Here is the email that is showing up in people's inboxes, sent by Garth Turner, hoping to get people to show up at his town hall to see Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion:

Dear [first name],

You are invited to join MP Garth Turner and Liberal leader Stephane Dion,  for a special  evening, as our guest.

Federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion is coming August 20th, to meet the people. Hosted by MP Garth Turner, Dion will be centre stage at an important Town hall meeting in which citizens can ask him about the big issues facing southern Ontario, and Canada.

"Now that Stephen Harper has threatened an election in a few months," Turner says, "it's key that people know where our leaders stand. Stephane Dion is the only one making this effort to get out and ask us all what kind of Canada we want, and how best to cope with the problems which need urgent solutions. I'm encouraging everyone - Liberal supporters or critics - to come and make up their own minds."

Turner cites recent job losses in the manufacturing sector as a priority, along with rising energy costs, falling real estate values and mounting family financial stress. He also says Dion will be outlining his Green Shift proposal, which would see personal income taxes slashed, and taxes imposed instead on polluters responsible in part for climate change.

"Dion has won the admiration of people across the country for meeting real voters face-to-face," Turner says. "He's not afraid of the tough questions we should all be asking of our politicians, now that the economy's turned sour and the federal government seems to be drifting. This is a chance for everyone in the region to get out and make their voices heard, so policy in Ottawa can better mirror public wishes."

The Town Hall meeting takes place Wednesday, August 20th at 7:30 pm.

Location: SVCC Hall (St. Volodymyr). 1280 Dundas Street, Oakville (between Trafalgar Rd. and Bronte Rd.).

Admission is free, and seating is on a first come-first served basis. Seats may be reserved by calling (905) 693-0166, or emailing garth@garth.ca

For more information:
Esther Shaye
Office of Hon. Garth Turner
(905) 693-0166
or esther@garth.ca

Garth Turner MP

This email was sent to [email address] by garth@garth.ca.

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Email Marketing by Constant Contact

Garth Turner MP | 86 Main Street East | Milton, Ontario | L9T 1N3 | Canada

Several people have contacted me about this email.  At least two bloggers have written about it (here and here and here).  I decided, after some deliberation, to look into this a bit more closely.

First of all, this is a professional email marketing campaign.  Garth Turner's email marketing service of choice is Constant Contact, a US-based email marketing firm that Garth Turner uses to maintain contact with his Canadian constituents.

Given the surprise and irritation some people have expressed about getting this email, the question is just how did Garth Turner get the email addresses for this email blast.  You see, when you retain Constant Contact, you provide them with the list of email addresses you want to use.

I asked Garth Turner what list he used.  He told me it was his Christmas Card list.  I asked him how you get included on the list.  He declined to give me a technical answer.

So I researched the past use of his Christmas Card list, and came up with this gem from this past December at small dead animals.  Apparently, Garth Turner retained his favourite online Photoshop collage artist, the Wingnuterer, to construct a Christmas card featuring Garth Turner as Santa Claus entertaining a troll.  People weren't sure if it was a hoax.  It wasn't:

It appears that their elected member of parliament is actually sending this "e-card" to individuals who have commented at his blog site.

The confusion was centred on the return address of the card: eshaye@garth.ccsend.com.  People assumed that "ccsend.com" proved it was a fake, since Garth Turner's domain is garth.ca.  In fact, the "cc" stands for Constant Contact.  The card, troll and all, is still hosted on one of Constant Contact's servers.

Did Garth Turner use email addresses pulled from people leaving comments on his blog to populate his Christmas Card list?  The Wingnuterer seems to confirm it:

Reid: I started thinking about this more. There's a regular poster at Garth's who does alot of photoshopping. Zorpheus at the Wingnutter. Garth uses alot of his images on his blog.

So I went to his site. And sure enough this is his work. So Garth must have sent it out to those who do not agree with him. I'll give it to Garth on this one. He has a good sense of humour about it at least.

The Wingnuterer: Guilty as charged Reid, except everyone who has posted on Garth's Blog and left valid email address got one. Shit I did the damn thing and I still got one, LOL.

OK, so what?  Well, Constant Contact requires its clients to adhere to very detailed rules concerning the email addresses they provide to Constant Contact:

An "opt-in email address" is one in which the recipient of your emails has some previous relationship with you or your business. This may be done by acquiring their email address through a sign-up form in a store or website, through previous purchases, business acquaintances, or other personal relationships. Importing names that go against these rules and our Anti-Spam Policy may result in the immediate termination of your account. For more information, read Constant Contact's anti-spam policy.

And what is a "previous relationship"?

What constitutes a Preexisting business relationship?

The recipient of your email has made a purchase, requested information, responded to a questionnaire or a survey, or had offline contact with you.

