Now I'm Not Calling Mark Holland A Liar.....

because some of the voting irregularities he alleges occurred in the riding of Ajax-Pickering did in fact happen. It's just that Holland has the victim wrong, that would be Conservative MP Chris Alexander.

"Mark Holland, who lost to former ambassador and Tory star candidate Chris Alexander by just more than 3,000 votes, says there were so many calls inundating the Ajax-Pickering, Ont., riding he does not believe the cost could have been covered by the local Conservative campaign, and that many or most of them must have come from outside the riding."

In fact there were misleading and harrassing phone calls, with the caller identifying themselves as calling from the Conservatives. In fact, Alexander's office received angry complaints from Conservative supporters who were threatening to not vote if they continued to receive several calls a day from the party. The problem is it wasn't the party making the calls. Next:

"Mr. Holland cited other voting irregularities, which his campaign noted to local Elections Canada polling officials along with the inexplicable phone barrage, that included members of the riding’s growing Afghan community turning up to vote, but finding their names had already been counted as having cast ballots.

“The riding was bombarded with calls, and in every conceivable language. It certainly struck us that the cost of being able to have that many calls and do it in that many languages was well in excess of whatever a campaign limit would allow,” Mr. Holland said."

Actually, in regards to this allegation, my opinion, and it's just that, my opinion, Holland is full of shit. I can't think of any other way to put nicely. Holland's electoral success before the 2011 election rested on his campaign targeting the ethnic vote. Anyone who knows the riding is well aware of the time Holland spent targeting the Westney/Rossland/Salem corridor in Ajax, and the Major Oaks/Brock corridor in Pickering. The Conservative campaign focused on the vote south of Kingston Road, in the older part of Ajax. Come to think of it, Holland appears to be the first to allege robocalls in languages other than english or french. For that reason alone this ridculous allegation should be thrown on the trash heap.

I don't have enough time nor space here to list all the things the Conservative candidates have been the victims of in the riding of Ajax-Pickering, suffice to say that complaints have been made to EC, and some alleged wrondoing or contravention of rules by the Liberal campaigns.

In regards to the robocall allegations, Holland's biggest problem is he's late to the table. To further prove my point, this is an email exchange between journalist Stephen Maher and myself.

"Sir, I read your post with interest. Can you tell me: When you got the call? Did it identify as Elections Canada? What the number or area code was? Stephen MaherNational political columnist, Postmedia News. (contact info not included from email)

My reply: "Hi Stephen. I received the call on my home phone. It was quite awhile ago but I think it was on the day before the vote. No idea what the caller id number was as it was such a long time ago. If I remember correctly it stated it was Elections Canada, and was a male voice in english followed by I assume the same info in french by a female voice. Both voices sounded to be prerecorded. I do remember it wasn't a local area code though, which here is 905. And no name included with the call display. It said my polling location was at a school in the Westney, Rossland area. There were legitimate polling locations in that area, but it's the farthest one can go in Ajax from my house. I just assumed it was an error on someones part. If you have any more questions drop me an email. I'll be happy to do whatever I can. Thanks. Paul

It's important to note my reply was sent to Maher March 3. And now, March 15th Holland comes out with this tripe? In fact reports in the media weeks ago made note of the fact there were no allegations of robocalls in the riding. At the time, Holland remained silent, and now weeks later, states it's the reason he lost the election. There are a number of reasons Holland was defeated. Arrogance, gun registry, poor leadership by Ignatieff, a party polling in the low 20% range. One needs only look at the trend in voting in the riding, starting in the 2004 election forward. What you see is a consistent trendline with Liberal support slipping and Conservative support rising. In fact in the 2008 election Holland's margin of victory decreased, despite the Conservative candidate being named late, having no campaign office for the first two weeks of the campaign, etc.

So if the failed former MP wants to go down this road, I really have to ask. Are you really that pathetic Mr. Holland?

p.s. Holland lost by 3,000 votes. Today Elections Canada stated the actual number of complaints filed is 700. A number of them were legitimate complaints for the riding of Guelph. Regardless, even if one were to assume all 700 complaints arose from the riding of Ajax-Pickering, you still would have been kicked to the curb. Do the math dumb-ass.