On election day way back in May of 2011, robo-calls were placed to an an unknown number of voters in Guelph, informing them that their voting location had changed.
That sentence may seem innocent, but it isn't by any measure.
First things first: A robo-call is an automatically recorded voice message that is sent to your phone. If you pick up, it gives the message directly to you. If your answering machine picks up, it leaves a message. Odds are you have received one at some point.
Secondly: Voting locations had not changed. These calls created mass confusion for all campaigns. Anecdotally this particularly affected the Green campaign for John Lawson (disclosure: I was the manager) and the Frank Valeriotte Liberal campaign. Voters were showing up to locations that were not voting stations and then not having the time or patience to go to the correct location to vote.
Finally: An investigation has now linked the calls to a company that primarily contracts out work to the Conservative Party of Canada:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22/racknine-inc-fraudulent-election-calls-traced/
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Elections+Canada+investigating+robocalls+that+misled+voters/6194146/story.html
If this turns out that there is one or two independent malicious/evil individuals who were doing there best to prevent Canadians from completing their civic rights then the odds are there will be significant consequences to those individuals and the story will die.
However...this could become the story of Conservatives bringing the ugliest possible side of American-style attack politics to Canada. This could turn into the story where the conservative party is connected to these calls in some way. The Conservative Party of Canada denies involvement: https://twitter.com/#!/davidakin/status/172525793229012992
Let's hope that our governing party and Prime Minister are not connected to actions that most Canadians will find reprehensible. I believe that all of us would agree that elections (and governance) should be about engaging as many Canadians as we possibly can in a discussion about what is best for us. Not lying and manipulating people out of the process.
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