Michael Sona... Harper Party Patsy?

I find it not so odd that the Harper Party spokespeople seem to want to hang this election fraud on one person… the “rogue operative”. And then they trot out this 23 year old kid who looks like he cares more about the “Rebel Alliance” than “Reform/Alliance.”

This got me to thinking conspiracy…

First the company involved was Racknine Inc. Reform, Alliance, Conservative (RAC) nine, with nine being the nine Anglo provinces. Yes I know… but it works.

This is an Edmonton based company which provided services to a number of Harper Party candidates, including polling to see who you’d vote for in the upcoming election.

Racknine Inc. had access to the data before the Harper Party did. If Racknine Inc. does National polling and calling, they would likely have professional bilingual staffers to voice their calls.

But where does Michael Sona fit into this?

I doubt Racknine Inc. would be able to place a local boy into the Harper Party Machine, that would be the Harper Party themselves.

From what I understand, Michael Sona studied History at the University of Guelph. So at age 23 (assuming he graduated his History program) he really hasn’t had a lot of time in the “real world”. By that I mean the world outside of education. So maybe two years outside of school?

Now Mr. Sona lands a job as the Communications Director (CD) for his local Harper Party candidate Marty Burke.

Marty Burke is a piece of work. He ranted and railed against the Canadian involvement in Afghanistan in letters to the editor of the local paper until Harper formed a government. Then he was all for it. He is ex-military and a pilot for Air Canada and hates the Liberal Party with a passion.

Since this was a hotly contested riding, a number of Harper Party Stars passed through and it seems that Mr. Sona made a good enough impression to land a job as a staffer in Ottawa. Not a bad job if you have political aspirations, learn the ropes from the inside if you plan on politics for a career or the other ladder inside the House of Commons as a professional staffer aiming for a PMO spot.

It just bothers me that he was the CD for a failed candidate who was accused of trying to steal a ballot box at a special poll at the University of Guelph and yet he is apparently an up and comer within the Harper Party. Or is he just a good soldier… an expendable?

“look, Mikey… I know we had some plans for you down the road, but this thing is blowing up in our faces. Now this ballot box thing is a black mark on you and we’re not sure how far up we could take you… so here’s the deal. You step up and take the blame… we’ll make it worth your while… and we have some friends who could use a bright young guy like you in private business… But you gotta keep quiet on the rest of it… capeesh?”

If this had been simply organizing a call bank to annoy voters in one riding I could understand a single gunman or a rogue operative. But it’s not. It is 12 or more ridings involved and no mere CD from Guelph would have the access to the phone lists for the other constituencies. That is just too insecure.

A political campaign is a race from the opening of the offices to the posting of the results. No one involved in a campaign has time to waste on side projects especially ones that would take a fair bit of planning and time to put all the bits together.

Someone bought a phone in Quebec.

Someone got the phone list of non Harper supporters for 12 or more constituencies.

Someone set up an account with Racknine Inc./2call.ca to make the calls.

Someone wrote a believable script in both English and French that caused people to go to the wrong polling stations.

Someone was the voice of those calls.

Someone paid for these calls.

Knowing Stephen Harper’s tendency to micromanage everything to do with His party, down to the colour of the MP’s ties, if there is any connection to the Harper Party, I cannot believe he was not in the loop.

I hope that Elections Canada and the RCMP are allowed to investigate this crime without political interference. Sadly I don’t see that happening either.

There was just too much to do for one individual or “rogue operative” to pull off. This has the Harper Party’s fingerprints all over it but I suspect the trail will dry up when it reaches Michael Sona.

The pieces don’t fit, but we already have the patsy.

Michael Sona- Fall Guy for the Harper Party Machine?

Oh those Conservatives... oh wait I meant Stephen Harper Party loyalists.

Again with their fingers in the pie.

After stunning revelations that people were misdirected to incorrect polling stations or non-existent ones, Elections Canada has traced the Election Day calls to Racknine Inc. an Edmonton company.

A quick peek at their site, 2call.ca, tells me they can process over 200,000 calls per hour as long as the destination phone grid can handle it. The best part is you only pay for the calls that connect.

I’m not a fan of these guys, I doubt you are either. Most of us have had meals interrupted by autodialers with Important Messages that we promptly hang up on, but they are a legal business. I don’t know how much responsibility these folks have in this case, but I do note that on television, those paid ad shows often have a disclaimer protecting the Channel.

After the News broke, the Harper Party Loyalists from Lord Stephen on down went into action in their best Sergeant Schultz voices crying out “I know nothink!”

And yet, within hours, the Stephen Harper Party machine had sweated out a confession from a young staffer, 23 year old Michael Sona. This is the same guy who tried to steal the ballot box at the University of Guelph during the last election. What was his punishment for that transgression? He was made a staffer for Stephen Harper Party MP Eve Adams.

So in a nutshell, a tainted Harper Party Loyalist is trotted out to take the fall for this. Any bets on whether money changed hands? Think the Party will help him secure employment for his “honesty” in coming forward?

All of this within hours of the story breaking. No one in the Stephen Harper Party knew a thing about it and now we have a patsy. Amazing.

In order to pull this off, Mr. Sona had to acquire an (almost) untraceable cell phone in Quebec, set up an account with Racknine Inc, encode a phone list of people who were not going to vote for the Stephen Harper Party, send that information to Racknine Inc, and finally change his voice to that of a young woman to record the message in both English and French.

All of this done in the midst of an election campaign, in a closely contested riding.

And he did it for 12 ridings?

That’s what they want us to believe.

Follow the money would be appropriate here…

The phone was a cash deal so it goes nowhere other than they should be able to find out where and when it was bought.

But someone paid Racknine Inc for their services.

Michael Sona may have had access to the polling done for his riding, but for the others I think not. It’s not like his candidate was a high profile Cabinet Minister.

There is just far too much stink for it to come from such a small fish.

What of the penalties for his actions. I gather he could be fined $5000 for Election Fraud. Can we multiply that by the number of calls made? If this was a punchup and he hit 5 people it would be 5 counts of assault. If he had 10,000 people called, shouldn’t that be 10,000 counts?

At $5K that would be $50 Million dollars. Bazinga!

For12 ridings? $600 Million. Double Bazinga!

For that kind of cash I’m sure he’d name names and give dates.

The skill and access to information needed to pull this kind of thing off is beyond what a 23 year old History student acting as Communications Director for a failed candidate would have.

You can call them Spooks or Black Ops or Dirty Tricks Committees but there was something going on and it wasn’t at the front line. It was much further up the food chain. How many Communications Directors for failed candidates got aide positions with the Government… not too many I’m sure. Maybe he was being rewarded for his actions that no one knew about.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is probably a duck, and Stephen Harper is in charge of the farm.