Red, Blue, How About You? PART 1

How Canadians are building their own prison...or....what we've learned so far.

( Cris is writing this as Jody and team are out campaigning)

Back in the Old West, gambling (playing poker) was a dominant part of their dusty, smelly culture. I know this for a fact because I can sing, by heart, every word to Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler. I’ve also watched the movie Maverick, like, a bunch of times. So I’m pretty much an expert in Old Timey Western history at this point. In almost every western movie, where gambling is part of the script, a fight breaks out because some filthy sapsucker cheated. Fists fly, chairs and bottles are shattered over skulls, and pandemonium breaks out until the tired old sheriff shoots yet another hole in the ceiling of the bar.

The cheating isn’t the problem here. Nor is it the fact that the cheater got caught. The problem lies with the breaking of the pre-agreed upon rules. Once it is discovered that the social contract has been broken it then becomes the responsibility of the other players to enforce that social contract. If they do not enforce the rules then they give their tacit permission for the cheater to continue. They know this is a bad idea because they will end up losing all their money. In a world of little to no laws, where everyone carries a gun, it seems like enforcing rules would come easy. But if they choose to hold their slippery playing partner accountable then everyone risks a bullet to the face; which, makes the cheating / enforcement contract a high risk one, to say the least. Yet it happened almost daily, according to my extensive knowledge of fictional history. The point I am making is, that was then …. this is now.

Our Canadian politicians and the electoral system have shown us one major flaw in society. That we have cheaters who cheat? Nope. That not just social rules, but rights and laws have been broken? No. That there is virtually no one in Canada left to call out the cheating and the breaking of those contracts. And there is literally NO one left to hold our filthy sapsuckers to account. Even worse …

No. One. Cares.

So the cheaters get to cheat and they get to continue to take our money because we give them permission to do so. They are playing dirty and everyone seems okay with it.

Here are some of the things that have happened during Jody’s campaign. But first, for those of you who do not know, Jody Ledgerwood has been running as an Independent MP candidate for the riding of Northumberland-Clarke in Ontario. For those of you who might have friends or family in this riding, it is roughly between Newcastle and Quinte West and between Lake Ontario and Rice Lake; and, we’ve had a fight on our hands almost every step of the way. What we’ve discovered is that the political monster is huge (okay, we already knew that) but the only reason it is huge is because the average Canadian voter keeps feeding it. It is like watching someone put BBQ sauce on their body and walking into a lion’s cage at the zoo. Then they yell at you for not doing the same while they get devoured. It is mind boggling to watch from outside the fear bubble. So here is what has happened to date.

The 2025 Canadian federal election was called on March 23, 2025.

Here is cheat #1 - the electoral process is in violation of Section 57 (1.2) (c)

(c) fix the date for voting at the election, which date must be no earlier than the 36th day and no later than the 50th day after the day on which the writ was issued.

Advanced voting was on the 26th day. This cuts 10 days of campaigning. It does not give the voter enough time to make an informed vote. It creates an atmosphere that relies on fear and emotion to entice people to run out and cast their ballot. 7,300,000 people were frothing at the mouth to do just that. NO ONE cried foul.

Meanwhile back in the Ledgerwood home on March 23rd, Jody was still trying to figure out if running as a candidate in this election was something that God was asking her to do. This took some time. Understanding God’s calling can be difficult to work out at times. Jody did not feel confident that she was being called into action until a day after the election was announced. To make matters more complicated, she had scheduled a trip to Newfoundland that would take her away for a week and did not feel she could cancel.

She finally announced her intentions to run. Did her friends rush out to congratulate her? Most did, but there were a select vocal few that chastised her for not being more organized. They informed her that she should have been ready to go on day one. They said this while Jody was waiting for her signatures to be processed. She was the second candidate after the conservative to be processed and confirmed. The other group of “friends” that complained about Jody’s choice, were that ones that called her out for “vote splitting”. “We should all be united to get the Liberals out”, they said. Jody explained that we need to get away from the party system. She reminded them that they do not have a voice if they vote for a party. They didn’t care and continued to tell her how wrong she was, as they slathered more BBQ sauce on themselves.

