Electoral robocall allegations in the Prince George area are directing voters to the wrong
conclusions, said one local MP.
His political opponents are concerned that his successful election in spring 2011, may have been helped by telephone calls impeding opposition voters.
"The allegations and insinuations being made by the opposition that the Conservative Party of Canada is behind the inappropriate robocalls made during the election is nothing more than a smear campaign based on unfounded allegations," said local representative Bob Zimmer.
"Being honest and up front with my constituents is of the utmost importance to me. As some of you may know, our riding of Prince George-Peace River has been mentioned in some recent news articles as one of the ridings targeted by these alleged calls."
"I got called into the office of Elections Canada in Dawson Creek during the election and informed about false and misleading phone calls in the riding," said Liberal Party of Canada challenger Ben Levine, who made no accusations about who specifically may have placed the calls, only suggesting in general it was "Conservatives usurping democracy."
Sangeeta Lalli, the Liberal candidate in the adjoining riding of Cariboo-Prince George, said she had problems too. She told The Citizen on Thursday that "Between May 1 until about May 5, I had well over 100 calls on both my phones regarding a call that I made to people in the riding. The callbacks I was getting said that they had missed my call and were just returning it.
"This was very frustrating because I did not make any of these calls and I had no idea what people who picked up the calls heard.
"Everything is starting to make sense now though. I thought I was the only one who had this problem. I wonder if this happened with the other candidates in the riding."
Most of the targets on a national level, according to the emerging information, seem to target the Liberal Party most often. The Citizen invites the candidates from any other local party to make contact if they, too, faced any such issues.
Zimmer went a step further.
"If any citizen has any example of questionable automated calls please contact Elections Canada. Our national and local campaigns were performed with the highest principles and will continue to do so in the future," he said.
