The "Real Wildrose" Attack site: Is it the work of Sandra Jansen's campaign manager?

Politics in Alberta has taken a nasty turn of late as the floundering Progressive Conservatives led by Alison Redford having collapsed in polls lash out at Danielle Smith and the Wildrose; this after numerous claims by Redford, both before and during the election, that the PC's were going to take the high road and run a clean campaign.

It has become a campaign of smear and fear mongering with the target being the Wildrose, the only party that stands in the way of a another PC victory in Alberta, and numerous 'sock puppet' twitter accounts have appeared which have no purpose other than to lie, smear, spread fear, and even libel the Wildrose. One such twitter account is called "WiltedRose" and the average tweet reads similiar to the following made April 12 at 4:31

"@drryancarter @heather4mla she took a bribe (http://realwildrose.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/paid-to-cross-the-floor/) & lied about it (http://realwildrose.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/anderson-and-forsyth-lying/). #wrp can not be trusted. #abvote"

Pure BS, probably libelous, and is just one of many tweets of similiar nature that have been posted from this account.

The profile page of "WiltedRose" provides no real information as to its author other than a link to a WordPress blog called "Real Wild Rose" which is much of the same fear mongering as the twitter account but providing the author more than 140 characters to do so.  Again there is no information openly listed on the blog as to its author, political affiliations (if any), or anything else of an identifiable nature.

Did you notice that I wrote the words "openly listed"?

Sandra Janson, she of CTV Newsnet fame, is running for the PC's in the riding of Calgary-North-West in what is sure to be a tough race if the polls are anywhere near accurate. Her campaign manager is a fellow named Piotr Pilarski, who already has quite the twitter presence of his own, and is well known in Alberta political circles having been part of both Redford's and Doug Griffiths' campaign for the PC leadership.

From the WordPress Blog "Real Wild Rose" / "The Party" / "WRP Weapons of war"/ comes a link to a Power Point file = http://realwildrose.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/wrp-weapons-of-war.ppt  

Click on properties and what do you see...

Different browser, from page 1 of same PPT.

Could the ppilarski who "last modified" or "last saved" these pages be the same P Pilarski who manages Sandra Jansen's campaign? The one who Doug Griffiths said "really wanted a splashy campaign," when referring to his leadership run?

I don't know but  Pilarski did tweet on Thursday afternoon: "@TheInvisibleDan @Albertaardvark @wiltedroseparty not my blog guys, sorry. #abvote"  to a question asking if realwildrose.wordpress.com was his, but that was before the debate and before knowing that someone had found the name ppilarski attached to the attack site.

I guess I will have to ask him again, and also ask Sandra Jansen if she thinks these types of things are appropriate in a so called 'clean campaign.


Updated: Peter Pilarski responds in the comments:

Thanks Alberta Ardvark.

Like I’ve told you before, I can say with confidence that I did not create this blog. The document you question is something that was sent to me early in the year; I forwarded it to all the PCs I knew. After all, if you had your opponents strategy wouldn’t you do the same? The document I have sent has hit hundreds of inboxes since January (the date in which your screenshots show my “last modification”).

Also for anyone that has managed a provincial campaign and worked a full time job you know there is no way I would have time to put into a site like this one. There are not enough hours in my day.

And lastly for those of you that follow me on Twitter you know I say what is on my mind and don’t back down. If I were to do something like this you would know it was me. I don’t believe in hiding behind fake accounts or secret blogs. You all know my opinions and how I feel. I put it out there and I don’t apologize for it.

So no, this blog isn’t mine. Nice try though.

PP