Does "Leave a comment" meet the standard of a questionnaire?  Can I use the email addresses I get from my blog comment system as part of an email campaign?

I posed that question directly to Constant Contact, using my blog as an example.  People are asked to leave an email address, though unlike Garth Turner, I don't require an email address to be provided.  I don't make any mention anywhere that the email address might be used in future mail-outs, nor does Garth Turner on his blog:

Hello Steve,

I appreciate that you have thoroughly read our privacy policy. Since these contacts were not informed that they were being added to a mailing list, you unfortunately would not be able to use these contacts with Constant Contact. Our permission policy requires that contacts have already opted themselves in to receive your mailings.

If you are able to customize your blog's commenting system, you may wish to have an unchecked box that says "Join our mailing list". This will allow your contacts to take positive action to opt themselves in to your mailing list, as well as providing comments.

If you would still like to communicate with these customers, you may wish to email them outside of Constant Contact and ask if they would like to opt in. You can either have them reply to you, or you can direct them to a signup form on your website. Constant Contact accounts come with a signup form which you can easily link to from your website, and that contacts can use to subscribe themselves. (These contacts should not be imported to the account beforehand, since this will cause complications.)

If you have further questions, then please don't hesitate to get back to me.

The "complications" consist of having your contract terminated and being banned from using the services of Constant Contact ever again.

Here's a view of Garth Turner's comment system:

The only control is the "Say it!" button.  No check box to say "Yes, I would like to receive future emails from Garth Turner at the email address I've provided".

Oops.

And yes, I grabbed this screen shot from a post that is aimed at me, as you can tell from the comment left by one of Garth Turner's fans.  But more on that later.

Is Garth Turner using email addresses pulled from his blog's comment system to help fill out his Christmas Card list?  The reaction of some people receiving his email was that of surprise:

Now I probably at some time commented on Garth's blog .... sure he's got my contact info.

Are you sure?  Because if that's where he got your email, that would be in violation of the rules of Constant Contact.

The same sort of reaction was recorded when the Christmas Card went out (also via Constant Contact):

I received a cop[y] too. I don't know where they got my Email address from.

Other people who received the Christmas Card seemed to deny any opt-in:

I received the same 'card' this morning..i chose to delist myself.I suppose i received it because i have sent e-mails promising to help defeat his sorry self in the next election.I will, too.

This person seems to indicate that the only contact they've had with Garth Turner is through the blog commenting system:

long ago, I commented on Garth's blog... it was only a few times, I didn't practice "safe blog commenting", now I have these ugly itchy spots in my inbox...

The real problem is that Constant Contact is very precise on this point.  Before you, as a their client, can provide an email address to be used in an email marketing campaign, you have to have gotten that email address using a opt-in mechanism, or by virtue of an existing business relationship.

The blog commenting system on Garth Turner's blog doesn't meet the standard required by Constant Contact.

There is circumstantial evidence to suggest that at least some of the addresses in Garth Turner's Christmas Card list might have been pulled from the comment system of his blog.  We have insistence from the Wingnuterer, a colleague of Garth Turner's, that this is true.  We have the reaction of people who received the Christmas Card as well as those who received the town hall invitation that the blog comment system was the only place where they provided an email address to Garth Turner.

I don't know for certain that it is true.  The question has already been raised, though, and all I've done is pull the disparate threads together into one place.  My opinion ultimately doesn't matter.  Constant Contact can sort this sort of thing out.

Update: Thanks to those who pointed out the obvious.  I was too busy looking for subtle clues:

Then, today, abut five thousand more people, who unwisely hang around this blog, received a digital blast from me. This list was culled from the 80,000 comments posted here, and reduced to just a fraction of its size after all the jackass fake email addys were removed. Nutty Zorpheous was flown in and commissioned, at great expense, to design the card, and away the sucker went. The clear intent was to poke a little fun at myself and the trolls who constantly patrol these woods.

I know he was joking, but the unfortunate use of the phrase "five thousand more people, who unwisely hang around this blog, received a digital blast from me" speaks volumes.  In a less than twenty words, Garth Turner describes himself as a spammer.

Tongue in cheek, of course.

Except not really.

If you leave a comment on Garth Turner's blog, your email address will be subject to inclusion on a mass email marketing campaign run by Constant Contact, without anything that looks like an opt-in.  The problem is that, based on my discussion with Constant Contact, this is a violation of the contractual obligation to use email addresses that are explicitly opted in. 

I'll leave it to Garth Turner and Constant Contact to sort it out.  No doubt Garth Turner can explain this to their satisfaction -- tongue-in-cheek admission notwithstanding.

Addendum: If it turns out, as it appears, that Garth Turner used email addresses culled from his blog's comment system, and that this would be considered spam by the email marketing firm managing his emails, then that could be very embarrassing.  Especially since the spam (if that's what it turns out to be) was all about Stephane Dion and his carbon tax. 

