Campaign worker from 2008 election charged under Canada Elections Act

By The Canadian Press - Friday, May 3, 2013 at 10:58 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – An aide to a Liberal candidate who ran for a Calgary seat in the 2008 federal election faces charges under the Canada Elections Act.

Earlier this week, Elections Canada laid two charges against Amandeep Gill for failing provide the chief electoral officer with a campaign return.

“Amandeep Gill, being the official agent of a candidate, did, on or between February 13th, 2009 and April 30th, 2013 … fail to provide the Chief Electoral Officer for the federal general election held on October 14, 2008, with an electoral campaign return … and did thereby commit an offence contrary to … the Canada Elections Act,” the charge sheet says.

The second charge says Gill, 37, “wilfully” failed to submit the electoral campaign return.

Gill worked as the official agent of Calgary Southeast Liberal candidate Brad Carroll, according to Elections Canada spokesman John Enright.

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Campaign worker from 2008 election charged under Canada Elections Act

By The Canadian Press - Friday, May 3, 2013 at 1:38 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – A campaign worker in the 2008 federal election faces two charges under the Canada Elections Act.

Elections Canada says Amandeep Gill failed to provide the chief electoral officer with an electoral campaign return.

The agency says Gill, 37, worked as the official agent of an unidentified candidate.

Charges were filed April 30 in the Alberta Court of Justice in Calgary, and Gill is scheduled to appear in court June 17.

A charge sheet filed in court provides no additional details about Gill beyond his Calgary address.

A call to a phone number listed under Gill’s address was not immediately returned.

How not to clean up elections

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 1:17 PM - 0 Comments

Thirteen months after agreeing to table such legislation within six months, the Harper government promised yesterday that tomorrow it would table electoral reform legislation that it didn’t review with the chief electoral officer, but the Globe now reports that the legislation will be further delayed because Conservative MPs want parts of the bill rewritten.

Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal has issued the following “urgent” statement.

“In our desire to rapidly incorporate recent recommendations made by the Chief Electoral Officer, we discovered a last minute issue in the proposed Elections Reform Act.  Therefore, we are postponing the introduction of legislation. We will take the time necessary to get the legislation right.”

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 12:17 PM - 0 Comments

The Canada Revenue Agency is reducing spending and staffing within two of its compliance programs. Passport Canada projects that a quarter of its staff will be cut. Elections Canada is putting off a pilot project on online voting. And seven Department of Fisheries libraries are scheduled to close.

See previously: The quiet cuts

B.C. high court to hear voter ID laws could prevent homeless, seniors from say

By The Canadian Press - Monday, February 4, 2013 at 8:04 AM - 0 Comments

VANCOUVER – The contention that federal voting laws requiring all people to present identification at the ballot box could deny society’s most vulnerable people from ticking their preferred candidate will be put to the test for a second time, Monday in British Columbia’s highest court.

Two anti-poverty activists and a visually impaired woman who couldn’t find the proper ID to vote in the last federal election are appealing a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found the current law only presents a “minor inconvenience” for most.

The plaintiffs plan to argue against the 2010 judgment, which failed to agree the law is unconstitutional.

Judge Lynn Smith refused to toss the federal government’s 2007 amendment to the Canada Elections Act, which requires voters to show identification and provide proof of address in order to vote or, if that isn’t possible, to find another voter to vouch for them. Continue…

First Nations first: the political agenda as the House returns

By John Geddes - Monday, January 28, 2013 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

When it comes to assessing the performance of political leaders, there’s often a good deal of talk about how well they succeed at setting the agenda. But since the agenda rarely conforms for long to anyone’s manipulations, what matters more is how well they adjust to the unexpected.

Stephen Harper didn’t plan for aboriginal affairs to emerge as the dominant federal issue at the start of 2013. But when the House resumes sitting on Jan. 28, he’ll have to cope anyway with a first order of business imposed largely by Idle No More and Theresa Spence.

The Prime Minister will try, judging from his own public statements and comments made by his officials and cabinet ministers, to pull this unwieldy set of issues, foisted on him by shopping-mall drum circles and a fasting chief, into the safer confines of his own, preferred economic agenda.

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Meanwhile, in Peterborough

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 7:42 PM - 0 Comments

In response to the latest report about investigations into his campaign, Dean Del Mastro declines to comment, except to say that the comments distributed by his office were actually the comments of the Prime Minister’s Office, but also that they are his comments.

Del Mastro later admitted the release from his office was based on talking points put together by the PMO. “They’re my statements,” Del Mastro later said. “I did not write them. I agree with them.”

