Great, it just became easier to dismiss legitimate criticism of the Conservatives as a false-flag operation.
Brilliant move.
Yup. It’s the stupidest thing the Liberal campaign could have done right now.
Every one of those idjits should be fired on the spot.
Way to blow a good lead and give your opponents ammo, and especially at an opponent that’s trying to grab onto every possible thing that could be an ammo.
Edit: And I also wanna say, man I just can’t with the CPC. Their rhetoric sucks, their role as the opposition is juvenile af (just look at this childish comeback!), and their entire existence feels like they just pull Canadian politics down to the sandpit and make people fight like dumb kids who don’t know and can’t act better.
The author and a conservative source both overheard a confession from someone at a bar. That’s not really solid evidence in my opinion. They weren’t even willing to name the people who made the confession. Name them and force them to respond. Get some video from the conference proving they were in attendance. Do some kind of investigation. This just feels like half a story.
CBC is reporting this as fact, not an allegation - it’s safe to assume that they know exactly who these campaign workers are.
There are also decent reasons not to name them just yet - if they’re low-level staffers, it’s worth trying to get a comment from the Party first, and/or try to determine how far up the ladder this goes. No sense in scapegoating the grunts until the higher-ups are ID’d.
Aah, now that’s a different animal. People run their mouths off at bars all the time - who was it, what did they say, what’s their association to the party, did they just shoot their mouth off about it, or did they actually do it?
If it’s true, it was a massively stupid move, if not, maybe take McKenna’s sources with a grain of salt in the future. She’s pretty solid, but that’s an awfully bold claim to make based on jocular taproom banter.
Dirty, irresponsible and shameful. Those who did this should never work in politics ever again.
On Friday night, in two Ottawa bars, campaign workers shared how the party was behind this move — how two Liberal Party staffers attended the conference intended for conservatives and placed these buttons in areas where attendees would find them.
How stupid are LPC staffers that they think they can brag about doing unethical shit at bars in Ottawa, at election time? It’s embarrassing.
The stereotype of the condescending, entitled Liberal isn’t far from the truth in this case.
If this is true, those staffers need to be shown the door. I get that the politics is a dirty game and sometimes you are forced to play it, but you can’t be this stupid.
These types of activities don’t belong in our politics. The staffers that distributed the buttons and the ones that cooked up the plan should be ejected from the campaign.
They should be arrested for election interference. The cons are still shit
Fuck that, everyone involved needs to be investigated and at minimum fired with prejudice.
I want to know how/why this happened and who’s idea it was.
I don’t want anyone who thinks remotely like this in politics, and I want their names so they can be treated as toxic as their ideas.
Agreed. It doesn’t matter what party they belong to, or whether this was an LPC or CPC smear campaign. Eject the people responsible and get an apology from those who authorized it.
These idiots just handed the already conspiracy-minded PP fans a case of ammunition. All those “do you trust the polls” people must feel so vindicated.
If it was just the Byrne one I’d give it a pass as a bad joke.
But the notion of the CPC undermining the electoral process here — a real threat, considering their maga ideology — is not a joke. We need to discourage those elements who seek to discredit the vote outcome, not stoke those elements for some short-term media cycle.
It’s an irresponsibility dangerous game. If this story is true, those partisans should be immediately fired and permanently barred from political involvement going forward by the party.
In reality this was the conservatives lying about how they got there.
On Friday night, in two Ottawa bars, campaign workers shared how the party was behind this move — how two Liberal Party staffers attended the conference intended for conservatives and placed these buttons in areas where attendees would find them.
One of those conversations was in the immediate earshot of this journalist. A Conservative source overheard the other conversation.
