Kinsella was a Liberal hack from way back, though now he seems to have it in for the Grits.
And is working with the Tories, apparently:
Warren Kinsella and his Daisy Group consulting firm worked on a secret campaign to “seek and destroy” the fledgling People’s Party of Canada and keep Maxime Bernier out of the national leaders’ debates, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Internal Daisy Group records obtained by The Globe show a team of Daisy Group employees worked on a plan called “Project Cactus” that focused on portraying People’s Party supporters as racist.
The records make several references to a “client” for the project, including sending a bill for payment, but the client’s identity is not revealed in the documents.
A source with direct knowledge of the project said the client listed in the documents is the Conservative Party of Canada. The Globe is keeping the source’s name confidential because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Neither the Conservative Party nor Mr. Kinsella would confirm or deny that they are – or have been – working together.
“We do not comment on what vendors or suppliers we may or may not do business with,” said Conservative spokesperson Simon Jefferies.
Liberal, Tory; same old story…
Bernier responds:
My statement following the revelation by the Globe and Mail this evening that the Conservative Party paid Warren Kinsella’s firm to systematically discredit the @peoplespca. pic.twitter.com/840yxiOauX
Conservative ads in Chinese that say the Liberals will legalize all hard-drugs. ‘Previously, Trudeau legalized marijuana, he now intends to legalize hard drugs! If you want to receive latest information in Chinese, please like our Facebook page.’
HANDOUT
The federal Conservative Party has been running Facebook ads on its Chinese-language page falsely accusing the Liberal Party of planning to legalize hard drugs, rhetoric the Conservatives have pushed aggressively in Chinese but have made little reference to in English.
The page has run a total of six ads, according to Facebook’s advertising transparency library. Of those, two are still active. One ad says, “Previously, Trudeau legalized marijuana, he now intends to legalize hard drugs!” Another ad, similarly saying the Liberal Party intends to legalize “hard drugs,” was also purchased in October but was taken down by Facebook for violating the platform’s advertising policies. That ad depicts a hand using a razor blade to divide a white, powdery substance sitting on a mirrored surface.
The Liberal Party denies planning to legalize hard drugs if re-elected and calls such ads “disinformation.”
“This is yet another example of Conservatives copying the American right-wing playbook, spreading false information to scare and mislead voters,” Liberal Party spokesperson Joe Pickerill wrote in an e-mail.
Mr. Trudeau has said on the campaign trail that his government is not considering decriminalizing any currently illicit drugs.
The Conservatives, however, are not backing away from the ads’ content. In a statement in English earlier this week, the Conservatives referred to “Trudeau’s not-so-hidden agenda: Legalizing hard drugs.”
Besides the ads, the Chinese Facebook page has also featured videos with the same accusation. Two videos were posted on Thursday – one with a narrator speaking in Mandarin and the other in Cantonese. Over a backdrop of debate footage, a voice warns, “In the French-language debate, Mr. Trudeau was asked whether he would legalize hard drugs, and he replied ‘not right now.’ Doesn’t such statement admit that Trudeau’s Liberal Party is planning to legalize hard drugs?”
Conservative spokesman Simon Jefferies said Mr. Trudeau keeps saying he has no plans to legalize hard drugs like heroin, crystal meth, and crack cocaine “right now.”
“If Justin Trudeau tells us precisely when he is going to legalize dangerous drugs, we will amend our ads to reflect the new information.”
The Tory press release mentioned in the Globe article is here.
There is a difference between not ruling out doing something and planning to do it.
I have no doubt that if Justin Trudeau thought it would be popular, he’d consider doing it.
However, I’m reasonably certain that his handlers are smart enough, even if he isn’t, that they know Canadians aren’t interested.
What the Conservatives are doing even in English, conflating ‘refusing to rule out’ with ‘planning to do’, is bad enough, but they don’t even bother qualifying their remarks in the Chinese language Facebook print ads, and they spin it in the Chinese language Facebook video ad with that ‘Doesn’t such a statement admit that…’ accusation.
A commenter on the original Globe page repeated the accusation that the Tories under Harper did this in South Asian community newspapers; I seem to recall the usual plausible deniability spins, ‘an outside agency did this without our knowledge’, etc.
This time, though, no such claims of being misquoted.
I hope Max Bernier makes hay of this. This is to what multiculturalism policy and unlimited immigration / third-country ‘refugee’ acceptance leads.
As much as the Liberals deserve to lose, the Tories don’t deserve to win.
Justin Trudeau paid to silence victim of sexual assault. That non-disclosure and an accompanying non-disparagement agreement were signed last night, according to the source, for more than $2.25 million CDN. https://t.co/LISLm1KKVU
Israel national news is publishing "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has agreed to pay a female accuser more than two million dollars for a non-disclosure agreement". Justin Trudeau sex scandal no longer regarded as rumor overseas. Will spread because of Israeli influence.
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