Unpacking the Politics: Are secret audio recordings ‘Nixonian’?

Ottawa Citizen parliamentary bureau chief Mark Kennedy says secret audio recordings may lead people to think the prime minister has Nixonian operatives working for him.

OTTAWA — Secretly recording a conversation, using the tape to attack a prominent Liberal candidate and then hiring an audio expert when its authenticity is questioned: Is Prime Minister Stephen Harper desperate for re-election?

“Does Harper really want people to think that as he seeks another mandate he has “Nixonian” objectives out there, secretly taping people … I don’t think so,” Mark Kennedy, parliamentary bureau chief for the Ottawa Citizen said on The West Block with Tom Clark.

“I think he could easily make his case publicly that the Liberals ought to be kept in opposition benches because of what we know about them publicly. But to take this tactic, I think it could blow up on him.”

The political sting operation — just the latest in a series of covert Tory efforts aimed at capturing verbal gaffes by Liberals — was launched at a Nov. 13 public meeting in Canmore, Alta., by a young Conservative who’s been involved in at least one other similar plot.

READ MORE: Tory sting operation ends up catching Tories

She secretly recorded a conversation about the Harper government’s plan to introduce income splitting with Banff-Airdrie Liberal candidate Marlo Raynolds and two other men. In the recording, a man is heard crticizing the tax break, saying wealthy couples with children will be getting money for nothing and spend it on cars or televisions — not anything that benefits the economy.

The recording was given to Sun News Network which ran the story, but has since retracted it. The Conservatives, on the other hand, aren’t backing down.

WATCH: A young Alberta Tory secretly recorded a conversation hoping it would trigger negative stories. But the dirty political trick backfired.

After another participant in the secretly recorded conversation stepped forward to say it was he, not Raynolds, who actually made the remarks, the Tories hired audio forensic expert Edward J. Primeau to analyze the recording. His report concluded it was indeed Raynolds.

While that story spins round and round, another Conservative announcement took a 180 last week.

The government’s move to spend $200 million on military mental health went from good news to bad — even offensive — news within the week.

“It’s bad, bad news for Stephen Harper,” Kennedy said.

READ MORE: Conservatives promise to fix veterans’ mental health care

Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino last week announced the funds would be rolled out over five years, in a bid to help suffering veterans.

Days later, it was revealed the funds would actually be spent over a 50-year period, leading the opposition to accuse the government of deliberately misleading Canadians.

“Veterans out there are going to be totally offended by that,” Kennedy said. “During a campaign that Harper is going to have to be on, he’s going to have to face these people and they’re going to walk out and they’re going to say to him, ‘You lied and you deceived us.’”

With files from The Canadian Press