Stephen Harper Heads a Global Org That Helps Get Right-Wing Parties Elected. What Will It Do for Andrew Scheer? - 2019-08-06

Stephen Harper Heads a Global Org That Helps Get Right-Wing Parties Elected. What Will It Do for Andrew Scheer? August 6, 2019, Michael Harris, The Tyee

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"Hi, it's Sarah from the Conservative Party. Can the Conservative Party count on your support in the next federal election? Reply: Yes No"

This text, sent on July 9 at 4:29 p.m., landed on the cellphone of a person not on social media, and who does not tweet.

Reply "yes," and the conversation begins. Reply "no" and you go into the Conservative database as a non-supporter — valuable information for the party either way. The text identified the sender as the Conservative Party. Perfectly legitimate. But how did the party get that cell number?

The same way they got mine I suppose. A few days later, the same message appeared on my iPhone. It all felt a little like a variation of something the country has seen before.

It brought to mind the Robocalls scandal that tainted the 2011 federal election, which delivered Stephen Harper's Conservatives their only majority government. As someone who took a very close look at those dirty tricks, I was reminded of two other facts we should pay attention to as a new election looms.

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | first = Michael | last = Harris | title = Stephen Harper Heads a Global Org That Helps Get Right-Wing Parties Elected. What Will It Do for Andrew Scheer? | url = https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/08/06/Harper-Heads-Global-Org-Help-Elect-Right-Wing-Parties/ | work = The Tyee | date = August 6, 2019 | accessdate = August 6, 2019 }}