Angry in the Great White North

My story about how the Liberal Party database system seems to work has more legs than I expected. Frankly I thought it was bit too technical to be of much interest beyond a limited circle of readers.

Apparently I was wrong. Again. Not the first time and it won't be the last.

Today, in Question Period, the post was used by House Leader Peter Van Loan, and earned a scathing response from Garth Turner, as reported in Maclean's by Kady O'Malley:

He may not be on the payroll of the Conservative party (or Canada's No Longer All That New Government), but the party research bureau definitely owes blogger Steve "Angry in the Great White North" Janke a beer for the countless hours he devotes to digging up dirt on the Liberals.

During Question Period today, no less a personage than House Leader Peter Van Loan used Janke's research to deflect questions on the voter/constituent database maintained by Conservative MPs, which the Liberals claim violates not only the privacy of the aforementioned constituents, but inappropriately mixes government and political information within the same system.

I await the chorus of accusations that I am paid to publish material hand-delivered to me from the PMO. In fact, that notion has now become part of the official record. Read Liberal MP Garth Turner's comment about my credibility:

Hon. Garth Turner (Halton, Lib.) :

Mr. Speaker, on Friday I asked the government about its relationship with Conservative CIMS database.

The hon. House leader said it was a political party database divorce from government MPs, but I have here the authorization form signed by Conservative MPs installing this database in their offices.

Therefore my question is simple. Why is a political party database sitting on the taxpayer funded computers of members of Parliament?

Hon. Peter Van Loan (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC) :

Mr. Speaker, I was very puzzled when I got this question on party databases last week so I did some research and I found the following.

The software enables both candidates and elected officials in their respective roles to properly and easily manage their campaign and constituency offices. Members of the House of Commons are using this application for their day to day business. Since 1997 it has been the software of choice for every election and byelection of both federal and provincial elections.

The package enables elected officials to track issues, correspondence in their constituencies as well as donations, membership and voter intention.

It is not CIMS. It is ElectSYS, the Liberal Party of Canada software application.

Some hon. members: Oh, oh!

The Speaker :

Order, please. Obviously the popularity of the hon. member for Halton has risen dramatically over the summer but we have to be able to hear the question despite the enthusiasm of him standing in the House. We have to be able to hear what he says. The hon. member for Halton now has the floor. Order, please.

Hon. Garth Turner (Halton, Lib.) :

Mr. Speaker, I hope Canadians will notice that the hon. House leader did not answer that important question and he has now quoted from a Conservative blogger who's credibility is extremely compromised.

My question remains. Does the hon. House leader believe it is an ethical practice to have a Conservative Party database sitting on the computers of his MPs? Yes or no, ethical or not?

Hon. Peter Van Loan (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC) :

Mr. Speaker, I was actually quoting from the website of The AIT Corp.: "Giving you the edge through superior campaign and constituency management...client base: Federal Liberal Party of Canada".

It says one can do issue tracking, use the case layer to link files with issues, search wizards to help retrieve information by issue, case status, open date and assignment, in fact voting intention and voter participation and then there is my favourite privacy issue. It says one can even track birth dates and send them congratulatory notes. I guess it is time for him to go to the byelection with or without his database.

I thought I had no credibility whatsoever with Liberals.

The mainstream media has picked up on the database story:

Liberal MPs use a constituent database that has some of the same invasive privacy capabilities as the maligned Conservative party system, according to a promotional web site for the software.

Peter Van Loan, the Conservative House leader, happily recited Monday the potential tools touted by The AIT Corp for its ElectSYS database.

Van Loan told the House of Commons those features include tracking voter intention and tracking birthdays and anniversaries in order to send greeting cards.

The Liberals say that they've created distinct (though presumably 100% compatible) databases:

But Liberals say they have two distinct databases, one paid for by MPs to manage constituent case files and one paid for by the party for partisan purposes.

Although both systems were developed by the AIT Corp., data is not shared between the two. Both systems, AdminElect and ManagElect, are listed on the company web site.

Interesting that this point was not brought up on the recorded Question Period exchange.

You can watch the hilarity ensue for yourself. The transcript never does justice to the hooting, clapping, and, in this particular case, a standing ovation, that makes up the theatre that is Question Period:

Addendum: A new entry for my Quotes page.