A BCer in Toronto

Jordan, The resolution at the convention did not d...

2012-05-26T09:36:29.091-04:00

Jordan,
The resolution at the convention did not define any type of electoral reform, only that "the current 'first past the post' system, at the Electoral District level, be replaced by a Preferential Voting system, such that the Member of Parliament be selected by 50% plus 1 of the voters in each Electoral District;
Hopefully, there will be serious discussion about the many aspects of our deeply flawed electoral system. For starters, top-heavy executive powers, relevance of regular MPs, government appointments, the Senate, etc.

I don't understand why Dion is promoting a tot...

2012-05-25T15:20:50.487-04:00

I don't understand why Dion is promoting a totally different type of electoral reform then the one that was voted on at the party convention in January. One thing the Liberals seem unable to do is listen to the grassroots.

I also had an "experience" with Rogers, ...

2012-05-23T00:18:07.870-04:00

I also had an "experience" with Rogers, about 6 years ago now. I started receiving statements for a wireless service which I had never had. It took nearly a year to straighten this out and I finally just ignored their notices. They finally went away.... It was a long and complicated story, but the result is that I would NEVER use Rogers' services again.

Any debate can be re-opened. However, the abortion...

2012-04-27T15:17:43.388-04:00

Any debate can be re-opened. However, the abortion debate can be quickly re-closed again after restating some facts that seem to have been missed by a few fools. Leave morality aside. You're dealing with people who have different standards. Just ask them if they want more abortions. Leaving the matter in the hands of women and their doctors has resulted in a historically low abortion rate in Canada, as good a proof as anyone could wish that women don't get abortions for trivial reasons. Places with restrictions, or even bans, all have higher abortion rates, some MUCH higher, not to speak of the dead women. Why are the supposed "pro-life" forces arguing for a policy that would produce MORE abortions? (Not to speak of the dead women and providers in jail, but I rather think they would enjoy these latter features.)

The management of many companies don't believe...

2012-04-27T10:43:47.456-04:00

The management of many companies don't believe in customer service.
This should have been resolved at your first contact without escalating this matter.
The internal controls in place treat the customer service as light switches with no authority to make it right.
This is not unique to telcos.

Rat, I seriously doubt I got any sort of special t...

2012-04-27T10:36:32.684-04:00

Rat, I seriously doubt I got any sort of special treatment. It's not like I'm a Mommy blogger; them you don't mess with. Rogers has a very active social media monitoring team that checks blogs and twitter and responds to complaints. I doubt they check klout scores before deciding to help.

I find it curious that two of your commenters thin...

2012-04-26T18:43:52.097-04:00

I find it curious that two of your commenters think you called The Prime Minister a hypocrite. To everyone who thinks that I suggest you re-read Jeff's article.

Of course Harper looks like a hypocrite, he IS! A...

2012-04-26T18:11:27.489-04:00

Of course Harper looks like a hypocrite, he IS!
As for the LPC......
"I can't hear you any more
I'm a-thinking and a-wond'rin' walking down the road"*
On a fundamental issue of women's RIGHTS the hypocritical LPC has no conscience, and my good conscience will support the party of conscience, ALWAYS defend abortion RIGHTS for women to an MP.
They lost my monthly donation under Dion when he did not whip Harper's motion to reopen the same-sex marriage vote, and this last hypocritical act ends my support.
"Don't think twice, it's all right"*....... NDP.
Diana

*Bob Dylan

Yes Harper does look like a hyprocrite but I'm...

2012-04-26T16:20:59.859-04:00

Yes Harper does look like a hyprocrite but I'm in favor of him opening up a debate on the topic of abortion. It is unhealthy in a democratic society to try and surpress this from happening. We as a society would only be turning a blind eye to the numerous petitions out there if we did.

2012-04-26T15:19:22.344-04:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

Thanks for writing about this, Jeff!!! I got the s...

2012-04-26T15:18:54.618-04:00

Thanks for writing about this, Jeff!!! I got the same email from Lucie Pépin and it made me ashamed to be a liberal voter. I won't be donating to them again.

The way to do it then Jason would have been to say...

2012-04-26T15:13:39.415-04:00

The way to do it then Jason would have been to say "we don't need to whip it, the Liberal caucus stands firmly opposed to...."

I agree. Unless Rae already knows that the entire...

2012-04-26T15:11:20.605-04:00

I agree. Unless Rae already knows that the entire caucus will vote against the motion.

Jeff, how do you feel now that you're getting ...

2012-04-26T11:36:19.801-04:00

Jeff, how do you feel now that you're getting "special" treatment as prominent blogger? As a test maybe I should post a similar complain on my blog and see if the Rogers's social media team shows up. Probably should get a Twitter account, then...

Nobody wants to invade Canada. Stop waisting my mo...

