Liberal Candidate for the Airdrie-Banff riding Marlo Raynolds said he wants an apology from Airdrie MP Blake Richards after Richards made comments on Nov. 19 in the House of Commons about Raynolds.
The Nov. 19 incident took place, according to Raynolds, following a column and TV spot from Sun Media reporter Brain Lilley on Nov. 18 when he allegedly used secretly recorded audio of Raynolds, Canmore resident Tam McTavish and another unnamed individual discussing income splitting. Income splitting is part of the federal government’s new Family Tax Cut and is described in an Oct. 31 Department of Finance news release as, a federal tax credit that will allow a spouse to, in effect, transfer up to $50,000 of taxable income to a spouse in a lower tax bracket. The credit will provide tax relief—capped at $2,000—for couples with children under the age of 18, effective for the 2014 taxation year.
On Nov. 19 Richards said, “It seems the Liberal candidate from Banff-Airdrie does not trust Canadian families to spend their money properly.”
He added, “This clearly reflects the typical, arrogant Liberal sentiment that they know better than parents how to raise their own child and that Ottawa bureaucrats know better than hardworking Canadian taxpayers how to spend their own hard earned Canadian money.”
A video of his House address remained on Richard’s Facebook page as of Dec. 1.
The secret recording was allegedly made at a public meeting in Canmore on Nov. 13, according to Raynolds.
“Richards, immediately after the Sun report, took a swipe at me using those media reports and promptly started a fundraising campaign with comments attributed to me,” Raynolds said.
In his TV show, Lilley aired a recorded comment, allegedly from Raynolds, that said taxpayers would spend tax refunds from income splitting on TVs and cars, and not on their kids.
“They purchased items that really didn’t do anything to benefit the economy,” Lilley’s report alleges Raynolds said.
Raynolds said the problem with the recording, is that it wasn’t him saying the comments.
“Sun Media ran their story with comments McTavish said but with my name beside (the comments),” he said.
Sun Media retracted the article and published a correction on Nov. 25 stating McTavish and not Raynolds made the comments.
McTavish has also come forward to media claiming responsibility for the comments.
“(Richards) refuses to apologize or correct the record,” Raynolds said.
Richards didn’t respond to requests for comment from Rocky View Weekly.
The PC Party had a voice analysis done on the recording, the result of which allegedly indicates Raynolds said the comments in question.
However, Raynolds also had a voice analysis done on the recording, which disputes the PC’s findings.
Raynolds said he’d like to “get back to the issues and (for Richards to) stop attacking me.”
“Admit the error, apologize and move on – that’s all I ask,” Raynolds said.
