Well, we may not exactly be running the NSA, CHHQ or even the Communications Security Establishment Canada here, folks, but thanks to the Baker Street Digital Irregulars, we’re making a little progress toward discovering who’s behind that controversial push poll that’s been robo-calling Albertans the past few days.

Push polls, as previously discussed, are a slimy political campaigning technique imported from our Great Neighbour to the South, the goal of which is to plant doubts about their victims while pretending to be a humble data surveyor asking (not so) innocent questions.

The push poll caller — nowadays usually a robo-caller — purports to be doing a survey, but is really only pretending to conduct a poll. For this reason, it’s the opinion of your humble blogger that this is an unethical technique and that any organization that uses such a technique is unethical too.

Which is why, of course, it’s so interesting to speculate who is behind this poll.

The Alberta push-poll, first reported in this space on Saturday, attacks Conservative Premier Alison Redford by tying her to a federal Liberal policy the “pollsters” assume will be unpopular with Alberta voters, and in a rather harshly worded segment to the financial problems of a now-defunct company owned by her chief of staff.

The poll also identifies that senior staffer, Stephen Carter, as holding “the top civil service position in the province,” which is either a mistake or a misrepresentation.

Anyway, the point of all this rehashing is to remind you what we’re talking about when we tell you the real news — that we now have a name (although not really the name we want), a phone number (which doesn’t tell us anything much, yet, anyway) and an actual recording of the push poll, which I’m readers are burning to hear.

The name is “Your Voice Alberta.” (That would be, as in “Their Voice Alberta,” I guess, but who they are we don’t know yet. That is, we can’t prove who is paying YVA — although, as readers of this blog know, we have our suspicions.)

The number is 780-809-3687. If you call it, you’ll get a recording in the sort of sophomoric male voice your blogger associates with members of the Campus Republican Club at a third-rate university in a Midwestern state, but maybe that’s just me projecting. You can read some rather dull geek conversation about this number here.

And then there’s the recording of the actual push-poll robo-call, which you really should listen to if you want an education in how this sort of thing is done — right down to the reassuring baby-doll voice of the robo-questioner. (Happy Birthday, Mr. President …) To listen, click here.

Just to make one thing perfectly clear, I didn’t make this recording myself. Rather, it was made available to me by one of the Digital Irregulars cited above.

As an alert reader will hear, from the moment of the beeps that signify an electronic push-poll vote being cast, that my electronic benefactor and I do not share precisely the same politics. Nevertheless, we obviously share the conviction that this is a sleazy and inappropriate technique, and we are sorry to see it has come to Alberta.

As was said in this space the last time this topic was discussed, it is the opinion of this blogger that Suspect No. 1 is the well-funded Wildrose Party led by Danielle Smith.

Since the mainstream media, which has deep pockets and more resources, now seems to be working seriously on this story, we may know in a little time if that is in fact true.

Certainly, it is interesting to note that since a post on this topic was last published in this space, there has been no denial or indeed any comment whatsoever from the Wildrose Party. But, of course, I am prepared to stand corrected, and to say so right here!

This post also appears on David Climenhaga’s blog, Alberta Diary.

David J. Climenhaga

David J. Climenhaga

David Climenhaga is a journalist and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. He left journalism after the strike...