MP Cathy McLeod maintains her only use of an automated call service — the focus of a political scandal and several investigations surrounding the Tories — was to recruit volunteers.

“All parties use automated phone lines,” McLeod said Friday, citing one currently conducted by an NDP MP on the possible Trans Mountain pipeline twinning.

“I think it’s important to recognize that it’s not the phone calls, it’s what the person was doing with the phone calls.”

Opposition parties are demanding a full-scale investigation after fraudulent automated calls during last year’s election were linked to a company that did campaign work for various Conservative candidates.

The automated dialling service, RackNine Inc. of Edmonton, has denied any responsibility for voter deception, as has Prime Minister Stephen Harper. However, a Tory parliamentary staffer linked to the scandal was dismissed Friday as Elections Canada investigated the matter.

Documents filed with Elections Canada show Racknine did campaign work for at least nine Conservative candidates during last spring’s federal election: Harper, Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, backbenchers Leon Benoit, Laurie Hawn, Lee Richardson, Devinder Shory, McLeod and unsuccessful candidate Ryan Hastman.

The Tory campaigns paid RackNine at least $31,745, according to the invoices.

New details surfaced Friday. Elections Canada dropped an investigation into a complaint about a misleading telephone call in the Waterloo, Ont., region that came from the Conservative campaign office, a newly obtained document shows. The call was linked to the same company that was behind a dirty tricks campaign in Liberal MP Irwin Cotler’s Montreal riding last fall.

The Waterloo incident bears a striking resemblance to similar robocalls made in the nearby riding of Guelph, which have been linked to a company that did campaign work for Conservative candidates in the last federal election.

Elections Canada and police are now looking into reports that the automated calls falsely advised Guelph voters that the location of their polling stations had changed. In other instances, voters received harassing late-night or early-morning calls that purported to be from an opposition campaign office. At least one person in a nearby riding got a similar call.

McLeod, whose campaign paid RackNine $328.52, said she recorded a message to drum up support and volunteers in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo.

“I think it’s important that the Conservative party runs a clean campaign. I don’t think the company chooses the messages. Certainly, they just provide a system for the message to go out, which in my case, I recorded a message that asked for volunteers,” she said.

She also used an automated service about a year ago to conduct a constituency survey. Her election call-out paid off volunteer-wise, bringing in a number of recruits, the MP said. It also brought complaints from others.

“Certainly I also got lots of feedback from people who were not supporters.”

The party issued a statement that anyone who is found responsible should face the full force of the law, McLeod noted.

“It’s certainly wrong,” she added. “I think there needs to be an investigation and we need to move forward.”

Given the mixture of results last time, McLeod said she would have to weigh the benefits before hiring such a service again.

“Certainly they’re a legitimate method of making contact, but it’s a double-edged sword.”

Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae sent a letter Friday to the House of Commons Speaker requesting an emergency debate Monday when MPs return from a week-long break.

“The suppression of voters can undermine the legitimacy and credibility of those elected to serve in Parliament,” wrote Rae, who called voting “the most basic right that exists in our democracy.”

Elections Canada sent around a memo on May 16 with observations on the federal vote. The document warned it might not be possible to get to the bottom of any dirty tricks. But it also says nothing happened that could have changed the results of the general election or in any riding.

Under the Elections Act, an election in a specific riding can be overturned if a “competent court” finds “there were irregularities, fraud or corrupt or illegal practices that affected the result of the election.”

However, any application to the court to contest the election must be made within 30 days of the election results being published in the Canada Gazette.

A complaint can also be made the same day the applicant “knew or should have known of the occurrence of the alleged irregularity, fraud, corrupt practice or illegal practice.”

Moreover, the Commissioner of Canada Elections would have to investigate and refer the matter to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, which would in turn decide whether charges were warranted. All of which means it is premature even to suggest any election results could conceivably be overturned.