Robocalls hit home on Peninsula, May says Erin Cardone News staff
There might be thousands of Peninsula residents whose right to vote was affected by robocalls, the riding’s MP said. And Elizabeth May hopes residents who were affected can help. “We are trying to solve a crime. Interfering with somebody’s right to vote is a crime,” she told the News Review. May said a company phoned
people in her Saanich-Gulf Islands riding just before the federal election of May 2, 2011 and told voters their polling station had moved in hopes of keeping them from voting. That election was a tight race in Saanich-Gulf Islands, with Conservative incumbent MP Gary Lunn pegged to win by a small margin. May said she doesn’t believe Lunn is responsible for the calls – rather it was likely someone aiding Lunn.
“The people who received calls as far as I know … were not people who were about to vote Conservative. I’m not suggesting Gary Lunn had anything to do with the dirty tricks in … 2011. Clearly the motivations were to assist the Conservative candidates.” Lunn’s former financial agent said the local Conservative riding association was not involved in robocalls in the 2011 election. “If I had a list of people who were voting for the Green Party or some
other party, which I don’t have, and wanted to send them a robocall, I can think of a lot more effective things to do than telling them to go to the wrong polling station,” Bruce Hallsor said. “Ninety-plus per cent of people vote earlier in the day and if they were told to vote five or 10 minutes away from their polling station, they could find their way to the right polling station before it closed.” In the days leading up to the election, May’s constituency office
PENINSULA
received four or five calls from voters contacted by the robocalls. Hallsor said the Conservative Saanich-Gulf Islands Electoral District Association also received calls from Conservative supporters misdirected by robocalls. Since the story hit national media in late February, May said she’s received many more calls and more than 11,000 emails. PLEASE SEE: Peninsula voters, page A14
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Wednesday, March 7, 2012
When
e v o l * s l l ki *Almost. A love triangle nearly turns deadly when a wife’s affections turn to her dashing dentist. Mitchell Lovell (Matt Watson), left, and Arlene (Elizabeth Brimacombe), right, conspire to kill Arlene’s husband Paul Miller (James Hunter) in the Peninsula Players’ presentation of Murder at the Howard Johnson’s, showing this week at Berwick Royal Oak retirement community and next week at the Charlie White Theatre in the Mary Winspear Centre. See the story, page A20.
Christine van Reeuwyk/News staff
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