Dean Del Mastro, other Tories hired U.S. telemarketer during election, contrary to Stephen Harper’s claims
Postmedia News Mar 3, 2012 – 3:53 PM ET | Last Updated: Mar 3, 2012 4:54 PM ET


By Mark Kennedy and Sheila Dabu Nonato

OTTAWA — More than a dozen Conservative MPs hired a U.S.-based telemarketing firm in the last federal election campaign, contrary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s claim that it was only the Liberals who employed American calling firms.

The revelation comes as a political embarrassment to the governing Tories, who are on the defensive in the growing robocall controversy and had tried in the House of Commons to embarrass their critics.

Among those who used the American-based firm, Front Porch Strategies, in his own re-election bid was Peterborough, Ont., MP Dean Del Mastro, who is Harper’s parliamentary secretary and has been the government’s designated frontman in warding off questions over the robocall affair.

There is nothing illegal with a Canadian political party hiring an American firm to conduct its political telemarketing, but the Tories have tried to weaken the credibility of their rivals, the Liberals, by claiming they turned to foreign companies to do the work.

Last week, Del Mastro’s attack on the Liberals backfired when, in the House of Commons, he accused the Liberals of employing a U.S. calling firm. In fact, the Liberals say they used a Canadian company with the same name and there is no connection between the two firms.

Harper also went on the attack, suggesting it could be the Liberals’ own calling firms that were making misleading calls from the U.S.

“We’ve done some checking,” Harper told the Commons on Thursday.

“We’ve only found that it was the Liberal party that did source its phone calls from the United States.”

On Saturday, Andrew MacDougall, associate communications director to the prime minister, drew a distinction to what Harper meant by his comments. He said Harper was referring to the Conservative Party of Canada, which he said used Responsive Marketing Group (RMG) to do its work “all out of Canada” for phone techniques aimed at identifying Tory supporters and getting out the vote on election day.

MacDougall said when Harper spoke in the House about the Tories and U.S. firms, he was “not speaking to individual campaigns” run by Conservative candidates.

Records show that Front Porch Strategies, based in Columbus, Ohio, conducted telephone work for 14 Conservative candidates in last spring’s federal election. The firm was founded in 2006 by Matthew D. Parker, who has done extensive work for Republican politicians in the U.S.

On its website, the company describes itself as “an award-winning international voter contact and constituent communications firm.”

“Our passion is helping Republican candidates, elected officials, and conservative causes win by personally connecting them with voters and constituents,” says the company.

“Whether you are running for U.S. Senate, Parliament, city council, or simply trying to communicate better with the people who put you in office, our team at Front Porch Strategies will work tirelessly and effectively to help you accomplish your goals.”

The firm boasts of its success in the Canadian election last year that delivered Harper’s Conservatives their long-sought majority government.

“In May’s Federal Elections, Front Porch Strategies won all 14 of their races,” the company says on its website.

Front Porch Strategies offers a range of service to its clients, including: “automated phone calls” to provide quick “mass communication” for political campaigns; “live” phone calls in which a real person makes the call to “advocate” for a politician; and “teleforums,” in which thousands of people can join a town-hall type conference call to hear a politician make his pitch.

Jim Ross, the Canadian consultant for Front Porch Strategies, said Saturday that 14 Conservative candidates made use of the company’s teleforum services to provide “telephone town halls” during the last election campaign.

Ross served as campaign manager for St. Catharines, Ont., MP Rick Dykstra, who he said, made use of the service in the last election.

But Ross was adamant that these calls were not connected to the “robocalls” scandal, in which Elections Canada is investigating whether voters were harassed and also given false information about a change in their polling stations.

“There’s no way to mislead someone with this,” he said, adding that those contacted would know right away what the call was about.

“We wouldn’t do something like this on election day. The point is to allow voters and potential voters an interactive way to discuss things with their member of Parliament without having to leave their home,” Ross said.

The teleforum service is used when an election is called and up to a few days before an election, but never on election day, Ross said.

Anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 voters identified as Conservative supporters in a riding are called to inquire if they would like to participate in a live conference call with their MP, Ross said. About 15 per cent of those called usually participate. Participants can ask questions and listen in as their candidate fields questions live.

The service costs from $1,000 to $4,500 and is usually used once or twice during a campaign, he said.

Calls can be attributed to a candidate’s riding, if the candidate chooses, meaning that the number on a voter’s call display can show the candidate’s local number, even if the calls are made from the U.S.

Ross, who began working for Front Porch Strategies five months ago, said he wasn’t sure what type of call display service the 14 Conservative candidates opted for in the last election.

Of the 14 candidates, Del Mastro used the firm twice for teleforums — paying $2,700 each time, according to Elections Canada records.

Harper’s Conservatives continued their counter-offensive Saturday, as an official from party headquarters issued a statement that said: “The Liberal party is the party that sourced its phone calls from the U.S. during the last election.”

Conservative party spokesman Fred DeLorey said the Liberals spent millions of dollars to make thousands of phone calls to Canadian ridings “using firms that have U.S. operations.”

On the misleading calls, DeLorey said, “It is up to the Liberals to prove these aren’t Liberal calls before continuing these baseless smears.”

“We didn’t make these calls.”

With hundreds of individual campaigns, to expect any leader to know what each was doing and what people they hired is unrealistic.

Let's get on to some actual news and move on from all parties trying to score points.

I'm all for taking people to task and firing some - maybe even a by election or two.

31,000 complaints though - everything from harassment to misdirection. Yep. I got more than one call from the NDP and Liberals during the campaign even after I told them I was voting CPC. Guess I should call that in.

That being said, the first time the CPC called and I said I was voting for them didn't stop them from calling me twice more. It took me threatening them that I'd vote NDP before they stopped bugging me.

All parties are guilty of some form of harassment here and of those 31,000 complaints, how many belong to people trying to score some partisan points. I'd say a few.

If it's impossible for them to know the means their people are using it's a little silly to ever make the bold claim that there were none done by them, don't you think?

I find it funny they say they've been doing "some checking" while clearly failing completely at doing so. Don't say you researched when you just plain didn't.

It's been explained that they are not necessarily complaints about robocalls and not to mention that two websites in particular are generating thousands of complaints from the U.K. and elsewhere... this type of thing only muddies the waters and makes it hard for the investigators.

All major parties use robocalls to some extent,NDP recently flooded a Quebec riding with robocalls about a non existent bye election.

But we have nothing to put this into perspective.

How many complaints were in previous elections? How many complains were about the CPC, Liberals and NDP? How many people confused as to who was actually calling them?

In the end, all parties use robo-calls during elections. Most recently, people started using these telephone town-halls. Further, elections Canada always gets complaints.

It's funny to hear politicians from either side posture about this when every single one of them breaks an election law or two during their campaign.

Then, simply, they should not have made such an unrealistic claim.

CBC quoted something like 1,400 in 2008, and 600 in 2006, from Elections Canada.

I've been doing some checking. Did you know everyone in Calgary is a meth dealer? Really interesting stuff.