The Invisible Hand

During the 2006 Alberta PC leadership race, I was curious about whether and when the various leadership candidates would have access to the lists of memberships that were submitted to the party. To that end, I arranged for my mom to put one of my e-mail addresses on her membership application. A friend of mine also did the same. That way, if I later got messages to that name/address combination, I would know the sender had access to the membership lists.

However, I never received anything of that sort during the campaign. Over the next two years, I largely forgot about what I'd done, except whenever I'd receive three copies of the "PC Talk" e-newsletter.

However, last week I received a message from Dave Taylor, who is currently running for the leadership of the Alberta Liberals. "That's odd," I thought, "I wonder where he got my e-mail address from." Then I noticed that there were three copies of the message. And then I noticed that one was sent to my name and normal address, one was sent to my mom at another address, and one was sent to my friend at a third address.



The only way Dave Taylor's campaign could have gotten these name/e-mail combinations is by accessing data from the Alberta PC membership list.

So, we have some important questions here:
1) How and when did Taylor get the lists?
2) Does he have the full member details, or just their e-mail addresses?
3) Did Taylor obtain these lists through legitimate means?

I look forward to an explanation, or hearing from anyone else who might have more details.

Labels: Alberta Liberals, nerd stuff