Battling petitions pit kids vs. beer
Last Updated: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 | 1:00 PM ET
CBC News
Since Liberal aide Scott Reid's "beer and popcorn" gaffe on Sunday – that the Conservatives' proposed child-care allowance could be used by parents to buy "beer and popcorn" the mainstream media have been full of angry reaction.
And on the internet, the blogosphere has been buzzing with reaction and commentary.
- BLOG REPORT: The Popcorn Report
Blogger Stephen Janke, who keeps an anti-Liberal blog called "Angry in the Great White North," started a "kids not beer" petition.
Janke's petition reads, in part: "As parents, we resent being insulted so your party can score some cheap political points. We are asking you, Mr. Prime Minister: Do you agree with your aides and believe that parents would choose beer over over [sic] their kids?"
Apparently deciding that the issue needed to be leavened with some humour, Mercer wrote on his blog that he's had enough of the anti-beer rhetoric, and has created a petition and web address of his own, beernotkids.com.
"In the stampede to condemn Scott and his comments about child care policy I have noticed a very real and very ugly sentiment sneaking into the national discourse. I am talking of course, about an anti-beer agenda," Mercer wrote on his blog.
"Well I for one am not prepared to let the Kids Not Beer people win this one. I know they have a healthy head start but I know that beer drinkers are out there and if I can get to them before 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening they can be organized. Together we can stand up and say 'My Canada includes having a few pops,'" Mercer wrote on his blog.
Janke's petition had nearly 3,000 signatures by Wednesday noon. Mercer's had more than 300.
Mercer has experience with internet petitions at election time. In 2000, he took aim at an Alliance party policy that said a petition on any issue signed by three per cent of the electorate, or about 350,000 people, would trigger a binding referendum.
- FROM NOV. 11, 2000: 'Doris Day' petition hits the mark
So Mercer, then with CBC-TV's This Hour Has 22 Minutes, began a petition calling for Alliance leader Stockwell Day to change his first name to Doris.
More than 420,000 people signed that petition.
External websites
- Kids Not Beer petition
- Current results for Kids Not Beer
- Beer Not Kids petition
- Current results for Beer Not Kids
- Angry in the Great White North
- Rick Mercer
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