Conservative fundraiser casts doubt on whether all votes were 'accurate and counted' in leaked call
A caller raising money for the Conservative Party cast doubt on the validity of the recount process in the recent federal election, according to a recording obtained by CBC News.
In the fundraising call, which happened on Saturday, an official identifying herself as being from the Conservative Party's supporter services claimed that Liberals and media seek to "attack" Conservatives and "scrutinize" the results of two judicial recounts won by Conservatives.
Later in the call, she suggested to a potential donor that the results of the recounts were not final.
"We need to stand up. We need to make sure all the votes are accurate and counted," she said.
The caller appeared to be referencing two tight races that were ultimately won by Conservatives — the Newfoundland riding of Terra Nova-The Peninsulas and the Ontario riding Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore.
She made the call a week after the judicial recounts finished, and after both Liberal candidates had concededtheir losses.
The call was recorded by the recipient, who previously supported the Conservative Party of Canada. CBC News is not identifying the donor, who fears reprisal for speaking out.
He said he shared the audio from the call because he felt frustrated and insulted that the party cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process.
It's not the first time the Conservatives have sought to fundraise by suggesting Liberals are trying to affect the outcome of elections after the ballots were cast.
Shortly after the election, the party sent an email to its mailing list suggesting that their rivals sought to "flip just enough seats to edge closer to a majority" and were trying to "tip the scales" in the recounts.
"It is part of a very common but unsavoury technique to get people to donate," said Chris Tenove, assistant director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at University of British Columbia.
"You both ring an emergency bell and say urgent funding is needed to address it. And that can put people into a state of mind where they're perhaps more likely to give money … big picture, I think this strategy of political advertising is corrosive."
Conservative spokeswoman Sarah Fischer said in a statement that the party did not question the results, but "wanted to ensure the recounts were accurate and fair."
Under Canadian law, recounts are automatically triggered when the difference in the number of votes received by the top-finishing candidates is 0.1 per cent or less of the total number of votes cast.
There are costs for parties and candidates during recounts, and legitimate reasons for parties to help scrutinize results. However, the recounts were already over at the time of the call, with winners confirmed.
"It made me wonder, was this an effective fundraising approach that was used in recent weeks? And this individual just isn't ready to let it go?" said Tenove.
"A few weeks ago, it made sense that you did need scrutineers and maybe legal representatives right there to advance the Conservatives' position and the process. It's not at all clear why that would be necessary now."
A recent Leger poll found that 25 per cent of Conservative supporters said they don't trust the election results. The public's trust in election results has become a flashpoint in political discourse following the 2021 "stop the steal" movement in the United States, based on the debunked conspiracy that former president Joe Biden's win was rigged.
CBC News has verified the veracity of the audio. The phone number associated with the call directs to a voicemail message identifying it as the voter outreach and funding office for the Conservative Party of Canada.
The caller is first heard saying hello, and thanking the supporter for past donations. Then the topic turns to the recounts.
"We won the two major election recounts all across the country, but the media liberals are trying to attack us and scrutinize the result. So now we have political operators on the ground," she said before asking for a $1,750 donation to the "Recount the Fight" fund.
The supporter questioned what the party official was saying, noting that the recounts were completed and the Conservatives won them.
"I didn't really like your message. The recounts are already over. And I don't believe in a media conspiracy, so you're not selling me today," he said.
The party official doubled down.
"Right now, the Liberal media is attacking us. They're trying to scrutinize our results here. So we need to stand up, we need to make sure all the votes are accurate and counted."
"I don't believe that message, I'm sorry," said the former donor.
Then the party official hung up and the line went dead.
