PM mishandling robocall fiasco, but lack of proof may save him
Instead, party is blaming Liberals for misleading calls to voters in last election
The robocall affair has morphed into a veritable whodunnit, with Canadians continuing to puzzle over Pierre Poutine’s true identity.
The only clear thing resulting from the controversy is that Canada has lost its coveted reputation for holding squeakyclean elections.
Federal Liberals are pointing to 27 ridings where they say misleading phone calls were made during the 2011 election, all but four in Ontario. The NDP says it has confirmed misdeeds in eight ridings and is probing 13 others, again mostly in Ontario.
Questions are being raised in B. C. about Prince George- Peace River, Vancouver- Quadra and Saanich- Gulf Islands, where Green MP Elizabeth May is citing misleading calls in the 2011 and 2008 elections.
By the day, more ridings are added to the robocall list, with the most comprehensive allegations involving Guelph, Ont., where a disposable cellphone registered to “Pierre Poutine” — the name of a local eatery — is now part of an Elections Canada investigation.
Late last week it reported having received 31,000 messages in relation to last year’s ballot, all related to suspect phone calls. That compares to 500 such messages about the 2008 vote and just 329 from 2006.
Opposition parties, of course, are tripping over themselves in a bid to exploit the situation for partisan purposes, painting Stephen Harper’s government as fraudulent. It’s not clear they’re gaining any advantage so far. Harper has declared unequivocally that the party’s national campaign had nothing to do with such activity: “The Conservative party can say, absolutely, definitively, it has no role in any of this.”
In an age of instant replay, prime ministers don’t make such declarations unless they’re certain of their facts.
That said, few dismiss the notion that so- called rogue campaign workers — from any one of the political parties — may have got up to no good.
As University of Victoria political scientist Reg Whitaker notes: “A basic rule of dirty tricks at the street level [ is] plausible deniability for those in charge, and the plumbers will take the fall when the doodoo hits the fan.”
Voters at this point will want assurances that Elections Canada and/ or the RCMP is doing thorough probes to identify the miscreants. And that all political parties will take precautions to safeguard the electoral system.
In that vein, Harper should be resisting his excessively partisan impulses. Instead of vilifying Liberals for being “poor losers,” he should commit to ensuring the sanctity of the electoral system.
“I do not believe the Conservatives are handling this issue well,” says Roger Gibbins, head of the Calgary- based Canada West Foundation.
“I would have expected the PM to say that he shares [ acting Liberal leader Bob] Rae’s concern about the integrity of the electoral process.”
Instead, Harper “is egging on the opposition parties, whereas the issue could have been, should have been, taken more out of the political process.”
In the end, the robocall mess may not result in significant political damage for any of the parties because proving anything will be difficult.
Asks Gibbins: “How do we know if Person X in Smithers really received a call, and whether it had any behavioural impact?”
Whitaker agrees: “The extent of the scandal is going to be very difficult to measure — hazy recollections of telephone calls past, ‘ he said- she said’ stuff, all anecdotal, and thus subject to dismissal.”
If there’s a silver lining to the robocall episode, it’s that voters, going forward, will now be inclined to simply hang up when they receive robocall-type phone messages on voting day.
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are refusing to publicly release phone records related to their telemarketing in the last election, despite insisting the Liberal party should take this action with its records.
Opposition parties quickly reacted Monday by accusing the Tories of adopting a bizarre double standard as the government tries to quell the growing robocall controversy over whether someone systematically harassed and misled voters into going to the wrong polling stations in last May’s election.
The development occurred as Harper’s parliamentary secretary, Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, warded off questions in the House of Commons by flatly alleging it was the Liberals who were responsible for “each and every one” of the calls that have now spawned thousands of complaints from voters and an investigation by Elections Canada.
Since the controversy broke, opposition parties have been grilling the Conservatives.
On Monday, Del Mastro took his counter- attack farther by alleging in the House it was the Liberals who were to blame for misleading their supporters through campaign phone calls.
“It is reprehensible to make baseless, unsubstantiated smears in this House,” Del Mastro said.
Rather, he said the Liberals spent thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars on their phone calls and he challenged interim Liberal leader Bob Rae to release records of those calls.
“I believe when those records are made public, the Liberal party will have fingered itself for every one of these calls that they allege had taken place,” said Del Mastro.
The Peterborough, Ont. MP, the Tories’ main representative in the controversy, said later, outside the House he doesn’t believe the Liberals “intentionally” misled their voters, but it is “entirely plausible and probable” it was the Liberal campaigns behind the calls.
He said the Tory campaign made phone calls to Conservative supporters, encouraging them to vote.
Asked if the Tories will release the records, Del Mastro was categorical. “No, because our party is not behind these calls.”
Rae revealed the Liberals hope to release their records soon and the Tories should take the same steps.
“Of all the wacko things Mr. Del Mastro has said in the past 10 days, that has to be the wackiest,” he said of the refusal to disclose Conservative phone records.
“I mean to suggest they don’t have to answer because they’re not concerned about this problem just shows you they’ve lost completely their moral compass. They have to release the documents. Everybody does.”
New Democrat MP Pat Martin scoffed at Del Mastro’s claim the Tories should not be expected to release documents.
“That’s a ridiculous, spurious argument. If they have nothing to hide, as they keep saying, why are they denying and obstructing and turning down any idea of a public inquiry?”
Meanwhile, Saskatchewan Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott waded into the controversy by suggesting Elections Canada is partly to blame for the problem.
He released a statement that said Elections Canada frequently provides incorrect information to parties during campaigns about voters, their addresses and poll locations.
“Hired live phoners or automated calling systems are only as good as the data provided to them,” wrote Vellacott. “You know the saying, ‘ garbage in, garbage out.’
“I suspect if Elections Canada has the resources to do a proper investigation, they’ll find they’re themselves significantly responsible, that tech issues with marrying EC [ Elections Canada] lists to available, electronic phone lists is part of the problem, and in a few instances there may have been malfeasance by one party or the other.”
About 200 people held a rally on Parliament Hill demanding more accountability from the Harper government over the affair.
The group, Canadians Against Electoral Fraud, said it is calling for three things: an independent public inquiry, a nullification of the votes in 77 ridings, and “full and true accountability.”