General

Conservatives place false byelection calls in Liberal riding

Liberal MP’s constituents told of purported pending resignation

The Tories admitted they told constituents in Liberal MP Irwin Cotler’s Montreal riding that Cotler was about to resign and a by-election would be held, in a number of phone calls spreading false information in the last couple of weeks, the National Post reports. Conservative MPs, however, defended the calls as a legitimate means to identify voters. Constituents in Cotler’s Mount Royal, in fact, received calls from a marketing research company urging them to support the Conservatives in a possible upcoming by-election. Queen’s University professor Ned Franks told the Post the Conservatives’ tactic amounted to “dirty blows.” Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan, however, noted that rumors about Cotler’s pending have been circulating for over a decade, and that, therefore, telling constituents there were rumours of a byelection was hardly a stretch.

The National Post

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