OTTAWA — The Conservatives scrambled Thursday to distance themselves from fraudulent "robocalls" sent out during last year's federal election and attempted to direct blame toward a young campaign worker.
In response to a Postmedia News-Ottawa Citizen report that found an Elections Canada investigation has traced the robocalls to a call centre with Conservative connections, Prime Minister Stephen Harper denied his party was involved in the attempt to mislead voters.
"In this case, our party has no knowledge of these calls," Harper told reporters in Iqaluit. "It's not part of our campaign."
Anyone found responsible would face the full consequence of the law, Harper said.
Later in the day, a Conservative-friendly media organization cited two anonymous Conservative party sources and reported that a staff member who had worked on the campaign of Guelph, Ont., Conservative candidate Marty Burke was a person of interest to the investigation...
{snippety doo-dah}
....Sun Media's website ran a photograph of a Burke campaign worker, Michael Sona, standing next to Harper at what appears to be a campaign event, claiming he was involved in the calls. The photo is credited to the Prime Minister's Office.
Sona, 23, served as Burke's communications director during the campaign and is now an executive assistant to rookie Conservative MP Eve Adams on Parliament Hill.
Postmedia News contacted Sona earlier this week and asked him a series of questions about the robocalls but he did not respond.
Sona was not in Adams' office on Thursday afternoon. Asked if he would be returning, another staffer said, "Maybe."
Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae dismissed the naming of Sona as a tactic, noting that he was identified only after the story surfaced.
"Why would they only find the guy today, after the story has come out? They've known about this allegation a long time."
Rae said the real blame for any election trickery rests with the political culture Harper has created in the party.
"The prime minister has created a Nixonian culture," Rae said. "This stuff doesn't happen unless the boss lets it happen."...
And the post that I wrote, back in the spring of 2011?
Well here it is....
Feel free to scroll down to the second to last comment...
Double Secret Probation Update (Apr 25, 2011): I have been contacted by a very nice person from the 'The Landmark Report' who wanted to set the record straight. She pointed out that the 'Tweet' referred to below came from the 'editor' not the 'proprietor' of that fine online publication. I have thus made that correction in an editted version of the post below. The representative of said fine online publication also took umbrage at my description of it being 'right-sided' and then went on to state that "it is a site that fosters debate and discussion from all sides of the spectrum" Now, that is a most interesting claim. I've had a look around there and I am not entirely convinced. Regardless, I have edited the post below to make it clear that it is my opinion that the site contains considerable right-sided content of a Canadian political nature. Finally, during my poking around at the very fine 'Landmark Report' it was most illuminating to find that, based on one of his own posts, it is clear that the good editor in question is very proud of his on air support for a political commentator that, in the opinion of some at least, always aspires to foster debate from 'all sides of the spectrum', Mr. Mark Steyn, while the latter was a guest on the program of he who, in the opinion of very, very few, is always inclusive of all political views, Mr. Rush Limbaugh.
Original Update: At bottom of post....
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Yesterday, Conservative Alliance/Coalition Party of Canada operative Mr. Michael Sona, who is currently helping run the campaign of coalition candidate Mr. Marty Burke in Guelph Ontario, retweeted a message from the editor of a very fine website called 'The Landmark Report' that leads back to this post.
The 'Landmark Report', in my opinion, publishes a considerable amount right-sided Canadian political reportage.
Regardless, the post in question, which has been wurlitzered 'round the intewebz by some very well meaning Conservative Coalition apologists, shows five photos that were apparently taken at the University of Guelph last Wednesday during a soon-to-be-hotly disputed 'special initiative' that had been designed to help students cast their ballots before they left campus after final exams.
In fact, this initiative was so special in terms of how it was designed to help get young students out to vote before they left the riding to go home for the summer prior to the regularly scheduled polling day on May 2nd that it was fully supported by none other than the President of Guelph University, who got all avatared-up to do so, as can be seen in the video below...
So....
Getting back to the tweets by the twitterers/operatives/journalists/conservatives concerned, please note that four of the five photos posted by 'The Landmark Report' were taken outside at the University of Guelph last Wednesday.
As in outside the 'special initiative' station where students were casting their ballots.
And, to give the avowed apologists their due, there do appear to be some young folks holding Liberal party literature in some of those photos who are, again, outside.
Please note, however, that the fifth Beatle.....errr.....Photo was taken inside, at what is clearly the special polling station itself.
And in that most (non) incriminating photo of all there appears to be absolutely nothing nefarious or untoward whatsoever going on.
And whaddy'a know.....It turns out that this is not the first time during this election campaign that a reporter at the Guelph Mercury, Mr. Greg Layson, has done the digging to determine that that the fine Conservative Operative currently working in the Guelph riding for Mr. Burke has been involved in disputes involving local university students attempting to exercise their rights as citizens of Canada.....Gosh.....Would'a thunk it?
And whosoever could have possibly thunk that some of those fine, upstanding and well meaning apologists could possibly have been in on the front end of the wurlitzering of the previous dispute...
Update, 12pm noon on Tuesday Apr 19th (~12hr after this post went up)....It's very interesting, but now, suddenly, the five photos of the good Mr. Sona at the 'special initiative', have been added without comment other than identification to the original 'Landmark Report' post....
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Donald Segretti was a notorious Nixon campaign dirty trickster and self-proclaimed 'rat f*cker'....But even tricksters, alleged or otherwise, can be 'sacrificial', right?
I'll raise you with Mr. Kinsella and Mr. Castelli (in the Globe and Mail) Core Campaigners for the Christy Clark and Kevin Falcon leadership of the BC Liberals on pages 1 and 2
TwitterDee,TwitterDuh
3 comments:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/whos-following-the-would-be-leader/article1899365/
Mr. Sona??????
I'll raise you with Mr. Kinsella and Mr. Castelli (in the Globe and Mail) Core Campaigners for the Christy Clark and Kevin Falcon leadership of the BC Liberals on pages 1 and 2
and page 3 Mark Jiles for George Abbott
Anon-Above--
Oh ya.
We noticed from the beginning that the 'progressive' Mr. Jiles has been riding Horse 1A...errrr...Mr. Abbott from the very beginning....
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