The Wildrose Party circulated a ‘robo-call’ — a pre-recorded automated mass phone message — to Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater constituents last Wednesday after CBC reported that Athabasca University made illegal donations to the Progressive Conservative party.
The donations were made from 2006 to 2008, and were immediately stopped when Athabasca University learned the donations were illegal, according to Barry Walker, chair of AU’s governing council.
“The media is reporting that the person at Athabasca University responsible for its policies and procedures governing conflict of interest happens to be the president of Jeff Johnson’s PC riding association,” reads the voice of local Wildrose candidate Travis Olson in the phone recordings. “Documents show that this person approved spending for several Tory fundraisers, including Jeff Johnson fundraisers.”
In a subsequent interview, Olson said he was trying to inform constituents by sending out the call.
“I think it’s important that every single person in the riding watch the news, so they can make their own judgments on what they thought about the activity,” Olson said.
The call identifies itself as a message from the Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater Wildrose Constituency Association.
“The PCs seem to be showing disregard for the law,” the call said. “Jeff Johnson needs to explain himself on this issue. These allocations are serious and it’s important to ask ourselves, do the PCs deserve another majority government?”
Johnson, the PC MLA for Athabasca-Sturgeon Redwater and the Minister of Infrastructure, said he was shocked by the automated message the Wildrose candidate sent out.
“They are drawing a pretty loose line, and they are smearing a person,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter how you cut it, there is enough going along federally with the robo-dialing and the lack of integrity.”
Johnson said he signed up for this kind of attack when he entered the political arena, but he takes issue when a volunteer becomes a victim. The MLA says he wants to focus on moving Alberta forward, and move away from old issues.
“Let’s focus on the issues, not something that happened four years ago, and not singling out a person that wasn’t responsible for this stuff in 2006 and 2007,” he said. “CBC didn’t report that this issue was self-identified four years ago, and (that) they took action to resolve it. There haven’t been any violations since, and I think it’s a little convenient that they left those facts out.”
Olson said the robo-call was simply spreading the information CBC reported.
“I just said that CBC News was reporting that Athabasca University gave a considerable amount of money, more than $10,000, to the PC party,” Olson said. “CBC News asked Jeff for an interview, and he did not provide them with one. I think that every single person in the riding needs to know the story.”
NDP candidate Mandy Melynk said she heard about the robo-call.
“I heard that they were very critical of the president of the constituency association, and I think that’s politics,” she said. “We’re not going to stop the robo-calls; they are a part of political campaigns.”
Olson said so many people are disconnected from what’s happening that the robo-call was warranted.
Walker said he took particular issue with the targeting of AU employee and PC constituency association president Carol Lund in the message, although it didn’t mention her by name.
“I think it was a bit of a smear campaign with respect to Carol Lund, who in her position at the university is responsible for approving board expenditures,” Walker said.
Olson said he stands behind the message, and doesn’t see why his opponents would take the call as a smear campaign.
“It’s not part of a smear campaign if I’m just reporting what CBC did,” he said.
“Was CBC smearing Jeff Johnson? I didn’t say anything in the calls that the media was not already reporting. Then if it is a smear, you have to blame CBC. They are reporting the news.
“If anyone is smearing, it’s Jeff — smearing his own image when he is accepting illegal donations, and that’s wrong.
“If I can’t talk about Jeff’s record and what he’s done and what his party has done, then I guess I can’t talk about anything,” he added.
Johnson said in response, “My constituents are phoning me with the understanding from the robo-dialing that AU is donating to my election campaign, which is absolutely false,” he clarified.
“To do a robo-dial and allege that there are campaign donations coming to me, is nothing short of a smear campaign.”
Olson said that robo-calls are a new part of campaigning.
“Especially when something like this happens,” he said.
