The Liberals called for a Royal Commission to investigate the controversy, claiming they have nothing to fear from a probe into misleading phone calls made during the last federal election.
At the same time, the Conservatives attempted to turn the tables on the Liberals, who have been embroiled in their own robocall mess in the Ontario riding of Guelph, the focal point of the alleged election fraud.
But interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said if the Conservatives were so concerned about possible misconduct by his party, then perhaps they too should push for an inquiry.
“Nobody on this side has anything to fear from a Royal Commission,” Mr. Rae said, his voice growing louder. “We ask for it. We demand it. The people of Canada require it.”
Interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel also voiced her support for an investigation saying “if the Prime Minister has nothing to hide, a public inquiry is the way to go.”
The call for a Royal Commission comes after revelations the Liberal party was behind a robocall in the riding of Guelph attacking the Tory candidate over abortion.
A female volunteer from MP Frank Valeriote’s campaign, using the fake name Laurie McDonald, recorded a phone call that said the Conservative candidate Marty Burke was opposed to abortion.
In the call, the woman doesn’t say she is calling on behalf of a political candidate — against Elections Canada if it was indeed advertising — and the Conservatives have called the messages “disgraceful.”
“These deceptive robocalls, Mr. Speaker, used a phony number, a phony person and they attacked and suppressed votes in Guelph,” said Dean Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister.
“That was the real intent behind them … the Liberal candidate and the party (has) acted in a fashion that is deceptive, disgraceful and dishonest.”
Later in Question Period, Mr. Valeriote said he had been open and co-operative with Elections Canada.
“This was an issue-based call, which could have easily been tracked back to our service provider, totally different from the fraudulent calls that came from Pierre Poutine on Election Day,” he said.
Sources say now that Elections Canada investigators are aware of the IP address that ‘Pierre Poutine’ used to set up the Guelph robocall account, the suspect will step forward and accept responsibility for the deceptive calls. Someone with knowledge of the affair was expected to share information with Elections Canada on Monday.
The young campaigners most often associated with the Guelph campaign in media reports have both repeatedly publicly declared their innocence.
Michael Sona, communications director for Marty Burke’s campaign in Guelph, resigned roughly 24 hours after the robocalls scandal broke, but released a public statement later to say he had no involvement whatsoever.
Deputy campaign director Andrew Prescott, who had an account with RackNine that he used for other campaigns, has also said that he had nothing to do with the calls.
An Elections Canada spokesman said Monday the majority of messages the agency has received about the robocall controversy have come via automated or online forms. The forms allow users to simply add their name and submit their comments to Elections Canada.
The remainder of the 31,000 contacts are complaints from electors about possible misleading phone calls, messages from electors concerned or interested in commenting on the investigation, or inquiries about the process.
“Those are the general themes,” said Elections Canada spokesman John Enright. He said Elections Canada is still trying to put numbers to each one of those themes, and the agency has hired 12 people to sort through each one of the 31,000 contacts.
Original Article
Source: national post
Author: Allison Cross
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