August 22, 2022 • 7 hours ago • 3 minutes read • 26 comments UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith speaks at a campaign rally in Chestermere on Tuesday, August 9, 2022. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

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A Calgary woman received a series of harassing voicemails and multiple calls from people claiming to be volunteers for Danielle Smith’s UCP leadership campaign, though Smith called it a “malicious prank” from people pretending to be connected to her .

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Cassandra Raugust said she started getting calls from people who told her they were with Smith’s campaign Friday night. In brief excerpts from the multiple calls and voicemails she received and later posted on social media, two self-proclaimed volunteers separately call her a communist, racist and other names after she tells them she does not support Smith. “This is just ridiculous. I’ve never been a fan of Danielle Smith. I didn’t buy a subscription,” he said. “I’ve said much worse. I’ve called (UCP) about everything and I’ve never been harassed like this…that’s weird. It’s just all weird.” Smith, the perceived front-runner in the race to replace Jason Kenney as UCP leader and Alberta premier, took to social media Monday morning to denounce the calls as fake after they gained traction online. He makes no mention of who he believes is behind the calls.

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“This is clearly a malicious prank by someone trying to pretend to be in our campaign. This is fake. Our call center uses a publicly accessible campaign number, not a private number. It’s a good idea to avoid jumping to conclusions as dirty tactics seem to be commonplace these days,” Smith said in a written statement to Postmedia. About this voicemail prank. It’s clearly someone pretending to be in our campaign. It is fake. Our call center uses a public number and was also down during these calling hours. It might be a good idea to avoid jumping to conclusions from dirty tactics. #abpoli — Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) August 22, 2022

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Raugust said she received the first call Friday afternoon, telling the caller she did not support Smith and asking to be removed from the call list. But the man called her several times, calling her a “communist racist b—h” before immediately hanging up. Then the calls continued Sunday, when Raugust answered a call from a woman who thanked her for supporting Smith and the proposed act of sovereignty and invited her to a “sponsor appreciation party.” Raugust again asked not to be contacted, but the woman said she would call again when Raugust was “in a better mood.” The woman then called and left a voicemail. “I checked with my supervisor to make sure your phone number has been removed from our list and in fact, as it turns out, communists are not allowed at the event,” the woman said in a recording of the voicemail posted to Twitter.

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“Please don’t come, no one wants to see you there and they also don’t want the vaccine. . . Have a great night and please don’t ruin other people’s lives.”

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Rowgust said the repeated calls left her shaken. As a business owner, she said she often gets calls from customers without caller ID, so she always answers her phone regardless of whether a name comes up. “I feel anxious. I feel scared. I feel anxious,” she said. “I was a victim of random violence five years ago. . . I suffered a severe brain injury and it took me a long time to feel safe again. And I can tell you that this feeling I had then, I have now.” While their phone numbers were blocked, one caller gave a callback number listed in the Yellow Pages as a catering business, and the other offered a number for a “complaint line” that leads to a local restaurant. [email protected] Twitter: @michaelrdrguez

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