2012-04-25T21:05:42.259-04:00

Nobody wants to invade Canada. Stop waisting my money on defence.

Worse case scenerio we can outsource our defence in case of need.

For whatever reason, support for Quebec independen...

2012-04-25T20:59:32.231-04:00

For whatever reason, support for Quebec independence is currently very low. The Parti Québécois is in shambles (over an arena, of all things). An anglo waving the flag telling Quebeckers they aren't allowed to separate isn't going to help anything.

It is what it is. You don't like the service, ...

2012-04-25T20:43:16.817-04:00

It is what it is. You don't like the service, take a look at the competition. As my landlord once said to me, it isn't the complainers he has to wory about. It is the others that simply move.

Tips for dealing with Rogers.
-Use your hold time productively.
-Specifically ask for a credit. Name a specific amount (Say $30). If declined, ask to speak to a supervisor, or, even better, tell them you want to give theme the 30 days notice of cancelation of services. Worse case scenerio they call your bluff and you end up with the competition. Best case is they lower your rate (for obvious reasons, do not agree to a contract).

Hi Jeff, This is Nicolas from Rogers social medi...

2012-04-25T16:15:07.208-04:00

Hi Jeff,

This is Nicolas from Rogers social media team.

I'd like to apologize for this experience. You’re raising some interesting points that I will share with our internal teams.

We're always reviewing our services and policies based on what customers have to say.

We will contact you via Twitter shortly to assist you with this situation.

For future, and I also address that note to your readers, do not hesitate to reach out to us on Twitter @RogersHelps as you did before.

Our social media team is here to help!

Nicolas
@RogersNicolas

After multiple horrific customer service experienc...

2012-04-25T12:03:53.125-04:00

After multiple horrific customer service experiences not unlike yours, I have rid myself of the menace of Rogers in my life once and for all. I get my internet from Distributel, and my TV from Netflix, iTunes and the web. Rogers shareholders are probably wondering why they posted significantly lower revenue and profit last quarter. Here's a hint: If your customers hate you, you might be doing something wrong. If your customers who are on contracts really hate you and can't wait to get away (and in the meantime are telling everyone they know how much they hate you) revenue and profit will continue to fall, until, as Jeff said, you pull your head out of your ass and get with the reality that customers actually have a choice now.

Fighting with a more extreme version of yourself i...

2012-04-24T17:31:04.913-04:00

Fighting with a more extreme version of yourself is a losing battle.

Clark should take the absolute centre, drive out the SoCons, keep the FiCons, and suck up as many social Libs as possible. Play nice with the feds, placate the left, and play the long game.

BC is essentially split down the middle, as far as partisans are concerned. Clark runs the risk of being a Dion if she runs too far to either side.

Not an entirely comparable situation (The so-calle...

2012-04-24T16:01:53.584-04:00

Not an entirely comparable situation (The so-called "Liberal" party in B.C. is a rather strange hybrid after all), but there are some similarities involved.

The smart move for Clark would be to write off the old Socred elements of the party's rural base (which are moving in droves to the BC Conservatives in any case) and tack more to the center-left, attracting moderate liberals and those who would otherwise be culled by the NDP.

Yes, yes, yes. There have been a few encouraging...

2012-04-21T11:12:04.087-04:00

Yes, yes, yes.

There have been a few encouraging signs of late - Andrew Coyne's recent article, and others that have begun to chip away at the separatist hate-propaganda about the Constitution being imposed on Quebec and all the rest of it. But it isn't nearly enough.

Also, the Liberals need to start saying the same things very clearly and unapologetically in FRENCH, because that's the audience that needs to hear it.

Violations of EC reporting laws usually mean signi...

2012-04-08T15:55:33.709-04:00

Violations of EC reporting laws usually mean signing a compliance agreement in which you confess to what you've done, in exchange for not doing it again. This was the procedure, for instance, when Peter Van Loan exceeded his spending limit in 2008, and when Gary Goodyear's campaign took an illegal kickback from its campaign office landlord.

I wonder how many people attended the fundraising dinner.

Even if you were an NDP supporter, you would have ...

2012-03-31T19:16:43.084-04:00

Even if you were an NDP supporter, you would have found yourelf dying of boredom if you were following the convention from the outside, and frustrated to death by repeated failed attempts to vote.

And the problem wasn't just the cyber attack. With four ballots to get through, you would have had to spend all day coming back to your computer to vote.

What if you actually had something to do with your time?

On the other hand, since it was obvious after the second ballot that Mulcair had it in the bag, I'm sure many Dippers realized there was no real point in further voting.

They could just hit the snooze button till the final results were announced many hours later.

It now appears that the cyber attack on the NDP Leaadership voting system was large and organized. The ability to press thousands of 'zombie' computers into service - to launch denial of service attacks - is calculated and criminal. These threats to democratic process should be top of mind for everyone including the Federal government and police forces.