A group calling itself Concerned Parents Canada has released an anti-Liberal ad echoing the Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s warnings about the risk of a Justin Trudeau government but it does not appear on Elections Canada’s list of registered third parties for participation in the campaign.

An email publicizing the video has circulated describing those behind its release as “a group of Canadian parents fighting for the rights of our children to live, eat, play, and grow in a drug-free Canada.”

“Established during the 2015 federal election, Concerned Parents for Canada believes the drug policies being advocated by the Liberal Party of Canada are highly dangerous not just to society as a whole but to our children.”

The release launching the ad says “while we are not endorsed by the Conservative Party nor its MP Terrence Young, we wholeheartedly agree with his comments about Justin Trudeau’s reckless drug policy.”

Conservative campaign spokesman Kory Teneycke told the Star the party is not associated in any way with the group, “knows nothing” about it or the ad.

Its website, where the video may be viewed, does not identify organizers, a board, or spokespeople.

The political ad’s message echoes the one delivered in Conservative campaign ads in Chinese-language and Punjabi-language media outlets, and the same warning delivered by Conservative leader Stephen Harper in Brampton Wednesday night in an appeal to voters of South Asian origin who jammed a convention centre hall.

Harper touted his record on the economy, immigration and multiculturalism, highlighting his party’s record of recruiting candidates and naming senators of south Asian origin. Then he drove home the message the party has pushed in ethnic media.

“We protected articles of faith such as the kirpan, and friends, unlike the Liberals and NDP we cannot support legalizing marijuana,” Harper said to a huge roar of applause.

“We will keep fighting to keep drug injection sites out of your communities and while they may support it friends, our Conservative party will not support the legalization of prostitution.”

The Star emailed the Concerned Parents Canada group, which does not use Conservative colours or logo but whose acronym would be CPC, with questions, and received an email reply from someone identifying himself as Todd, but refused to identify other parents involved for now.

“Our ad will be airing online this weekend with strategic ad buys across a variety of Canadian parent platforms,” the email read. “We just formed this past week as a result of conversations between parents at a dinner party who all decided that enough was enough. Our counsel has advised us that since the deadline has passed to register as a Third Party with Elections Canada, we must incur less than $500 on election spending before e-day.”

When a group registers with Elections Canada as a third party, they are allowed to legally spend up to $439,410 on national advertising, or $8,788 per electoral district to support a party or a candidate.

The email said that after the election “dependent on the result, we will be poised to complete the registration of our group as a non-profit, begin accepting donations, and launch a comprehensive national advertisement/advocacy campaign across Canadian National TV, Radio, and Web platforms.”

“We will be the organization that Justin Trudeau has to fight in order to implement any sort of marijuana liberalization. Further, If Mr. Trudeau decides to protect shooting galleries or let pimps open up brothels across Canada, I imagine that will embolden parents even more to join our organization and fight this disastrous policy.”

The group said it would not do any media interviews “with any outlet that has promoted the normalization of marijuana” and linked to two Star articles on the issue.

The message it advocates is one that resonated at Wednesday’s rally organized by the Canada-India Friendship Group, where the audience cheered as dancers, singers and Harper’s political lieutenant Jason Kenney welcomed the Harpers. Kenney greeted the audience in several languages to cheers of approval.

Laureen Harper joined dancer Vinay Virmani onstage and for a short interval danced to the Bollywood beat, dressed in a brilliant blue silk suit to huge waves of applause and cheering.

But the political cast of the evening was clear.

Brampton West candidate Ninder Thind introduced Harper, saying “We will be deciding if we want to continue having a leader who will keep us safe and support our youth . . . or we can choose a reckless Opposition who do not value family values and want to make drugs more accessible.”

“Only the Conservative government can ensure our children are safe, that our children stay away from drugs. Only the Conservative government can continue to strengthen our immigration system,” Thind said.

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