He also refers to the "one individual involved", who is no longer with the party. Didn't see that one coming.
Update:
OTTAWA—Callers on behalf of the federal Conservative Party were instructed in the days before last year’s election to read scripts telling voters that Elections Canada had changed their voting locations, say telephone operators who worked for a Thunder Bay-based call centre.
These calls were made by The Responsive Marketing Group. From their website:
The Responsive Marketing Group Inc. (RMG) is Canada's largest direct-contact firm working in the political sector. RMG works exclusively with right-of-centre campaigns to design and execute integrated programs that use direct mail, the telephone and online tools to build relationships that deliver results for our clients.
And their management profiles are seeable here. Their CEO, Michael Davis, has deep connections to Harper and the CPoC, and is no stranger to controversy:
Davis formerly worked with fundraising consultant Craig Copland, the founder or co-founder of at least six Canadian charities that routinely spend 70 percent or more of contributions on telemarketers and other expenses, according to a recent Toronto Star investigation. These charities "exaggerate their good deeds, or outright refuse to say what they do with your money." Copland works closely with the telemarketing corporation Xentel DM. "Copland finds Xentel new charity clients. Xentel pays him royalties for charities sent its way. He also served on Xentel's board of directors until the Star started asking questions," the paper reported. Davis' RMG works in similar fashion.
"With RMG and Xentel, they'll guarantee money, but in effect you turn over your charitable tax number to them," says the consultant. "They can hide it in various ways." He says says, "Davis is smart. Three years ago he severed his connection with Copland," who is now drawing public heat.
Question period today should be fun.
A few comments from an upset Conservative.
9 comments:
To keep referring to this issue as "robocalls" makes it easier for the government to deflect. I'd prefer to hear the more damaging 'F' word tossed about when describing these shenanigans because FRAUD is what appears to have taken place! Call a spade a spade for fucks sake.
I prefer the word TREASON myself. Let's tie the noose around these bastards, set the knot tight, open the trapdoor, and let 'em drop...
As a Conservative, I find it indefensible that, as a party who so-clearly pounded the table regarding the Adscam effort at suggesting "the ends justify the means", we do not pound the table even harder when that same suggestion appears to come from some inside our own party.
To be honest, BCL, it's bad enough when you are a Liberal watching this fiasco.. for an honest Conservative, it's worse.
"Police have charged some people with election-related crimes. The Brampton Guardian, for instance, reported that police had charged a 47-year-old volunteer on Brampton West Liberal incumbent Andrew Kania's campaign with possession of stolen property, after signs belonging to the riding's Conservative candidate were allegedly found in the back of the volunteer's truck."
From the Hill Times.
http://www.hilltimes.com/news/2011/05/02/many-candidates-complain-of-dirty-tricks-election-related-vandalism-in-nasty-campaign/25910?page_requested=2
Rotterdam.
Point taken, but that's no excuse now, is it?
As thinking (hopefully) Canadians we need to move beyond the "my side at any cost" mentality that creats this kind of bullshit in the first place.
Rotterdam... big fucking deal!
Signs have been stolen at every election dating back to John A's time, and by EVERY party's overzealous volunteers ...right down to the Greens.
Not that it's excusable, (if fact that breaks election laws too) but it's a far cry from an orchestrated national vote suppression campaign.
And please don't insult us by saying everybody does it. If that were true, why haven't the Conservatives gone after the Grits or Dippers if there was evidence they were engaged in vote suppression phone calls?
With the vigor your team is pursuing the "Vikileaks" gong-show, I can't imagine they'd just let election fraud allegations go without any investigation after all this time.
They are guilty. And they are into rationalisations a four year old would scoff at.
<<
Elections Canada changed some poll locations during the election, which is their prerogative. Our job is to get votes out and wrong locations would hurt us, so to ensure our supporters knew where to go, we would ask them if they knew where their poll was. When they told us their poll was in a different location than was in our system, we would tell them that Elections Canada may have changed it, and give what we thought was the right address.>>
-- Conservative Party spokeslug Fred Delorey, quoted in the Toronto Star.
As thinking (hopefully) Canadians we need to move beyond the "my side at any cost" mentality that creats this kind of bullshit in the first place.
We do. Because it's hypocritical to preach about democracy to other countries and fear it at home.
And because something like this can become engrained into the political system. This sort of crap is common in America. Here are fake Robocalls in America. Here's an example where the wrong date is given. In fact they have groups that talk about the "virtues" of supressing the vote.
Has the RMG website been scrubbed to remove your article's quoted reference to => The Responsive Marketing Group Inc. (RMG) is Canada's largest direct-contact firm working in the political sector. RMG works exclusively with right-of-centre campaigns to design and execute integrated programs that use direct mail, the telephone and online tools to build relationships that deliver results for our clients.
The RMG About page now makes reference to it's work with "the non-profit sector"
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