The All Candidate Meetings and Cheat #2 - Election interference and suppression of information.
Then came more bias and more BBQ sauce. The candidates were invited to five all candidate meetings. Out of which, two of them decided to censor candidates and rob people of an informed vote. I see this as nothing less than election interference and defrauding the public. The two meetings were the Blue Dot Northumberland All Candidates Forum on April 15 and the Port Hope Chamber All Candidates Meeting on April 16th. Both reasoned that only established parties with seats in the house would be allowed to debate. This is an egregious violation of our social contract for a fair and unbiased election process. It is discriminatory and has some serious repercussions. We had just talked to people, after the Brighton meeting, who informed Jody that they were switching their votes after hearing her speak. This means that Blue Dot and Port Hope were suppressing crucial information that was required in order for voters to make an informed choice. This is election interference without a doubt. I will now let Blue Dot off the hook. They are simply volunteers who made a mistake. After some intensive negotiations they rescinded …. partially. The first hour was reserved for the four parties and the second hour included everyone. Not optimal, we know, but we have committed to getting to know the organizers better so we can come to a better understanding, and they have already said they will be making a different choice next time around. So it’s a start.

This brings us to the Port Hope Chamber, more specifically, Brenda Whitehead. When expressing my disappointment in their decision to exclude my candidate I was told, and I cut and paste quote.

Brenda Whitehead: The only response I have is that the policy has been in place as long as I have been with the Chamber (8years) so I don’t have the history on it … we have included other candidates in the meet and greet because it doesn’t say we can’t …

I believe it is because of timing - it is an invitation only timed and facilitated event with no open mic from the floor - so I assume they want to spend time with the parties that have seats on the Hill already.

I did not know this until after the event but this was not true. After comparing notes with Jody I discovered that the The Trillium Party, May 2018 (Provincial) and in December 2019 Frank Vaughan from the PPC (Federal) did share the stage in previous candidate meetings. Jody remembers because she was asked to submit a question on behalf of the real estate board. Jody submitted that question to ….. Brenda Whitehead. Not knowing this, I went to work to have this undemocratic policy reversed. I pointed out all the things mentioned above and also educated them on the fact that Nunavut has abolished the party system in their Provincial/Territory elections, as has the countries Sweden, and Iceland, some of the happiest countries on the planet. I pointed out that voters need all the information and therefore access to all the candidates. I pointed out that if seats matter, there were more Independents in the House of Commons than The Green Party. I got no where, so I emailed the board of the Port Hope Chamber. No response. I then emailed all the members of the Port Hope Chamber and asked them to cc me. Out of 187 members, two responded. One did not weigh in, and one said the candidates should all be included. No response from the Chamber.

Oddly enough, there are no policies in the Elections Act about political bias during a debate. This is why we are seeing candidates, across this country, being shut out of debates. I will say this. If you are an event organizer that engaged in this practice, get your elbows down and remove that brand new Canadian flag you just put up. You are not worthy to call yourselves a proud Canadian while you show such blatant contempt for the values we hold dear.

PROTIP: For you small party / independent candidates that are currently fighting this fight. I didn’t figure this out until it was too late, but, they can’t stop you. In accordance with the Elections Act section 81.1 (1) they are not allowed to stop you from campaigning. Doing so can result in a fine of up to $5,000 and six months in prison. If you want to stand at the front of the room and use a mega phone, you can. Let the organizers know this and if they want to make it awkward, that’s up to them.

So we did not figure this out in time and ended up going. We had a sure fire plan to get up there without too much disruption but then a funny thing happened. No one cared. All six of Jody’s colleagues supported this anti-Canadian policy. The four parties, blue, orange, red, green or BORG did not want to go against policy. Which left an opportunity for the infringed upon candidates to rise up and fight this injustice. They would not. One simply did not care and one was not brave enough. We were beat. Not because of the cheater, but because of the lack of willingness to hold the cheater accountable. Even when no one would get a bullet to the face or a chair over the skull. And so they sat at the back slathering BBQ sauce on themselves watching the four party candidates smugly preaching about inclusivity. I am left with the question of how any one of these candidates have fooled themselves into thinking they would stand up and do what’s right for their constituents when they couldn’t stand up in that moment. They did not believe there was a wrongdoing, publicly. Quietly two of the party candidates agreed it was wrong but “that’s policy”. In that moment, we decided it would do more damage than good to push the issue. We could have taken the same route as other Parties, across the country, that were shut out of debates and shut down the debate. Even though an ‘all candidates or no candidates’ approach seems more fair, it also makes us guilty of the very thing we were fighting against. So instead, Jody handed everyone her platform on paper and explained to the audience that she was being excluded. The people who came to hear Jody left immediately and by half way through the event, another third of the audience had left. Maybe it was the questions about inclusivity that finished them off?

Sadly, it doesn’t stop there. At least the local independent media, who hold themselves to a higher standard, would not engage in biased reporting? Wrong again, both local blogger Robert Washburn and YourTV Northumberland, excluded non sitting party candidates. Robert Washburn admitted wrong doing while doing wrong. Here is an excerpt of our exchange.

Robert Washburn: My efforts as a local journalist are done as a volunteer. The radio station does not compensate me. The website, newsletter, and social media are all done without assistance or staff. I spend between six and 12 hours per week doing this for 52 weeks a year, which has been the case for the last 10 years.