Fischer said the party is looking into the caller's conduct, as they expect respectful and proper phone etiquette from all callers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Conservatives disown Liz Truss's mini-budget
The Conservatives will "never again" put the UK's economic stability at risk by making "promises we cannot afford", the shadow chancellor will say, as his party seeks to distance itself from former Prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget. In a speech, Mel Stride will disown Truss's £45bn package of tax cuts, which spooked financial markets and led to the former Tory PM's resignation in 2022. Stride will say "mistakes were recognised" but acknowledge "the damage to our credibility is not so easily undone". Hitting back, Truss said she had a plan to "turbocharge the economy" and accused Stride of bowing to "failed Treasury Orthodoxy". She accused Stride of being "a creature of the system," adding: "When he served alongside me as Treasury minister, he always went along with officials." The mini-budget was delivered by then Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in September 2022, after Truss won a Tory leadership contest to become prime minister. The plan, which included big tax cuts and subsidies to reduce energy bills, shook confidence in the UK's financial credibility, led to a rise in mortgage rates and a fall in the pound's value. Truss, who did not ask the UK's independent forecaster to assess her economic plans, admitted "parts of our mini-budget went further and faster than markets were expecting" and stood down after 49 days in office. The mini-budget was scrapped and Rishi Sunak - who had criticised Truss's promises to fund tax cuts with borrowing - succeeded her as prime minister. Labour accused the Conservatives of crashing the economy in 2023 and has repeatedly used Truss's mini-budget as an attack line. Distancing the Tories from the mini-budget, Stride will say: "For a few weeks, we put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected. "The credibility of the UK's economic framework was undermined by spending billions on subsidising energy bills and tax cuts, with no proper plan for how this would be paid for." And ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves's spending review next week, Stride will accuse her of "abandoning" financial responsibility. The current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was trade secretary in Truss's government in 2022. Stride - who was a key ally of Sunak when he was PM - will say it will take time and honesty for the Conservatives to rebuild trust with voters. "So let me be clear: never again will the Conservative Party undermine fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford," Stride will say. In a furious response, Truss argued her economic plan "provided the only pathway for the Conservatives to avoid a catastrophic defeat" in last year's general election. Truss added: "As it was, Mel Stride and too many fellow travellers in the Conservative parliamentary party supported an economic policy that backed high immigration, raised taxes to a 70-year high and pursued unaffordable Net Zero policies - and the electorate delivered a devastating verdict on that record last summer. "Until Mel Stride admits the economic failings of the last Conservative government, the British public will not trust the party with the reins of power again." In his speech, Stride will also take aim at Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage. Last month, Farage - whose party is leading in national polls - set out plans to restore the winter fuel allowance, scrap the two-child benefit limit and lift the salary level at which people start paying income tax to £20,000. The shadow chancellor will say Reform's "economic prescription is pure populism". "It doubles down on the 'magic money tree' we thought had been banished with Jeremy Corbyn," Stride will say. Responding to Mel Stride, Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice said his party would "take no lectures on economics from a party" that raised "government spending to 70-year highs and shrank economic growth to 70-year lows". "Meanwhile we unearth Tory-run councils wasting £30 million on a bridge to nowhere," Tice said. They can never be trusted again." The Liberal Democrats accused the Conservatives of attacking Farage's party for "the same fantasy economics" they had pursued. Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: "It's insulting that the Conservatives think a few warm words will fool people into forgiving them for all the damage they did to the economy and people's livelihoods." How much market chaos did the mini-budget cause? We want to make it easier to have children - Farage Reeves admits some will lose out in spending review
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax reform bill could cost Canadians billions
A small, obscure section buried in U.S. President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act could cost Canadians and Canadian companies billions of dollars, CBC News has learned. Moreover, it could hand Prime Minister Mark Carney's government yet another political hot potato from south of the border — forcing it to choose between scrapping Canada's digital services tax (DST) or risk the U.S. imposing a new withholding tax on the income Canadians, Canadian companies and pension plans receive from investments in U.S. securities. While it still has steps to go before becoming law, the provision has Canadian experts worried. "This is building a nuclear option into a tax treaty that has lasted for 80 years between Canada and the U.S," said David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "Just like the U.S. is totally willing to blow up the international trade order, they're totally willing to blow up international tax rules." The concern centres on Section 899 of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill — more than 1,000 pages of proposed legislation that Trump says will make good on his domestic campaign promises, including tax cuts for Americans. The bill passed the House of Representatives on May 22 by one vote and now has to be approved by the Senate. Section 899, entitled Enforcement of Remedies Against Unfair Foreign Taxes, would increase withholding taxes for non-resident individuals and companies from countries that the U.S. believes have imposed discriminatory or unfair taxes. Experts believe Canada is likely to be one of the countries targeted by the measure because of U.S. government criticism of the DST. The tax applies to all large businesses, foreign and domestic, that earn revenues from certain online business models in Canada. Global minimum tax measures adopted by Canada could also put it in the Trump administration's crosshairs. The timeline for the legislation is in flux and Section 899 could still get dropped from the bill or be amended. If, however, Section 899 becomes law, it could hit Canadians in different ways. For example, the U.S. currently imposes a 15 per cent withholding tax on dividends Canadians receive from U.S. companies. Under tax treaties, however, an equivalent tax credit from the Canadian government generally offsets the withholding tax. If the measure becomes law and the Trump administration designates Canada as a country with discriminatory taxes, a new five per cent withholding tax would go into effect. That tax would increase by five percentage points per year to a maximum of 20 per cent. It is not known if Canada would adjust its tax credits to offset such a tax. Max Reed, a cross-border tax lawyer with Polaris Tax Counsel, said the potential impact could be wide ranging. "It's definitely going to be in the billions, maybe tens of billions," he said. Kim Moody, founder of Moodys Private Client and Moodys Tax, agrees. "Billions, absolutely billions, for sure, would be the impact," he said. "If Canada and the United States allows this to take hold, the result will be chaos. Absolute chaos." Experts say it is not clear exactly how the tax would be applied. For example, would the new withholding tax be imposed on top of existing withholding taxes? Would it also apply to securities held within registered accounts such as RRSPs or only to dividends from shares held directly by Canadians?Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne's office declined an interview request from CBC News. "Analysis of the implications of the U.S. tax reform bill is ongoing and we await the final version of the bill," wrote spokeswoman Audrey Milette. The U.S. embassy also declined to comment on Section 899 or how it would work. "We are unable to comment at this time as the legislation is still pending final approval," responded an embassy official. U.S. Internal Revenue Service figures show that in 2022, the U.S. withheld $2.9 billion US in tax on $108.5 billion US worth of income from a variety of U.S. sources for Canadian residents and companies. The IRS said $261.4 million US was withheld from individual Canadian residents while $1.22 billion was withheld from companies and $1.24 billion US under the category of Canadian "withholding rate pools (general)." Of the sources of U.S. income received by Canadians, the IRS said $31 billion US was from dividends — half of which went to Canadian corporations. David Pierce, vice-president of government relations for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber began getting worried messages from Canadian businesses once Trump's tax reform bill passed the House of Representatives. "I think the attention and the awareness of it really grew from what was a small subset of companies, now right across the economy — from financial to pensions to, you name it," Pierce said. "They're all very concerned at what this means for average Canadians in your retirement savings and how this would be applied should, of course, it become law." Pierce said the potential cost of Section 899 far outweighs revenue the Canadian government collects from the DST, a tax his group has opposed from the outset. He said the Canadian government should pause the next DST payment scheduled for June 30 and consider getting rid of the tax in negotiations with the U.S. "The concern is that when the U.S. administration makes allegations of Canada's trade practices, they can cite the DST and that's a talking point that rings true not just for Republicans, but also Democrats, in the United States," said Pierce. "That strengthens their hand. It's not strengthening our hand at the bargaining table." Macdonald says the proposed withholding tax would hit hard. "It would have major impacts on Canadian companies, Canadian investors in the U.S — they'd be downright punitive," said Macdonald. "That would probably end up shutting down Canadian businesses in the U.S. and kicking Canadian investors out of the U.S." And the DST isn't the only Canadian tax the U.S. could consider unfair now, or in the future, said Macdonald. "I think this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of threats against Canadian corporate taxation that attempts to level the playing field between American transnationals and Canadian domestic companies that are paying corporate income taxes," he said. Macdonald said the proposed tax could also hit Canadians who don't have direct investments in U.S. securities. "This isn't only for folks with an RRSP," Macdonald said. "I mean, this could extend to the Canada Pension Plan, which is the major means by which people retire in Canada. They could potentially pay dramatically more." The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board declined to comment.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
This Woman Is Showing The Effects Of The Tariff War In China, And Hooooo Boy You Are Not Ready For This
Here in the US, we're experiencing the effects of President Trump's tariff wars every single day as prices continue going up. If you're wondering how the tariffs are affecting people in other countries, Emily ( a Canadian living in China, recently shared a video explaining exactly how things have changed for her in the grocery store over there. Emily's video starts out, "Hello from China. So, I'm in a grocery store right now, and I wanted to show you how the American tariffs are affecting Chinese customers." @ / Via "So, I was gonna get some beef for dinner tonight, and I saw this," she says, holding up a package of beef. "What used to be here is American beef. But now, as you can see, it says Australian beef." @ / Via "And I did look around," she added. "I couldn't find one single pack of beef from America. So I guess China just stopped buying beef from America, and it went straight to Australia." @ / Via "The whole idea that China is hurting because of the American tariffs? Well, they're not, because they are not as dependent on the US. In fact, only 18% of Chinese imports come from America. And for stuff like beef and soy, they can just go somewhere else easily." @ / Via Trading Economics says that the number is even lower than Emily suggested, putting the percentage of China's imports that come from the US at around 7% in 2023. According to the USDA, the US exported $1.58 billion worth of beef to China in 2024. Reuters also notes that in 2022, "soybeans were the No. 1 U.S. product imported by China," but that "the U.S. has lost competitive advantage to Brazil." "So I guess I'm having Australian beef for dinner tonight instead of American beef," Emily continued. "And honestly, because of the food quality, I probably trust Australian beef better." "And this box of beef right here is 50 RMB, which is about $7 USD." "So to answer the question, China ain't hurting. And if anything, I think we're probably doing even better because now [we have] better beef that tastes better and at a better price." @ / Via "So, thank you, Trump, for that," she concluded. Unsurprisingly, commenters had a lot to say on the topic. "USA put sanctions on themselves," one said. "No country is hurting apart from the US," said another. "I don't see China going back to the USA for those products in the next 4 years. Sadly a lot of American farmers are big fans of Trump." The video even made its way over to Twitter (now known as X), where even more people shared their opinions. "So Trump trying to beef up American exports, actually lead to losing customers to export to," said one. "Our tariff tiff countries have other options. America isn't the only trade partner in the world. We're even less desirable now because we aren't trusted." "There's nothing the United States can offer that the rest of the world doesn't already have. Except for serial killers and deep-fried hot dogs." You can watch Emily's full video below, and follow her over on TikTok. What do you think? Were you surprised to learn how the tariffs are affecting people in other countries? Let us know in the comments.
