Alberta's Wildrose Party fined $90K for robocalls

The Wildrose Party has been fined $90,000 by the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission for violating automated phone call regulations.

It stems from robocalls made to Albertans in 2011 and 2012 in the run-up to the provincial election.

The calls were in contravention of CRTC regulations that say the name of the party sponsoring the call, an address and contact telephone number need to be included.

Wildrose Party president David Yager says it's a bad day for the party.

"This is a highly regrettable event for Wildrose, for the party, for our supporters, for our [donors]," he said. "We didn't plan on being in this situation, we didn't think we would be in this situation, and the fact that we are is embarrassing."

Yager says they were assured by the company they worked with that the calls were 100 per cent in compliance with regulations.

He declined to name the company, but says the firm had made similar calls for other political parties.

The CRTC penalty against Wildrose was levied as part an ongoing investigation against other Canadian political parties.

The party was alerted in April that it would be part of the investigation, and said it fully co-operated — even supplying scripts and details of the calls.

Yager says he thinks other parties have violated the rules, including the Progressive Conservative Party — which won the election with 44 per cent of the popular vote. 

"The only thing we have asked is that the investigation by the CRTC include other political organizations, and if they do I don't think we have heard the last of the story," he said.