Stephen Harper's Conservative government is being hammered today after the Ottawa Citizen revealed that robocalls were made to thousands of voters in at least 18 federal ridings during the last election.
The calls have been traced by Elections Canada to an Edmonton, Alberta call centre, Racknine, which has been used in the past for legitimate purposes by Conservative candidates, including Harper himself.
The calls targeted NDP and Liberal supporters in swing ridings. Some calls were harassment calls, falsely claiming to be from the supporter's party, placed repeatedly in an attempt to annoy the supporter into not voting. Other calls falsely claimed to be from Elections Canada, giving false info about changes to polling place locations.
Does any of this sound... familiar?
Elections Canada and the RCMP are both investigating. More over the NDP-orange swirl.
NDP MP Pat Martin called the tactic a heinous crime against democracy.
"How is this different from a bunch of goons with clubs blocking the door to a voter station as we’ve seen in Third World countries or the deep south of the United States?" he asked at a news conference Thursday. "Because the net effect is the same."
Yep, it
does seem familiar.
Liberal MP John McCallum, speaking at a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday, said he hopes the Conservatives co-operate with any investigation... "I think it's also a technique that the Conservative Party has borrowed from its Republican friends to the south, where the technique, I think, is more developed."
McCallum pointed to a tight race in Etobicoke Centre, saying if a dozen people stayed home, it's possible it changed the outcome of the election.
This new scandal follows a dust-up last fall when robocalls were placed to electors in the riding of Liberal MP Irwin Cottler, stating that he was going to resign his seat. This was untrue.
Word of this black op has been circulating for some time, but these are the first details to emerge publically.
Elections Canada said in its post-election report that the commissioner of elections was looking into complaints of "crank calls designed to discourage voting, discourage voting for a particular party, or incorrectly advise electors of changed polling locations."
Harper and his Cons are, of course, denying any involvement and suggesting that the calls were made by some "rogue operator". Like who, Lily Tomlin's Ernestine?