About those US Republicans who campaign for Canadians

Something about this post by Alison has been bugging me. Front Porch Technologies president Matthew D. Parker was photographed working in the campaign office of Julian Fantino (Vaughan). And then, by his own hand on 20 April, 2011, in a Twitter thing:

Knocking on doors for MP Rick Dykstra. People don't like liberals here!

That would be Harper party member Rick Dykstra (St. Catharines).

So we have West Virginia born, Ohio resident, US citizen, Matt Parker phoning and knocking and just "taking Toronto by storm".

OK, let's continue this with a particular definition.

induce
in-duce [in-doos -dyoos]
1. to lead or move by persuasion or influence, as to some action or state of mind: to induce a person to buy a raffle ticket.

... like making direct contact with Canadian electors and suggesting they vote for your candidate ... or phoning them directly to gather support ... or handing them candidate and party literature. 

Now let's look at a little chunk of the Canada Elections Act. 

Non-interference by Foreigners

Prohibition – inducements by non-residents

331. No person who does not reside in Canada shall, during an election period, in any way induce electors to vote or refrain from voting or vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate unless the person is

• (a) a Canadian citizen; or



• (b) a permanent resident within the meaning of subsection 2(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

In any way, it says. In other words, sit on your hands, stay off peoples porches and keep your mouth shut. 


Perhaps Fantino and Dykstra can explain.

 

Republicans without borders

You might recall the occasion, one week ago, where a Columbus, Ohio firm, Front Porch Strategies was mentioned as having worked for the campaign of Dean del Masto. You might also recall that Front Porch Strategies appeared to have played a limited role in the Conservative campaign by hosting a Conservative townhall telephone event on their servers.

Why don't you quickly re-read that link above and come back.

Now, let your fingers do the work and find yourself over at Creekside where Alison has a nice picture and some nicely archived communications - all buzzing around Front Porch Strategies and its president - in Canada, during the 2011 federal election, working on CPoC election campaigns.

Other visits to make today:

The Wingnutterer brings this to our attention.

On the advice of his lawyer, a key player in the 2011 Conservative campaign for Guelph is refusing to answer more questions from Elections Canada investigators probing fraudulent robo-calls in the riding.

Andrew Prescott, the deputy campaign manager for Conservative candidate Marty Burke, has already conducted one telephone interview with Elections Canada investigator Al Mathews.

Julian Fantino is not yet finished with Elections Canada. In fact, he's not even close. Elections Canada is still auditing his campaign finance return. And perhaps, the stuff he didn't file.

Impolitical adds another check mark to the list in this post. It seems Preston Manning's lament over election telephone behaviour doesn't include having it, you know, exposed.

Oh yeah. Take a trip over to Front Porch Strategies and see the page they put up on the day the light was suddenly shone upon them. See if you come away believing that the Republican travellers know less about parliament than the Harperites know about Twitter archives.

Added: Yes, you'll want to visit The Gazetteer too.