Of course election-related calls from candidate representatives are allowed under the do not call rules. Politicians make the laws, after all. But even if they can call, should they? I really wonder how much thought politicians give the issue. I know no one who is even neutral about telemarketing so why would any candidate risk pissing off the very voters they hope to recruit? I’m sure at least part of the idea is to make sure voters know their names, but it still seems unduly risky to me. The unwanted calls merely make sure the voter knows who to be pissed off at.
And as to the caller’s particular reply to my displeasure, there is no excuse for saying such a thing to a voter. If she simply said, “I’m sorry for the interruption. Have a good evening,” she would have nicely limited the damage. Instead, she made it much worse.
Although the CRTC telemarketing regulations allow political parties to bother the electorate, I wondered if those regulations had anything to say about when they may bother us. About fifteen seconds with Google brought me to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules. I read through them for any related information and it didn’t take me long to get to an interesting paragraph.
From section 23 of “Part III: Telemarketing Rules,”
Subject to section 24, a telemarketing telecommunication is restricted to the following hours: 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays (Monday to Friday); and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). The hours refer to those of the consumer receiving the telemarketing telecommunication.
So while Joyce Morocco’s people can call and annoy me, the 8:30 pm call I received on Saturday is far outside permitted time they may call on a weekend.
What impression is this supposed to make? As I said, it took me all of fifteen seconds to find the rules, and a matter of minutes to read them. The only two explanations I can think of are that the Morocco campaign doesn’t much care for the rules so they decided to ignore them, or the campaign manager is so inept that he or she didn’t know there were such limitations.
Neither case is a ringing endorsement of her leadership promise.
Jessica
You should make a complaint! There are hefty fines for breaking those rules, and if lots of people complain about the same telemarketer, there’s a good chance that fines will be imposed. You can go here to get started: https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/plt-cmp-eng.
Julie
I recently had to read CRTC rules for something unrelated. Unfortunately political calls are exempt from many of the telemarketing rules. I believe call times are one of the exceptions.
Rick
My reading was different…but I’m sure they’ll tell me if I’m wrong. The thing is, I’m not sure why they’d want to step outside of those rules. Doing so would just increase the chance of pissing off potential supporters.
Julie
Agreed. However, advertising is often measured by exposure and recall. By the time the election rolls around, some people will vote for the name they remember and they will have forgotten when the call happened. I can’t see this practice continuing election after election if there is a negative impact. You may be the exception to the rule, Rick, as am I.
Rick
If that’s true…those people are weird! I can’t say it any more vehemently!
I sound pithy, but I mean it. I can’t begin to imagine how people can so easily forget annoyances and things they claim bother them so much. Maybe I’m the weird one.