Seven complaints of misconduct were made over the phone campaign last year, and the MRIA has formed a three-member panel to investigate the complaint more thoroughly.

The survey in question is reported to have asked citizens of Mount Royal in Montreal if they would support the Conservative Party should Liberal MP Irwin Cotler resign.

Added to that, Campaign Research partner Nick Kouvalis said last year that his firm was in the business of “getting Conservatives elected and ending Liberal careers”, boasting that the company “was good at it”.

MRIA executive director Brendan Wycks (pictured) told the The Canadian Press: “You can’t do partisan stuff under the banner of a marketing research firm that is doing statistical, survey-based marketing research.”

Should Campaign Research be found guilty of violating the MRIA’s code of conduct it faces sanctions ranging from a public reprimand to being thrown out of the association.