Intent, not outcome, is the basis for criminality

Dean del Mastro is getting desperate.

Del Mastro, who has been leading his party's defence in the controversy over live and automated election phone calls, said nobody has come forward to say they didn't vote because they first went to the wrong polling station.

"So where are these people? Where are these people? Where are these people saying that I got the call, I went to the wrong station, and then I didn't vote?" Del Mastro said on CBC's Power & Politics.

"There haven’t been any. No one has stepped forward and said that."

"Some of these things, as I've already indicated, could have well been mistakes. I don't understand why folks jump to these things and run to a conclusion that they have no evidence of."

Mistakes?! Parties were told not to direct voters to polling stations. He's claiming "mistake" as a defence?

You walk into a bank with a toy gun and demand the all the available money (in small bills) but encounter an operation where the customer service associate has no money.

You flee.

The cop outside captures you.

In court your attorney stresses to the judge that you didn't actually get any money. It's not really a robbery and the gun wasn't really a gun, but a toy. It's all one big mistake.

The Criminal Code section 85 (2) says your toy gun is still a gun. Section 343 says you attempted a robbery. Enjoy prison because you get a five year minimum sentence.

We have evidence dripping off the walls, and Del Mastro is very close there to shifting his defence to the right - we did stuff but it didn't prevent anyone from voting.

The illegal act was doing stuff. 

Del Mastro seizes the moment ...

And chokes on it.

“The Leader of the Liberal Party knows full well, every household that they called, every originating phone number they called them from, and, in fact, when those calls were made,” he said in response to a question from Bob Rae. “When will he make those phone records public? Because I believe when those phone records are made public, the Liberal Party will have fingered itself for each and every one of these calls that they allege had taken place.” 

Ah... the attempt to blame others.

But when asked later by reporters if the Conservatives were prepared to release their own records, Mr. Del Mastro said: “No, because obviously our party is not behind the calls. We know that."

He's already been down that road and got his penis handed to him on a plate.

What we know is that the only party which could have benefited from the voter suppression which has been reported is the Conservatives.

I'd say, nice try ... except that it's feeble and not the slightest bit plausible.

Now, get on over to Creekside where the evidence grows that the Conservatives are stalling for time. Building the "plausible deniability" firewall takes time y'know.

Dean, Dean, Dean! You used a US calling company

Jeez, take away their prepared script and they go straight to the waste treatment plant. Now there is evidence that the Harper Conservatives used US calling companies during the last election campaign.

CBC News has learned that more than a dozen Conservative MPs employed U.S.-based political telemarketing firms during the last federal election campaign, contrary to Stephen Harper’s statement in Parliament this week.

The prime minister and his parliamentary secretary, Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro, claimed in the Commons that the Liberals were the only party that used American calling firms.

“We’ve done some checking,” the PM said, and “we’ve only found that it was the Liberal Party that did source its phone calls from the United States.”

So, let's go to Ohio. If you're Dean del Mastro's campaign team, who ya gonna call? Why, PJ Wenzel of Front Porch Strategies, Columbus Ohio, of course. And Mr. Wenzel's bio says, in part ...

PJ Wenzel is a Partner at Front Porch Strategies, an international voter contact and constituent outreach firm based in Columbus Ohio.  PJ has been working on political and issue campaigns since 1994 and has done work in 40 U.S. states and territories as well as work for members of the Canadian Parliament, and Canadian Conservative Caucus.

Now, just to be clear, (Not del Mastro clear), Mr. Wenzel and Front Porch Strategies have done nothing which could be contrued as wrong or even the slightest bit illegal.

Del Mastro and Harper, however, have misled us once again.

Is there more?

Indeed there is. Later.