A Shanty Bay man didn’t appreciate an automated phone message Sunday pitching a candidate for Barrie mayor.
Sandy Richmond, who lives on William Street in Oro-Medonte Township, says he got a robocall from the Mike McCann campaign.
“It said, ‘Hoping to get my vote… that he was running for mayor in Barrie’,” said Richmond, 75. “But we don’t live in Barrie.
"For him to interrupt my evening with that type of call…”
A former civilian firefighter at CFB Borden, Richmond said he’s on a do-not-call list with the government — designed to protect against unwanted phone calls — and that he thought McCann’s robocaller was just going through the phone book, picking numbers at random.
“They’re just trying to get as many votes as they can and they don’t know where they’re calling to,” Richmond said. “To me that’s irresponsible, therefore what is it going to be like if he gets in as mayor? Is he going to be this irresponsible?”
McCann, who’s been a Barrie councillor for eight years, said this is a common issue during elections.
“Lots of robocalls, lots of marketing, goes outside the city limits,” he said. “These aren’t isolated just to the boundaries Barrie. To be efficient, sometimes you have (phone) numbers that are outside the city.
“Obviously, it is a big deal to him (Richmond) because he’s writing in to the newspaper (BarrieToday).”
McCann says he is not involved in the nuts-and-bolts of automated messages or robocalling, as he’s hired a company to do this as he runs for mayor in the October election.
“Actually dissecting every single number to make sure it’s in the city limits would be not as efficient as having a few calls outside the city limits,” he said. “It’s not an exact science. What’s being responsible is getting out to as many voters as possible.
“I actually have a different perspective than this gentleman (Richmond),” McCann added. “I think it’s quite irresponsible not trying to broaden the spectrum to catch as many Barrie residents as possible. If the result is a bit of spillover, then so be it.”
Richmond said he’s had no robocalls from any of the other candidates for Barrie mayor and none from anyone running for office in Oro-Medonte Township, although some representatives of candidates have come to his front door.
Alex Nuttall, Barry Ward, Gerry Marshall, Andrew Gordon, Weldon Hachey, and Rob Haverson are also running for Barrie mayor.
