Canadians who want to attend events on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau鈥檚 so-called 鈥渃hurch basements鈥� tour this week are being asked to submit their names, phone numbers and email addresses through Liberal MPs鈥� pages on the party website.
Three Ontario MPs that are hosting events in their ridings with Trudeau this week are directing potential guests to event listings on their personalized pages on Liberal.ca that allows them to RSVP by filling in a form with their contact details.
The Prime Minister鈥檚 Office denies the party is harvesting this potentially valuable voter-contact data from the event registrations, saying the information is submitted through webpages controlled by the individual MPs, not the party.
鈥淣o information collected by the MP site, including event registrations, is shared with the Liberal Party of Canada,鈥� said PMO press secretary Andrée-Lyne Halle.
The PMO says advance registration for events on Trudeau鈥檚 tour is not required and that anyone can show up to see the prime minister and register at the door.
For parties and MPs alike, obtaining voter data is a key tool in modern politics and has become crucial to fundraising campaigns.
The Liberal Party and its MPs use a database called Liberalist to coordinate voter outreach and fundraising. The Conservatives track contacts with past and future supporters through the Constituent Information Management System, 鈥淐IMS.鈥�
Email addresses that are harvested from an online petition or even a birthday greeting for the leader can be later used to solicit donations to the party.
But the PMO insisted Wednesday that will not happen with any contact information submitted as RSVPs for Trudeau tour through smaller communities, part of his effort to reach out to ordinary Canadians.
The tour will help Trudeau 鈥渞emain connected to Canadians, at home in their communities,鈥� the PMO said.
Among the listings requesting registration data on the Liberal.ca domain is Ontario MP Marc Gerrestern鈥檚 page, advertising a townhall meeting in Kingston on Thursday, and nearly identical pages for MPs Neil Ellis and Peter Fragiskatos promoting Trudeau events in Belleville, Ont., and London, Ont.
The PMO says the MP pages listed on the Liberal.ca domain comply with House of Commons rules but are 鈥渋n no way affiliated with the political activity of Liberal Party of Canada.鈥�
The whistle-stop tour intended to connect the prime minister with 鈥済rassroots Canadians鈥� will also take him to B.C., Alberta, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
鈥淭he Prime Minister wants to hear from you about how you are feeling as we enter the new year,鈥� the party website says.
The tour was seen as an effort to counter media reports of Trudeau meeting with wealthy party donors and his decision to fly to the Bahamas for a vacation on the private island owned by the Aga Khan, a Trudeau family friend and the billionaire leader of the world鈥檚 Ismaili Muslims.
