An automated phone message went out at dinner time on October 13 encouraging people in Saanich-Gulf Islands to vote today for Julian West, an NDP candidate who withdrew from the race three weeks ago.
According to people who received the message, it appeared to be coming from a fax number belonging to Bill Graham, the NDP's riding association president. But Graham said the message did not come from there and he has asked both Telus and the Saanich police to investigate.
“This is a really terrible crime,” he said. “It's a crime against democracy and I hope a civil crime too . . . We want the person prosecuted to the full extent of the laws.”
Graham said he has suspicions who would have made the message, but wouldn't make allegations without proof. “The question is who would stand to gain by this, by splitting the vote,” he said.
The most obvious suspects would be Conservative Gary Lunn's campaign, who with no NDP candidate in the race face a united progressive vote and a tough challenge from Liberal Briony Penn.
“We didn't do it,” said Lunn's campaign co-manager Byng Giraud. “I hope nobody's thinking it's us. If they were, I'd be quite upset.”
It could be NDP people who didn't like how West was bounced from the race, NDP people who want to get the $1.95 per vote in annual funding for the party or the Green Party, he said. “There are lots of people who have motivation for it.”
The NDP sent a letter to members last week, Graham said, telling them to vote for whomever they think is the best person to represent the riding. “The election's today. It would be nice to figure out who did this, but we're concerned about people being confused in today's election.”
The Green Party is just as likely to be hurt by people marking their ballots for West as Penn would be and have little to gain from the confusion.
A person who received the message said a woman delivered the following:
"Support Julian West of the NDP. Everyday families need to know they have someone in Ottawa fighting for them. Stephen Harper is the wrong kind of strong. Wrong on the economy, wrong on health care and wrong on the environment. Stéphane Dion has been his best friend over the last year and now wants to impose a second carbon tax on British Columbia. Jack Layton and the NDP won't let that happen. Let's put the priorities of the kitchen table first. Tomorrow vote Julian West of the NDP."
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. You can reach him here.
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Rudy
4 years ago
Hmmmm. So Gary Lunn thinks
Hmmmm.
So Gary Lunn thinks the NDP - rather than focussing on the hundreds of ridings where they have a candidate - is seeking to boost their vote by faking a break-in in the one riding where the NDP has no one to vote for.
Then, to ice the cake, they called the police on themselves.
crh
4 years ago
I heard one news
source say that the CRTC claim that it is not their responsiblity to investigate this as it is categorized under fraud.
Desperate measures for the desperate.
rouge+chartreuse
4 years ago
I got this message last evening
as did many others.
This was the message, before I picked it up to see if I could connect with someone who was making the call. It was a woman's voice:
"Support Julian West of the NDP. Everyday families need to know they have someone in Ottawa fighting for them. Stephen Harper is the wrong kind of strong. Wrong on the economy, wrong on health care and wrong on the environment. Stephane Dion has been his best friend over the last year and now wants to impose a second carbon tax on British Columbia. Jack Layton and the NDP won't let that happen. Let's put the priorities of the kitchen table first. Tomorrow, vote for Julian West of the NDP."
My call display showed the name "Graham W F" and gave a phone number from a Salt Spring exchange. I have no idea if that number belongs to Graham. I don't know if it is technically possible to fake someone else's number on caller ID, but maybe it is. Does someone else know if this is possible?
I'm also not sure how a person does an automated phone message campaign. Doesn't this take some expensive technical equipment, which would indicate involvement of someone with greater resources?
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be anything official from the NDP or it's workers. That would be sure to make them look bad. It could have been some disgruntled NDP member who wanted to screw the Liberal's chance, but that doesn't really seem too likely to me either.
It could also be a radical and desperate Conservative who thought he could spike the race by confusing a few voters in the riding. I would put my money on that possibility. Although Gary Lunn says his campaign didn't do it and I'm sure he has deniability, I did receive an automated phone message from his campaign a few nights earlier, where he claims that he would never authorize oil tankers in our waters as has been claimed by environmental groups. That I don't believe for a second.
Surprisingly there are still people who don't know that the NDP candidate is no longer in the race and some will still vote NDP since West's name is still on the ballot. Some predict that West will still get as much as 10% of the vote, enough to win the riding for Lunn.
VancouverPointGreen
4 years ago
Sounds like NDP lingo to me
The whole quote sounds like every Jack Layton speech the whole campaign. Lunn's campaign manager, Giraud, has the gaul to point the finger at the Green Party!! How would they benefit?... Whatever happens, the Greens cannot be blamed for splitting the vote this time around.
Dave2
4 years ago
Caller ID is spoofable
Yes, caller ID is spoofable.
>It could also be a radical and desperate Conservative
Yep, possible, and it could be the greens too, they also would have a reason to want the NDP to siphon off Liberal votes in S-GI... It could also be that someone at NDP headqarters in Ottawa forgot to disable the phone bot.
