the blot thickens. audio {fundraising}.

This is shocking. How many calls did this Responsive Marketing Group Inc.'s staffer or ones like him make, before he was 'let go'? Audio is on CBC, As It Happens, FTR: CONSERVATIVE FUNDRAISERS @16:30 Mar 8 2012.

According to a recording obtained by La Presse newspaper, an RMG employee who identified himself as Don Duke used aggressive pitches to solicit donations for the Conservatives. The date of a series of recorded calls is not clear, but Duke says he is calling from “supporter services on behalf of the Harper government in Ottawa.”

When Duke reaches a man who questions who Duke is, and how he has come to identify the man as a party supporter, Duke challenges in return: “How would I have your membership number?” he demands. “Am I going to hack into the computers and get your membership number and your donation schedule for the last 6, 7, back to the year 2000. Where the hell would I get that? . . . I’m telling you where I got that, I got it from the Conservative Party records, right here.”

Duke guffaws and tells the man the party intends to “bury” Ignatieff at the ballot box [treehugging, sandalwearing, birkenstockclad]. When he reaches another man who says he is no longer a Conservative supporter, Duke responds: “We don’t want to talk to socialists or separatists. . . . We had you down as a good Conservative. And if you’re not Harry, no, we don’t want to speak to you then. Thank you, Harry.”

In another call to a woman, Duke says, “Your husband makes decisions on the money coming in? When do you think I could reach him?” There is a pause in the recording during which it’s unclear if it’s the same call or a later one the same night, Duke challenges her: “I heard him, your husband is there! He’s talking in the background. Oh. My. God.”

NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel demanded why RMG was making the calls in the name of the government, and whether it was “because RMG and the Conservative Party — it’s all the same?” The NDP’s Libby Davies noted RMG merged with Xentel, describing it as having “similar dubious tactics.” She said in 2010, Xentel was fined $500,000 by the CRTC “for violating Canada’s do-not-call list.” source

Very bad, very sad. RMG is the Conservative party's telemarketing supplier. It and Campaign Research are sending little legal notices all over, but Front Porch Strategies, the "top U.S. Republican firm," is kinda quiet.