Tories attack Graves in court while government pays him to poll

The pollster that Conservative Party lawyers last week attacked as a Liberal partisan did more than $800,000 in work for the Conservative federal government last year.

Lawyers representing Conservatives MPs in a series of robocalls-related court challenges of the 2011 election results are trying to toss out evidence filed by Frank Graves of Ekos Research.

Graves had done research on the impact of live and prerecorded calls made to non-Conservative supporters, on behalf for the Council of Canadians, which is backing the litigation in Federal Court.  His affidavit is a key — or maybe the key — piece of evidence in the cases.

The motion from the Tory MPs’ lawyer, Arthur Hamilton, asked the court toss Graves’ affidavit because, inter alia, he “repeatedly and publicly aligned himself with political interests, parties and actors that oppose” the Conservatives.

Further, Hamilton alleged, “He is clearly personally invested in the narrative that voter suppression did take place and had an effect on the Election”

And, “Mr. Graves fails to disclose that his firm, Ekos, received more than $61,000,000 through 1,600 contracts with the federal government while the Liberal Party was in power, and has much less revenue from that source since the Conservatives were elected.”

Hamilton does not mention that Ekos received more money in polling contracts  in 2010-11 — $897,517.47, to be precise – than any other firm, save for Ipsos-Reid Canada.

The motion is correct that Ekos’ government revenues have dropped substantially since the Liberal days. Indeed, federal government spending on public opinion has been dramatically chopped since it reached an all-time record high in 2006-07 – the first full fiscal year under then Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s leadership. Last year, the government spent a mere $7 million on public-opinion research.

In the past few years, Ekos has done work for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Department of National Defence, Public Safety Canada and Health Canada, among others.

But Graves has become something of a bête noire for Tories, ever since he suggested during a CBC panel appearance that Liberals consider creating a “culture war” to rally their voters against the Conservatives.

Graves said he considers the motion filed by Conservative MPs defamatory. While he cannot sue for libel because the statements are protected by the qualified privilege that attaches to court proceedings, I am told he is considering a complaint to the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Glen McGregor