Company CEO caught in political party spat speaks out

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Editor’s note: This story has been updated and corrected from an earlier version which identified a national defence contract as a polling contract. The Sun regrets the error. 

The CEO of a company caught in the middle of a spat between the Liberals and Conservatives is striking back, saying the Tories have it all wrong when trying to land a punch on the Grits.

David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data, is taking issue with claims by the Conservatives that the company has received special treatment from the Trudeau Liberals over party ties.

The Conservatives pointed to 12 contracts worth $576,089 awarded by the government to Abacus Data over the last four years that were not released under the protocols put in place for taxpayer-funded polling.

Accusing the Trudeau Liberals of covering things up and breaking laws in the past, Conservative MP Michael Barrett called for the government to, “immediately release all details about these contracts to reassure Canadians that no laws were broken.”

Pointing to a document tabled in Parliament in April, the Conservatives said it made no sense that the government was admitting to 12 contracts with the polling firm but that none were listed on the government’s website. Under federal law, most polling is required to be posted in English and French including details of how the poll was conducted and the findings within six months.

As was originally reported, syndicated studies, which make up about 5% of the federal government’s $15 million annual polling budget, are not required to be made public. Four of the 12 contracts Abacus has received were with the Privy Council Office for the firm’s syndicated study on the views of Canadian millennials.

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As for the other contracts, Coletto states that “research conducted for federal crown corporations does not fall under the disclosure requirements for federal departments.”

A contract with National Defence for a speaking engagement was erroneously reported as a polling contract.

He also took issue with the insinuation from the Conservatives that the firm received special treatment due to the ties company chairman, Bruce Anderson, has with the Trudeau Liberals. Anderson began his career working for a cabinet minister in the government of Pierre Trudeau and his daughter worked in a senior role with Justin Trudeau.

“In the entire time Bruce Anderson has been part of our firm, he has not been involved in the procurement, design, or execution of any of our work with federal crown corporations or with the Canadian Millennial Report that PCO subscribes to,” Coletto said.

blilley@postmedia.com