With a full-time job, a family, and other commitments, I do not have the time or resources to cover all the candidates running in Northumberland-Clarke. The short campaign created a tight timeline.

You would be right to argue that it is the job of a journalist to provide fair and balanced coverage, especially during an election. You would get no argument from me. Journalism also has a mandate to give voice to those who would not normally get one in a community. Again, you would be right.

That would be a perfect world. You would agree it is not a perfect world.

This means I made a tough decision to go with only the political parties holding seats in the House of Commons at dissolution. I am airing the interviews in the order in which the campaigns confirmed an interview for their candidate.

Cris Vleck: Thank you for your reply.

I would agree that this is not a perfect world. That is why this election is so crucial. Your response is disappointing. The decision to support the continuation of the current cycle is concerning. I am wholly sympathetic to your position as a volunteer. I respect your efforts but if you did not have the time to offer fair and balanced reporting to only 7 candidates, the 'journalistic integrity' option should have been to choose no coverage at all. As per the NCICOP report the only parties you are currently supporting are the ones who are covering up treason.

How can the voters that you are accountable to make an informed decision if they do not have all the information? The people not only deserve, but have the right, to hear all the candidates so they can make an educated choice. You are an independent reporter. Which means you have the freedom to be your own editor. I would encourage you to re-think your position to be more in line with supporting a fair and democratic voting process.

Political bias with no concern for voters’ right to access all the information seems to be a pretty common place practice. I can tell you that more than one of the organizations above receive government funding.

Potential Cheat #3 - Unsecured ballot boxes.
We’re back to advanced voting. My perception of the chain of custody on the ballot boxes was one that I would suspect is shared by many. I imagined that once the boxes are sealed they are transported to a secure location at the end of each voting day. It turns out this is not true. I discovered that some employees were taking the boxes home at night. TO BE CLEAR. Not one of the people I talked to was someone that I would suspect as someone who would commit treason but I did not visit every polling station and cannot vouch for the ethics of every elections staff member across Canada. The boxes in our riding are free to go home with staff and, in our case, will be stored in a location with very little security for the week. Yes, they told me the location.
After hearing this, I raised the question of election integrity on X. I reminded Elections Canada that it is not only integrity in the voting process that matters but it is also the APPEARANCE of integrity that matters. I asked them what happens to the boxes at the end of the day. Silence. They did not respond. Then they put out a statement that generically talked about secure locations.

Then I put this video up on TikTok.

And Tik Tok removed it. You tell me if you can spot any community guidelines that I may have broken here. I can assure you that any request to have it removed or complaints for violation would only come from those that DO NOT want this info getting out. I wonder who that could be? The very same people who are accused of colluding with a foreign government? The same government that runs Tik Tok as a spyware platform, maybe? If you want to call mis/disinformation here’s your proof. I recorded the conversations knowing this would get blowback. (Identifiers removed and voice altered) elections Canada issued a statement THREE DAYS finally admitting staff were instructed to take boxes home.

This will come as a shock to at least one person on X who said I was making the whole thing up.

Read ‘em and weep David Anber. Me thinks thou doest protest too much for a “non-governmental“, criminal lawyer who happens to reside in Ottawa.

Cheat #4 - Manipulation of the voter. One day, one vote, media blackout.
Many of you reading this may be too young or may not remember how voting used to be before Trudeau. You had one day to vote. On that day Eastern Canada was under a media blackout in the west. This meant Western Canada could not see the voting results until after their polls had closed. This was to ensure that the results of the polls in the east could not influence a western voter’s decision. For you whippersnappers, this was before we had access to the sum of human knowledge at our fingertips. We had to use a rotary phone and the long distance meant dialing four extra numbers. No one needed the news that badly.

Today there is no media black out on voting day. Let me clarify. There is no media black out on advanced polling days. I confirmed.

This was in relations to a poll I saw that said the Liberals were way ahead. This is during the advanced voting period. This seems like a blatant attempt to influence voters. You would then say, as you open another bottle of BBQ sauce, that it’s no big deal because the boxes are sealed and secure in Aunt Edna’s pantry and it’s not like they are broadcasting results from the ballots or trying to appear like they are.

This post by Rupa was wildly unethical and I told her as much on X. When you remember media blackouts (which still apply on the 28th, election day, for some stupid reason) and you apply the context you can see the ethics issues with allowing so much voter influence for the 10 days leading up to election day. Especially when so many people are blissfully unaware of how many social media influencers are employed by our government, as alluded to earlier. This is blatant manipulation.

END OF PART 1 - PART 2 will cover the fallout for allowing cheater to prosper.