In my rant last week I accused foreign money of being behind the NDP resurgence in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, and probably elsewhere. Here, Brian Lilley explains how democracy in Canada is being usurped by foreign liberal billionaires. Makes one wonder if Lord Christopher Monkton was telling the truth.
Brian Lilley
Toronto SUN
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath speaks with senior citizen homeowners at a campaign event in Mississauga, Ont., on Saturday, June 2, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
If Andrea Horwath wakes up as Premier of Ontario on June 8, she may have a shadowy foreign-funded group out of Vancouver to thank for her win.
Leadnow was set up in British Columbia in 2011 by a pair of young Canadians with the full support of a Tides Foundation backed group that sought to organize for left-wing causes.
In the 2015 federal election, Leadnow targeted 29 ridings held by Conservatives and took credit for dumping the Tories from 25 of them.
Now this group, which runs shadow campaigns to get their preferred candidate elected, is working the Ontario election.
Leadnow is working to make sure Doug Ford isn’t elected Premier with their #NeverFord campaign. They are even targeting Ford in his own riding of Etobicoke North to block his local win.
Ontario PC leader Doug Ford greets supporters as he arrives for a breakfast meet and greet in Ottawa on Saturday, June 2, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
“If enough of us make calls, we can boost voter turnout enough to tip the scales of local races and deny local PCs their seats,” Leadnow says on their website.
They ask people to sign up with a form on their website to get instructions on how to make calls from their own homes.
“We’ll send you everything you need to get started: instructions, a script, and FAQs.”
The script instructs volunteers to hang up on PC voters and encourage backers of “progressive” parties to get out and vote.
Leadnow is trying to call 50,000 people in Ontario by June 7th with one simple message, don’t vote for Ford or the PC Party. They currently have phonebanking events — group calling essentially — set up for Belleville, Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, Brantford and plenty of small towns.
The crazy thing is, none of this activity counts as a third-party election activity under Ontario law. Each of the 50 registered third parties can spend $101,800 during the official election campaign on advertising.
And that money must be raised in Ontario.
Leadnow is doing some advertising but is mainly using a complex and expensive phone system to reach voters. This system allows anyone, from anywhere, to log in and call voters, urging them to vote the left way.
None of those expenses are covered by the third-party changes brought in by Kathleen Wynne.
Setting up an expensive phone system not only isn’t covered by the law, it can be completely funded by money from outside of Ontario or even outside the country. In the past, Leadnow has admitted as much as 20% of their money comes from outside of Canada.
Leadnow is also the only one of 50 registered groups with an address outside of Ontario. They are also far more sophisticated in directly reaching voters than any other group.
Why is a Vancouver-based group, substantially funded and founded by American billionaires through a San Francisco based foundation working against Ontario’s PC Party?
Because this is what they do.
Leadnow is one of the many third-party groups, often funded by wealthy Americans, that have one mission. Stop conservative politicians and policies.
They have some radical ideas.
When Justin Trudeau gave Omar Khadr his $10.5 million payment, Leadnow asked people to sign up in support of Khadr.
I am not aware of Leadnow's campaign in support of Omar Khadr, but I do support Khadr anyway as he is completely innocent of injuring or killing American Marines.
Leadnow also campaigns against the oil industry and most recently the Trans Mountain pipeline.
There are connections to the Liberals and NDP. One co-founder of the group, Adam Shedletzky, was a senior policy advisor to Wynne until the election was called. Amara Possian, Leadnow’s 2015 election campaign manager, is running for the NDP against Wynne in Don Valley West.
This week the PCs sent a letter to Elections Ontario alleging collusion between the NDP and Leadnow. The party says a Toronto operative is working for both groups in contravention of the law.
Leadnow says they want to contact 12,000 voters this weekend alone and get people out to the polls.
It really will leave everyone wondering, if Horwath wins next week will she have done it on her own or with an assist from an outside, out-of-province group.
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