OTTAWA - The Conservative Party of Canada has slammed the country's public broadcaster in a fundraising letter to party members.
Top party official Doug Finley has sent Conservative grassroots supporters a letter in which he lambastes the CBC and asks people for money to help fight an election.
Finley, the party's campaign director, says he was shocked by allegations that a CBC reporter helped produce questions for a Liberal MP to ask Brian Mulroney at a recent parliamentary hearing.
Now he's using the incident as a fundraising message to the party faithful: Tories face a chronic disadvantage because of their powerful enemies, and need your cash to overcome it.
But while casting the governing party as a perennial underdog, Finley glosses over the fact that the Tories are - by far - the top dog in the money department.
The Tories are loaded with cash after out-fundraising the Liberals by millions of dollars at a four-to-one ratio, and that money has allowed them to staff campaign headquarters and run multiple TV ads.
Finley glosses over those advantages in a letter that focuses on the challenges of being a Conservative.
"Let's face the facts," Finley writes in a letter, released by the party Monday.
"Running as a Conservative in Canada is never easy.
"The Liberals have long benefited from the support of the country's most powerful vested interests. And the NDP has always been backed by the country's loudest vocal interests."
He goes on to ask for $100 or $200, and argues that financial support will help the Tories overcome the challenge of fighting the Liberals and "their vested interest allies."
The Conservatives already do have plenty of help sitting in their bank account.
The party has so much money that for months it's been operating a 1,500-square-metre election headquarters in an Ottawa industrial park.
And Finley leads an election team that has remained in place throughout the two years since the last campaign.
That team has spent millions bombarding Liberal Leader Stephane Dion with five waves of negative TV ad campaigns, and the cash-strapped opposition has been left to reply with low-budget Internet ads on Youtube.
But the Tory fundraising letter suggests the Liberals get help elsewhere.
Finley's letter mentions two other CBC reports where the network was accused of bias against Conservatives. He notes, in passing, that the CBC received $1.11 billion in government funding in 2006-07.
CBC brass have said they are investigating and considering possible disciplinary action against a reporter who allegedly supplied questions for Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez to ask Mulroney.
But the broadcaster's reaction has left some puzzled on Parliament Hill.
Other reporters say they've suggested questions for politicians in the past - for instance, when Conservatives were in opposition and grilling the Liberals during the sponsorship scandal.
