Liberals are demanding an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a Conservative pollster was censured for conducting a misinformation campaign against MP Irwin Cotler.
An investigation by the market research industry's watchdog concluded Wednesday that the actions of Campaign Research Inc., brought the industry into disrepute.
"The actions of Campaign Research have likely caused the Canadian public to lose confidence in marketing research and have tarnished the image of the marketing research profession," says a ruling by three-member panel of the Market Research and Intelligence Association.
The panel was struck after the association received seven complaints of professional misconduct against Campaign Research.
The complaints related to a voter identification poll the company conducted last autumn on behalf of the federal Conservative party in Cotler's Montreal riding.
The company's callers suggested to constituents - falsely - that Cotler either had or was about to quit as the Liberal MP for Mount Royal.
Cotler said the Conservatives must now take responsibility for the conduct of their pollster.
"I think they should be severing their ties with the firm that undertook these acts on their behalf," he said.
"And they themselves should not only apologize, but undertake that they will not engage in such false and misleading voter suppression again."
When Cotler first complained a year ago about the polling being done in his riding, government House leader Peter Van Loan defended it as a routine matter of identifying Conservative support in Mount Royal.
"The fact is this has been going on as long as politics in this country," Van Loan told the House of Commons. "It is a normal part of politics in this country and it's not a kind of speech that should begin to be chilled at this point."
He was unrepentant Wednesday, dodging Liberal questions about the new ruling by saying that Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer ruled on the matter last December and, hence, there is nothing more to say.
Cotler had asked Scheer to find that the polling impaired his ability to carry out his duties as an MP. Scheer ruled that the tactic was "reprehensible" but that he was powerless to do anything about it.
However, now that the MRIA has censured Campaign Research, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said the Tories can no longer pretend this was "politics as usual."
