly event as a basis for voting *against* any party/candidate just plain wasn't going to vote for them in the first place. So what's to lose?

[daleo]

5. I have had a ton of phone calls with no voice on the other end

I have assumed they were election related, dial ahead calls where the caller was still busy with the other call. I am so old fashioned that I don't have call display though.