Or is there still time for you to "say you're sorry"?   ^_^;       
   _________________________   
      
   https://election.ctvnews.ca/   
      
   Scheer won't say if Conservatives hired consultant to 'destroy' People's Party   
      
   TORONTO -- With election day less than 48 hours away, Andrew Scheer suddenly   
   found himself in the hot seat Saturday as reports linked the Conservative   
   party to a co-ordinated effort to smear former caucus colleague Maxime Bernier   
   and his nascent populist    
   People's Party of Canada.   
      
   The Globe and Mail reported that strategist Warren Kinsella and his firm Daisy   
   Group were hired to "seek and destroy" Bernier's party and portray its   
   supporters as racist. A source with direct knowledge of the project said the   
   client was the    
   Conservatives, the Globe reported.   
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
      
   The Conservative leader, whom polls suggest is locked in a neck-and-neck duel   
   with Liberal rival Justin Trudeau, refused to confirm, deny or even   
   acknowledge the report during a news conference in Toronto that featured few   
   questions about anything else.   
      
   "We don't offer comments on contracts that may or may not exist on vendors we   
   may or may not have a relationship with," he said, repeatedly.   
      
   Bernier formed the People's Party of Canada -- a populist, libertarian   
   movement steeped in nationalist sentiment and aimed at draining support from   
   the right-wing flank of the Tories -- after he narrowly lost the Conservative   
   leadership race to Scheer.   
      
   "This is the kind of dirty politics that fuels Canadians' cynicism about   
   politics," Bernier told a news conference of his own, adding that he had filed   
   a complaint with the Commissioner of Canada Elections, the office that   
   enforces Canada's election laws.   
      
   "This secret campaign is an attack on the integrity of our democratic process.   
   We had suspected for a long time that many of the supposed scandals of the   
   last month had been fabricated by opponents."   
      
   He even suggested that Kinsella's so-called "seek-and-destroy" campaign might   
   have had a hand in the satirical Rhinoceros party's decision to field a   
   candidate also named Maxime Bernier in the leader's Quebec riding of Beauce in   
   hopes of confusing voters.   
      
   Kinsella didn't confirm or deny the project to the Globe, but said generally   
   his firm has worked on anti-racism campaigns. Later in the day, after his   
   social media accounts vanished from the internet, he posted a statement on his   
   website defending his    
   work, which he said ended "many months ago."   
      
   "It was always going to be disclosed, by law. It was in no way inappropriate   
   or wrong," Kinsella wrote. "Opposing organized bigotry is always appropriate   
   and right. We were and are fiercely proud of the work we did."   
      
   In the statement, Kinsella implied that details about the campaign were leaked   
   by a former employee -- a "hater" -- who "made anti-Semitic, intolerant   
   remarks and stole from our company" before going on to assist Bernier's party,   
   which he insisted is    
   undeserving of sympathy.   
      
   "We don't help racists," he wrote.   
      
   NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the allegations are troubling and called on   
   Scheer to address them directly.   
      
   "Canadians should expect transparency from leaders," Singh said during a   
   campaign stop in B.C., where the New Democrat frontman is seeking to   
   capitalize on momentum few observers would have anticipated at the start of   
   the campaign.   
      
   "They should be able to answer those type of questions. If there's evidence to   
   suggest he was involved in the hiring of someone for a certain task he should   
   be able to answer those questions."   
      
   Justin Trudeau, for his part, used the report to buttress his now-familiar   
   charge that the Conservatives are using dirty tricks and misinformation to   
   propel their election effort.   
      
   "I think we've seen throughout this campaign that the Conservatives have had   
   to use the politics of fear and division and indeed just make stuff up in   
   order to try and get their message across," the Liberal leader said.   
      
   [---]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)