Dean Del Mastro

[41st General Election, March 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, once again, it is the unsubstantiated smear campaign of the NDP.

What we know and what we have evidence of is that at five o'clock on Saturday, April 30, in the riding of Guelph, the Liberal member for Guelph placed an illegal robocall. These deceptive robocalls used a phony number, a phony person and they attacked and suppressed votes in Guelph. That was the real intent behind them.

The Liberal candidate and the Liberal Party has acted in a fashion that is deceptive, disgraceful and dishonest.

[41st General Election, March 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Elections Canada is the agency that is charged to deal with this.

However, what we have learned, and this is what the Liberal leader must respond to, is that the Liberal leader provided training sessions for Liberal members at one o'clock on Saturday, April 30. They trained them on Liberal robocalls. What the Liberal member for Guelph then did is conduct a phony robocall that broke the CRTC's regulations and broke the Elections Canada Act laws. Indeed, the Liberals have acted in a fashion that is disgraceful, deceptive and dishonest, and I will say it outside.

[41st General Election, March 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Liberal leader indicated that suggestions being brought forward by myself and this party were, indeed, wacko. Unfortunately, they have proven to be absolutely true because we now know that the member for Guelph paid for illegal robocalls that concealed the fact that the calls came from his Liberal campaign. The Liberals used a bogus number and a fictitious character. They broke the CRTC regulations. They broke Elections Canada laws. They have acted in a fashion that is disgraceful, deceptive and dishonest.

[41st General Election, March 9th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, we are always honest with Canadians. We are also assisting Elections Canada with this matter, which we have made very clear, and we will continue to do so. We believe the allegations in Guelph are indeed serious.

[41st General Election, March 9th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the allegations of voter suppression in Guelph, which we have heard from many sides, are serious and expect that Elections Canada will look into this matter.

If the allegations are proven to be true, we would expect those responsible will be held fully accountable. The Conservative Party, as I have indicated many times, is fully assisting Elections Canada. It is the opposition parties that are not.

[41st General Election, March 9th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the common thread that I see is baseless smear allegations from the member opposite and his party, but they are not providing the transparency to Elections Canada that we believe they should be. In fact, if the opposition wants to support Elections Canada's work, it should provide all of its records relating to the thousands of calls that they made with millions of dollars during the last election.

[Elections Canada, March 9th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I thought I had been clear. I do not know how the member is still confused on the matter.

We have been made aware of a single investigation that is in the riding of Guelph. The Conservative Party is assisting Elections Canada in that matter and we will continue to do so.

What is also clear is that the opposition has spent millions of dollars on hundreds of thousands of phone calls during the last election. If it wants to support Elections Canada, it should provide all its records relating to the calls it made during that election.

[Business of Supply, March 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I agree that when one slips on a banana peel one is dirty. The NDP slipped on a banana peel when it tried to illegally direct money into the Broadbent Institute just this past fall. It had to return cheques as a result of Elections Canada looking into the matter. Very clearly, it knew it was making infractions against the Canada Elections Act.

Members of the NDP also robodialed a Quebec member's riding some months ago without identifying themselves, which is against the law according to the CRTC. They might want to look into that. They also have robodialed my riding and the ridings of other Conservative members very recently making phoney allegations about the intent of legislation. These efforts are ongoing on the part of the NDP members. They are not lily white. In fact, we stand accused by parties that undertake the exact actions that they pretend to dislike.

[Business of Supply, March 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the past and current Chief Electoral Officers have both been very clear in indicating that they have the investigative ability and authority to look into this matter and these allegations. We put our faith in them, and we do believe that when the truth comes out the Conservative Party of Canada will be vindicated.

What is not clear is whether the opposition parties, after all the mudslinging and unsubstantiated smear campaign that they have undertaken, will apologize to the good members of the House. Hon. members in this House have had their names smeared by the parties opposite. I think it is absolutely reprehensible what they have done. I would hope that at some point, when the truth comes out, they will stand in place and apologize to the good members of the House, the hon. members who did not deserve this kind of smear campaign.

[Business of Supply, March 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, I believe that when they do provide that information to Elections Canada it will actually be found that the Liberals have in fact made these calls themselves.

I hear the Liberal Party member asking why they would want to suppress their own vote. If the Liberals did not want to suppress their own vote they never would have run on the platform they did in the last election. It was a campaign based on wasteful spending, higher taxes and not even remotely related to the priorities of Canadians. That is what the Liberals ran on.

If there is one thing that has hurt this nation, that has shook it to its core, more than anything in my lifetime, it was the Liberal sponsorship scandal that caused Canadians from coast to coast to coast to question their government and question officials. It was an egregious crime and Liberal MPs probably should have gone to jail. I would like to know why they did not.