Grassroots for Day also paid for hard-hitting radio ads in B.C. targetting dissident MPs Val Meredith and Chuck Strahl. Bears is unrepentant, and not particularly forthcoming about how the lobby operates. He refuses to confirm or deny he's using party membership lists. He says only that the Internet is a great way to get information from supporters. Besides, he said, the membership list is a red herring.
Bears is coy about money.
What is known is that Canada Family Action Coalition, an Edmonton-based family values lobby, sent what amounted to an edict to its branches to support Grassroots for Day. An email request for an interview with the sender of the message elicited no reply. Alliance MP Bob Mills also spoke out against those who swamped his Red Deer, Alta., riding office with some 1,200 pro-Day phone calls, many reading from a prepared text. I just don't believe you mix the two of them. Bears laughed off a question about whether his site is being supported by religious right and anti-abortion groups.