Ontario PC party apologizes for fundraising letters resembling invoice

The Ontario PC party has issued an apology for a series of fundraising letters designed to appear as invoices that were erroneously mailed to various residents.

CTV News's Queens Park representative, Stephanie Bellotto, writes:

"The Ontario PC Party tremendously values the support we receive from thousands of hardworking Ontarians every single year. Without your contributions our operations would not be possible."

"At no time was it our intention to mislead our valued supporters. We regret that this correspondence was sent to a limited group of supporters by one of our vendors and will not happen again."

"We apologize for any confusion or frustration this may have caused."

According to CTV News, the PCs contracted a company called The Responsive Marketing Group, based in Toronto, to handle this part of their fundraising campaign.

A concerned resident talked to CTV, showing the letter his family received, saying:

"Just above the address box window, in red letters, it says 'Important Invoice Enclosed,' right under the Ontario PC identification on the upper left-hand side,"

Dennis Pilon, a professor at York University, commented on the issue:

"It's just ethically abhorrent because we know that there will be people, whose knowledge of things is greater or lesser and there are certainly vulnerable people who might see this and suddenly feel that they need to get this money in."

As of earlier this year, the Ontario PC was still leading other parties in polls to win the provincial elections, set to take place on or before Jun. 2, 2022