Garth Turner's Response: From a new post on Garth Turner's blog that responds to my analysis here:

Here was my logic: It’s a free country, dammit. I’m an elected representative of the people. One of the two men who will be prime minister after the next election is coming here for an open event. He will speak from the heart. He will answer any question. And anybody can come to the event, regardless of their beliefs. This is called democracy.

So, we invited one. We invited all. We invited known Libs. We invited big Cons. We invited people who have said they wouldn’t cross the street to have a whiz on me. We invited supporters. We invited bloggers. We invited everyone – just as a few days ago I invited everybody here.

Yes, well, that's fine and all.  But inviting everyone is spamming. 

But then Garth Turner admits it:

Oh, the horror. Imagine coming to my blog, posting some partisan crap anonymously, then skulking off – only to be smitten weeks or months later with a Christmas card wishing you well!

Yes, well, that's fine and all.  But sending an email weeks or months later at an email address that was not identified with an opt-in is spamming.

By the way, I don't have buck teeth:

“There is circumstantial evidence to suggest,” the rodent hisses through his hideous buck teeth, “that at least some of the addresses in Garth Turner’s Christmas Card list might have been pulled from a comment system of his blog.”

Hey, Con babies, want a solution? Stay away from this blog!

Well, everyone should stay away from Garth Turner's blog.  It's apparently run by a spammer.

Like I said, I'll let Constant Contact sort it out.

What this is really about:  In Garth Turner's response, he wraps himself in the flag and goes on about democracy.  Apparently I'm the villain in the piece, trying to prevent people from being exposed to the light that is Stephane Dion's wisdom.

Was he spamming?  He doesn't deny it, nor does he confirm it (in so many words), but whatever he did, he did it for Canada!

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, or so said Samuel Johnson.

This isn't about patriotism.  This is about hurting people.  Not the people receiving the spam email (if indeed it is determined to be spam).  Really, one more bit of spam in a sea of billions doesn't add up to much.  No, the people who are at risk of being hurt by this are the fine folks at Constant Contact:

And yet when we send an invitation to an open meeting with the next prime minister to an electronic list of people who have previously contacted me, at no cost to anyone, well, bring down the hammer of Internet protocol.

No cost to anyone?  Really?

An email marketing firm like Constant Contact survives on credibility.  They have to be able to convince clients that in all the spam filters arrayed against them, none have the phrase "Constant Contact" as a filter term.  If an email marketing firm earns the reputation of being used (willingly or otherwise) by spammers, no legitimate client will go near it.  That is why Constant Contact has such precise and exacting rules about how their clients can gather email addresses.  In the short term, that works against their success.  Obviously more emails means more money, so why reject so many emails for not having been gathered in precisely the correct way?   The answer is that rules like that are needed for long-term survival.

Garth Turner seems to be admitting that anyone who has left an email address through his blog commenting system is likely to have been added to his email list, without an opt-in step.  That email list was submitted to Constant Contact on at least two different occasions.  More than a few people feel like they are being spammed.  Constant Contact sent those emails.  Garth Turner thinks that there are no consequences to his actions.

Constant Contact might disagree with that.  If so, it's too bad Stephane Dion got caught up in a mess created by Garth Turner's "digital democracy".

Political Exception?  Sorry but no: A comment raised an interesting point:

You left out a rather important bit from Constant Contact's anti-spam policy:

"What is Spam?  Spam is unsolicited email also known as UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email)."

The operative word here being "commercial". Did you specifically ask them about political websites? Because as far as I'm aware, political communication is considered exempt from anti-spam regulations, although I may be wrong.

There are regulations, and then there is company policy.  But with Garth Turner sputtering on about democracy and such, I posed the question to Constant Contact.  I told them that I was hosting a political event in the very near future, that I wanted to drum up attendance, and that I did not have time to opt-in every email address.  Since it is political and not commercial, could I go ahead with an email blast using their services?

The privacy policy and direct permission policy applies to all Constant Contact accounts. We would not be able to make an exception for events. This is because lists that are not direct-permission-based tend to generate high spam reports, which can in turn affect our deliverability.

If you have any further questions regarding our policies, I would be glad to have our Compliance team follow up with you to discuss the matter further.

Thanks for your interest in Constant Contact!

So the answer is no, and for the reason I stated above in What this is really about.  This is not about politics or democracy or global warming or Garth Turner.  This is about the affect on the ability of Constant Contact to stay in business.  If a customer of Constant Contact tricks the company (deliberately or not) into spamming lots of people, Constant Contact will suffer as a result.  A business offer or an invitation to a political event -- it doesn't matter.  The email address used must have been offered with a positive opt-in that indicates direct permission to follow-up with further emails in the future.