> It could have been some disgruntled NDP member who wanted to screw the Liberal's chance
Or someone trying to discredit the Conservatives, after all they do seem the most liklely to have done this...so it proabably wasn't ;)
>who with no NDP candidate in the race
Technically incorrect, he's on the ballot whether they like it or not. I'll go out on a limb here and predict 5,000 votes for the tumescent memeber.
Dave2
4 years ago
> Giraud, has the gaul to
> Giraud, has the gaul to point the finger at the Green Party!! How would they benefit.
Because a vote for the NDP party (excuse the tautology) is a vote that doesn't go to the Liberal party, allowing Lewis to slip up the middle.
politico
4 years ago
Desperation
Last gasps.
Their will be an intense investigation if the NDP pulls a decent count due to this and if Lunn is re-elected by a slim margin this cloud will hang over him.
Regardless, Lunn is done. It should be here and now as the campaign to oust him has been one of the most successful in the nation.
rouge+chartreuse
4 years ago
> The whole quote sounds
> The whole quote sounds like every Jack Layton speech the whole campaign.
Which could have been lifted straight off of the NDP website by anyone. I don't really see any upside for anyone in the NDP to have done this.
> Yes, caller ID is spoofable.
If there is some legal reason for the police to investigate I wonder if Telus can tell them where the calls really originated from then.
>It could also be that someone at NDP headqarters in Ottawa forgot to disable the phone bot.
LOL. Yes it's important not to rule out just plain ol' incompetence.
> Because a vote for the NDP party (excuse the tautology) is a vote that doesn't go to the Liberal party, allowing Lewis to slip up the middle.
I guess someone in the Greens could be thinking that but I don't see that as possible. Lewis would need every NDP vote to go his way and then some to have much chance of coming up the middle. Many, many people who have voted Green in the riding in the last few elections are voting for Penn. I'm in the Gulf Islands, which is the Green stronghold and know this from being out and about. People who are long time Green party members will be voting for Penn, who they know is still green even though she is no longer Green. :-)
Personally, I've voted both Green and NDP in this riding and I'm happy to go and vote for Penn, which I will be doing in a few minutes. It will make me happy to see Gary Lunn gone.
NicS
4 years ago
Another Reason To Not Vote Conservative
Another Conservative blunder? It looks like the Conservatives were the only ones to gain from this stunt. If you don't support this type of Shenanigans, then simply don't vote for the Conservatives Gary Lunn.
G West
4 years ago
A modest proposal
I think the most likely culprit is the Liberals...sounds like a Campbell Liberal joint to me...after all, it was the Libs late in the day whistle blowing that created the main 'chance' for his current candidate after all.
Why?
You figure it out...it's the kind of viral thing that might create MORE sympathy for Penn - put Lunn in a worse light than he's in already - and create confusion on e-day among NDP ranks. Plus it has the advantage of being something not easily tied to the Liberals...however, Zubyk's familiarity with NDP processes and procedures on e-day might have also played a part.
These are the same people who brought us spiderman Bornmann and the Basi Boyz, remember?
Just a thought.
On the other hand it could be, as suggested above, simply a screw up at riding HQ - can't imagine Ottawa would have anything whatever to do with it though.
rouge+chartreuse
4 years ago
Modest but unlikely IMO
> I think the most likely culprit is the Liberals
I wouldn't rule them out either, or some misguided rogue partisan hack within, except to question how this could really be an effective tactic for them the night before election day.
Most people will have voted by the time this story gains any momentum. If it was put out several days ago, by now it would be a media story that could be pinned fairly or unfairly on the Lunn campaign and would have also served to make it known more broadly that West had dropped out. Putting it out the night before the election means that some people who didn't know any better might get up in the morning and vote for West.
I hope there is some investigation of this. I don't know if it breaches the law, but if it's connected to any party, it won't look good on them.
mwatkins
4 years ago
Caller ID is spoofable. Any
Caller ID is spoofable. Any reasonably smart geek could build a demon dialer setup using off the shelf hardware and open source software.
Suggesting the party with the least to gain from this - the Liberals - would be behind this is laughable.
Its either someone with a vested interest or an anonymous geek hacker.
But the far more interesting prospect here is defeating Lunn, defeating someone who promotes an anti-environmental agenda.
Buh bye Garry!
DPL
4 years ago
A lot of voters are pretty
A lot of voters are pretty dumb.I know a couple of strong NDP supporters and they bought the story until they read the local newspaper this morning.The NDP office said it wasn't put out by them but the damage was dne and the cops say it's not up to them to investigate. But a big bunch of folks voted for the ex candidate. The only party that would gain would be the cons. I just heard the number was much larger than reported earlier this evening. Well folks I sure hope you got what you wanted and the goofy guy gets to increase his eventual pension by doing little for the working folks in the riding. One really wonders just how much thinking goes into voting.