Chick-a-dee-dee cheater? Fowl play alleged in Regina official bird vote
CBC
People who voted in a competition to decide the City of Regina's official bird are chirping about the results. There have been some seedy allegations that the projected winner — the black-capped chickadee — feathered its nest with illegitimate votes.
CBC launched an investigation.
Voting took place online from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10. Results were visible to the public on the city's website early Monday morning, after the voting closed the previous evening. They were soon taken down, so the public can no longer see how many votes each bird in the running garnered.
That morning Stefani Langenegger, host of CBC Radio's The Morning Edition, posted on social media that the chickadee had clearly won as the city's official bird. She said the bird had thousands more votes than its main contender — the red-breasted nuthatch.
But Regina resident Marc Spooner said he had noticed something was off the previous week. Spooner is a fan of the red-breasted nuthatch, a bird he calls "noble" and "honest." He and his family were watching the votes closely.
"On the night of Dec. 5 … we ate supper, we went to bed like normal. I didn't expect anything was amiss," Spooner said.
Like always, Spooner checked the city's voting page before bed to get caught up on the numbers. He said the red-breasted nuthatch was ahead, followed closely behind by the chickadee.
"But when I woke up in the morning and I checked the totals, lo and behold, the chickadee had garnered 2,371 votes overnight while Regina sleeps. And that got me thinking, you know, Big Chickadee was behind this. Something was afoot."
Spooner alleges fraud of some kind occurred sometime between 8 p.m. CST on Dec. 5 and 8 a.m. CST on Dec. 6. He said that votes for the red-breasted nuthatch went up by only 106 during that period.
"I'm just a local person. An area resident. But I need to expose this," Spooner told CBC.
Regina's new official bird will be announced on Jan. 5, 2024. Spooner said he hopes justice prevails.
"When the chickadee gets disqualified — and I'm hoping that this investigation will prove that the chickadee was up to no good — the nuthatch will be reinstated as the proper and only victor of this contest."
CBC spoke with chickadee advocate Ryan Fisher of Regina about the allegations. He maintains that the chickadee is the "friendliest bird," but said there is room for many favourite birds in Regina. While some tell CBC they feel the chickadee swooped in on wings of deceit to steal the title, Fisher said he will wait patiently and trust the process.
"We're not going to count our chickadees until they hatch, and we'll wait for the official announcement to see what's going on," Fisher said.
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.