By Pepper Parr
August 28th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
I was having a cool one in the Slye Fox late yesterday afternoon when a Gazette reader asked me if I had seen the trashy “polling” telephone calls that were being made to people in Burlington about candidates running in ward 2.
I hadn’t. I’m not a huge fan of Facebook – does more harm than good is my view.
I did have a look at Meed Ward’s Facebook page and yup- the trashy crap has already started.
Marianne Meed Ward
Meed Ward reported that “A resident has just informed me of an extremely disturbing and defamatory phone “opinion poll” that they received which contained appalling and false statements about me concerning domestic violence, unemployment and school closures, and possible more.
“I’m certain the other candidates would join me in stating this is unacceptable and must stop. If you receive such a phone call, please ask who is behind it, take the phone number and we will get to the bottom of this and stop it. This election is about what is best for Burlington, based on policies, platform and track record.
Make your decisions for all candidates in this election on that basis. Lies, personal attacks and defamation have no place and do nothing to help make our city better.”
We don’t have to succumb to gutter politics.
The Gazette is currently investigating a comment that was sent to us about Meed Ward. There isn’t a word of truth in the comment. We are in the process of determining just who the sender is and when we have positive identification we will take appropriate action.
Meed Ward sent out an update on survey being done.
“A further update on the “election survey” phone calls about me being conducted in Burlington. We have received multiple independent reports of both the content of the questions and the phone number. The number is linked to Campaign Research
I have contacted them to stop this immediately. If you receive this call, take note of the number and the questions and we will get to the bottom of this to stop it. Note that only candidate campaigns and registered Third Party advertisers can spend money on elections. There are no Third Party advertisers currently registered in the Burlington election.
The polling is being done by Campaign Research. Check out their web site. And Google the names of their senior people; one in particular stands out.
https://www.campaignresearch.ca/our-team
This is the only thing that matter. People will vote for you if they believe in you. Vote for the person you believe in.
These phone calls are not being made a group of Girl Guides or Boy Scouts – these calls are being done by professionals who know how to access data bases to give them the phone numbers of people who live in very specific postal codes. Getting these guys to work for you is not cheap.
One of the lead players at Campaign Research has a past history of really dirty politics. His name is out there – Google it. Nasty nasty business.
Marianne is doing the right thing. When you shine a light into the dark corners the rats and the cockroaches scurry into the darkness.
Keep those bright lights burning!
Never mind, Marianne, I think the people of Burlington are becoming immune to telephone calls like that. When I am called by people like this i count to three and hang up! I have my own mind and will decide on who I will vote for Mayor and that will be someone who thinks as I do- that Burlington should not become another Mississauga and that is You!!! You’ve shown your respect for the past and therefore I will vote for you.
I cannot believe that other candidates are not speaking out about this brand of ‘dirty politics’. This is not something we want to see in our city now or in the future. If this is tied to another candidate, hopefully residents will react accordingly and send that person a strong message that this is not the place for him/her to be seeking a place at the table.
This is disgusting but it’s not hard to see what group is behind this. Just ask yourself–who has the most to lose from the election of a new mayor (MMW) and who has the money to finance this smear campaign. Just connect the dots.
Disgusting. But these people don’t work free. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out who is paying for it. Let’s hope appropriate action is taken.