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A controversial Ontario marketing firm is behind a wave of mysterious texts soliciting views from British Columbians and Ontarians on environmental policies in the lead-up to October’s federal election.

B.C. residents began receiving texts last week from someone introducing themselves as “Sue from BC Strong,” asking if the recipient agrees that “we must build pipelines to export Canadian oil.”

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The message is similar to texts sent to Ontarians last month from another “Sue” affiliated with “Ontario Strong,” asking their thoughts on the carbon tax.

Postmedia traced the texts to iMarketing Solutions Inc., a Toronto firm founded by the directors of Responsive Marketing Group, the company at the centre of the 2011 Robocall scandal wherein company employees directed Ontario voters to the wrong voting sites.

Victoria resident Patrick McFadden, who works at the tech firm Iris Dynamics in Victoria, obtained the phone number’s associated IP address using software at his company, and then used a reverse-DNS search to trace it back to iMarketing. He also found the number’s home phone directory, which reroutes to iMarketing.