General

Conservatives to Quebec senior: buy a membership, or else…

The always engaging Hélène Buzetti, of Le Devoir, has a nice piece on Fernand Coulombe, a 89-year-old fellow from Montmagny, who says he was harassed by a calls from the Conservative Party “demanding” that he pay for the $200 membership he promised to buy. One small detail: Mr. Coulombe never promised to buy anything.

The man […] says he was called “three or four times” by a woman from the COnservative Party last June, after the elections. She demanded that he send the party $200 because he had promised to do so.

“She forced me, saying that I had promised. I didn’t promise anything! I don’t even know her, and I didn’t even vote for them.”

Mr. Coulombe received a letter from the Conservative Party addressed to him personally and dated June 3, 2011. Under the party logo, the following is written in bold letters: “Thank you for your generous promise of a $200 donation.” In the top right of the document is a bar code, a series of identification codes and Mr. Coulombe’s phone number. The man lives in an old age home.

“She was insistent. She said I had absolutley promised this,” Mr. Coulombe said. He says that the woman told him that he’d get most of his money back from the donation (probably due to the tax credit for political parties.) “She wanted me to give money to the Conservative Party and that I’d get the money back. I didn’t believe her at all.”

Classy. Also, whoops: Mr. Coulombe has voted Liberal all his life.

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