[Posted at Bene Diction Blogs On Aoril 20, 2011]
The
Vote Pray Serve.ca initiative, as noted in Bene D's fine
post yesterday, might be flirting with at least bending Election Act regulations. One thing for sure, however, Faytene Grasseschi (the former Faytene Kryskow) is a big fan of the campaign. And so is her lobby group 4MyCanada.
Just check Faytene's Facebook Wall.
Faytene's
current FB picture, as I write? The Vote Pray Serve poster graphic.
Guess she endorses it, eh? ;)
Also, On April 14, she
links to the MyCanada update for April. [4MY Canada may have dropped the 4 from their name.]
You can see that video on YouTube
here
It's introduced by a MyCanada volunteer named Crystal, who launches into a recommendation of Vote Pray Serve:
"...A huge 'way to go for your involvement in this year's election.
We put out a video a couple of weeks ago. It was on everything you need to know, on how to Vote Pray and Serve in this election. How you can get involved. The different ways you can get involved. If you missed the video you can go to 4MYCanada.ca and it's called the [election] update video, so click on it..."
Notice the "We"? Well, as she was saying this, the video screen shows the Vote Pray Serve .ca website. So, logically, either Vote Pray Serve is a My Canada Association idea, or there are a bunch of 4MYCanada volunteers working on it.
This raises some interesting questions. Can the volunteers wear two hats, as activists and evangelists at the same time? If they provide all the "holding it together" support while working using 4MyCanada resources, would the MyCanada Association be the de facto sponsor of the Vote Pray Serve initiative according to Elections Canada?
Vote Pray Serve
has a Facebook Group page called On It!, featuring the graphic on Faytene's page which you can use as your Facebook picture too.
The group was created by a Facebook member named "Judy K Jo". Bene D debriefs us about her in his post. But the very first member of the group is interesting. It's a Crystal L:
Judy K Jo added Crystal L to the group.
And who would that be?
The MYCanada Association Facebook Page reveals all. There's a "Crystal L" all over it, who just happens to have the On It! Graphic as her Facebook picture.
Who's listed as the Administrators of the MY Canada Facebook page. It currently reads:
Admins
Sarah
Crystal
Faytene (creator)
Crystal, the MY Canada Facebook admin links to the
page of Crystal L, Vote Pray Serve Facebook member two.
I would make a guess that Crystal who hosts the MY Canada update for April that I cited above is Crystal L on the Facebook pages for both MYCanada and On It. (Vote Pray Serve).
What else can we see on the On It (Vote Pray Serve) Facebook page?
A few days after Crystal L was signed up as member number two of On It! (Vote Pray Serve), we see these two notes on the page (in reverse chronological order as Facebook does):
Sarah Johnson changed the group description to "ON IT is a movement of Canadians that are committing to voting, praying and serving in this upcoming election. If you are ON IT, please change your profile picture to the group graphic and invite all your friends! Visit voteprayserve.ca for tons of resources."
about 3 weeks ago
Sarah Johnson renamed the group to "ON IT!".
It would seem that Sarah Johnson has some authority on the On It! page. Prhaps she is a Vote Pray Serve volunteer with some authority.
about 3 weeks ago
If you have thought ahead, yes there is a "Sarah" listed as an "Admin" on the MyCanada Facebook page. Click on the "Admin" link and you are directed to a "Sarh Johnson" that you are invited to become friends with on Facebook.
Ah, but remember that Faytene has two Facebook pages. Does the "Sarah Johson" who administrates the MyCanada page (and presumably works with MyCanada) have a second "Sarah Johnson" on Facebook that she uses to work on the On It!/Vote Pray Serve Facebook page?.
The "second" Sarah Johnson's
Facebook page photo shows a very pregnant lady. I wonder if the very pregnent "second" Sarah Johnson, who is a figure at is listed as one of the over 2,000 members of the MyCanada Facebook page?
People may have a fair argument that On It/Vote Pray Serve.ca is not wholly a MyCanada initiative. But, they are certainly involved in organizing it. And if you have enough MYCanada volunteers involved, Faytene can stay behind the scenes, while giving it a nudge in the right direction, if it's domintated by "mini-Faytenes".
This might be a prudent way to go about it too. When the media is "wise to" Faytene--as shown by
Enquete's story, bring forth "mini-Faytenes" to step up and get On It moving. No spillover from the attention paid to Faytene, then.
A quick addition to Bene D's fears of partisanness on Vote Pray Serve's part. From the On It Facebook page, posted about a week ago:
Esther Bovenberg
VOTE CHP- Christian Heritage Party of Canada if you have someone riding in your area!
about a week ago
I had a look on the 'net, and no, the lady who I think posted this on the page is not running for the party to the best of my knowledge. But what is to prevent a wife or friend of a candidate joining up and then, hoping the page page admins are busy, putting a "Vote for my hubby Mr. Tory MP" message up?