Conservatives apologize for texts criticizing defecting Quebec MP
OTTAWA • The federal Conservative party has apologized for sending automated text messages to party members in the riding of Quebec MP Alain Rayes after he quit the party on Tuesday, which Rayes described as “intimidation” tactics.
Speaking to the National Post on Wednesday, Rayes said he believed new Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's team was behind the apparent campaign of text messages urging members to pressure him to resign his seat after leaving the party to sit as an Independent.
He also alleged that the president of his riding association in Richmond-arthabaska, Que., Isabelle Deschamps, had been pressured to speak out against him and even to freeze the riding's bank account.
Poilievre's spokesman, Anthony Koch, said that Poilievre and his Quebec lieutenant, Pierre Paul-hus, did indeed speak with Deschamps for an upcoming event in the riding, but denied any suggestion that she was pressured to speak out against the MP or freeze the riding's assets.
Late Wednesday evening, the Conservative party sent out a tweet apologizing for the automated text messages sent to party members in Rayes' riding, but did not apologize directly to the MP.
Rayes called the text message campaign “intimidation, pure and simple.”
“What they're saying to my former colleagues is: this is what happens if you're out of line. So get in line, march with your tail between your legs and think like us,” he said.
Rayes and his wife received a copy of the text message sent in French to the members in the riding on Wednesday.
It accuses the MP of having quit the party because he “decided not to fight (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau's inflation with Pierre Poilievre's united team.”
It then provides the phone number to Rayes' office with a suggestion the recipient call and tell the MP to resign his seat.
Rayes said that the three employees in his constituency office have been inundated with calls ever since, with many constituents calling to say that they were shocked by the message.