Back in February, I started a research project using the Tweepy library in Python. Around that time, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), Maxime Bernier, asked people to follow the accounts that he followed, and retweet their tweets.

That was a big job, so I wrote a Python script to create a list to which others could subscribe. The next task was to isolate PPC-related tweets. This was the genesis of my twitter bot. It listens for PPC-related tweets from the accounts followed by Maxime Bernier.

After a while, I wrote another Python script to generate Top Tweets lists. It generates daily Top Ten and weekly Top 40 lists of the most popular PPC-related tweets. It also served to help PPC supporters find each other and relevant information.

We built a solid community on Twitter, able to dominate most threads and get hashtags trending. This was particularly useful in getting the attention of the debate organizers.

Anyway, it is is a real shame that the Conservatives’ hiring of Warren Kinsella’s Daisy Group (aka. Project Cactus) to smear Maxime Bernier is being swept under the rug, so to speak. It is a federal crime under Section 91 of the Canada Elections Act, which specifically makes spreading lies about your opponents during the writ period illegal.

Elections Act, 91 (1) No person or entity shall, with the intention of affecting the results of an election, make or publish, during the election period, (a) a false statement that a candidate, a prospective candidate, the leader of a political party or a public figure associated with a political party has committed an offence under an Act of Parliament or a regulation made under such an Act—or under an Act of the legislature of a province or a regulation made under such an Act—or has been charged with or is under investigation for such an offence; or (b) a false statement about the citizenship, place of birth, education, professional qualifications or membership in a group or association of a candidate, a prospective candidate, the leader of a political party or a public figure associated with a political party.

source

It seems we no longer enjoy the rule of law in Canada. Canadians should be furious.