Election complaint considered by Egmont Liberals

As the controversy surrounding robocalls from the 2011 federal election continues, Liberals in the western P.E.I. riding of Egmont say they haven't ruled out launching an official complaint with Elections Canada.

'What's to stop somebody from the next election, if they got away with this, doing the same thing again?' Robert Gallant, Liberal campaign co-chair, Egmont

They chose not to lodge a complaint last May after receiving complaints about annoying and harassing phone calls using their candidate's name. The Egmont riding is amongst more than 40 Liberal campaigns that say they were hit with questionable calls.

The calls were particularly confusing to some voters in the riding because some callers were mispronouncing Liberal candidate Guy Gallant's name, using the English pronunciation of his first name rather than the French.

'It took a while for me to register," Wellington resident Gilles Painchaud told CBC News.

"Once I clued in to what they were saying, they said, 'Do you have intention to vote for Guy Gallant?' And I said well, it's really my own doing.'

Painchaud was so annoyed and confused by the caller he phoned the Liberal campaign office to complain. The Liberals said they weren't making the calls, but had received seven or eight complaints.

Robert Gallant, the campaign co-chair for the Liberals in Egmont, said he didn't understand what was happening. Now he's thinking he should have filed a formal complaint.

"What's to stop somebody from the next election, if they got away with this, doing the same thing again?" said Gallant.

"You've got to get to the bottom of it, there's no two ways about it. We have to figure out what happened, and deal with the people in charge who made it happen."

Gallant said he may yet file an official complaint, but the party is asking him to hold off while it looks for other supporters who may have received calls but not reported them.

These calls didn't affect the outcome of the campaign in Egmont, which the Liberals lost by more than 4,000 votes, said Gallant, but he said the calls were illegal and he wants to know who made them.

On Monday, MPs in Ottawa voted unanimously to hand over to Elections Canada and the RCMP any information on illegal calls from the 2011 election.