2012 on Parliament Hill: John Geddes sums up a year in 12 chapters

By John Geddes - Saturday, December 29, 2012 at 1:44 PM - 0 Comments

How many senators did Prime Minister Stephen Harper appoint in 2012? How many years does the government allow, in its latest plan, for “development and acquisition” of F-35 fighter jets? How many premiers, provincial and territorial, attended the November economic summit in Halifax? (Hint: Saskatchewan’s just phoned in.)

In all cases, the answer is an even dozen. But for our purposes here—in this third annual installment of a year-capping look back—we’re interested in 12 only as the number of months in the calendar. Select just a single story for each, and 2012 might almost begin to show some semblance of coherence.

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Fate of six Conservative MPs at heart of robocalls saga now in hands of judge

By The Canadian Press - Monday, December 17, 2012 at 7:20 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – The electoral fates of six Conservative MPs, once strictly the purview of Canadian voters, landed in the hands of a judge Monday as lawyers on both sides of the so-called robocalls case wrapped up their arguments.

It now falls to Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley to decide whether the evidence merits the drastic step of throwing out the results of last year’s federal election in the six ridings in question.

No matter how Mosley rules, an appeal is all but guaranteed. The Council of Canadians, a political advocacy group that bankrolled the court challenge, says it will appeal if a ruling comes in favour of the MPs.

If it goes the other way, the Conservatives likely won’t go down without a fight.

“We certainly don’t want to cut the process short,” the council’s national chairwoman, Maude Barlow, said outside the courtroom.

“We’re committed for the long run.”

The council estimates it spent around $600,000 paying the legal bills of eight voters who allege that misleading and harassing phone calls during the campaign kept some people from voting and may have affected the results.

The six ridings in question are Vancouver Island North in British Columbia; Yukon; Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar in Saskatchewan; Elmwood-Transcona and Winnipeg South Centre in Manitoba; and Nipissing-Timiskaming in Ontario.

Court heard a great deal of debate about the merits of an anonymous, automated survey by polling form Ekos Research that suggested non-Conservative supporters were more likely to have received harassing or misleading calls prior to the May 2011 vote.

According to the poll, as many as 6,000 voters could have had their trips to the ballot box thwarted by the phoney calls.

But Conservative party lawyers sought to cast doubt on the Ekos report. They described the poll as flawed, saying it could have yielded unreliable results that the court should not allow as evidence.

They also tried to undermine the credibility of Frank Graves, the pollster behind the report. Conservative party lawyer Arthur Hamilton repeatedly questioned Graves’ donations to the federal Liberals and inconsistencies in prior court affidavits submitted as part of the case.

At one point, Graves — who had been asked to leave the courtroom during his cross-examination so lawyers could confer with the judge — was found to have scanned the Twitter feeds of journalists tweeting from inside, a jurisprudential no-no.

Steven Shrybman — the lawyer acting for the eight complainants — apologized on Graves’s behalf. In Monday’s closing arguments, however, he defended him as a reliable and unbiased pollster.

“It’s an awful allegation, it’s unsupported by any evidence and it simply clutters the landscape,” Shrybman said.

Shrybman also sought to dispel the criticisms of the Ekos report, saying they are largely based on the conclusions of another expert who provided evidence to the Conservative legal team.

Conservative lawyers have asked the court to dismiss each of the applications. They argued the Council of Canadians has no bona-fide witnesses who could testify that the calls prevented from casting a ballot.

Indeed, none of the eight applicants actually failed to vote in the 2011 election as a result of the alleged tactics.

“It speaks volumes that despite the Council of Canadians’ vigorous search and nationwide media attention, it was not able to produce a single elector to testify that he or she was prevented from voting,” Conservative party spokesman Fred DeLorey said in a statement.

Shrybman maintained there is enough proof that the fraudulent calls did occur, which he argued should be enough for a judge to overturn the results. The evidence suggests that hundreds of people failed to cast ballots as a result of the calls, he said.

“Our obligation is to persuade you only on the balance of probability that there was fraud and it affected the result of the election,” he told Mosley.

“We have produced … the best evidence that could be gathered about the occurrence of voter suppression and its effect.”

Mosley said he will deliver his decision at a later date — and hinted in his closing remarks that he intends to take his time doing so.

Key piece of robocalls evidence deeply flawed, Conservative lawyer argues

By The Canadian Press - Saturday, December 15, 2012 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – A key piece of evidence in the robocalls legal saga is deeply flawed and should be tossed out, says a lawyer representing Conservative MPs whose election wins last year are being challenged in court.

An Ekos Research survey that suggests voter-suppression tactics were widespread in the last election cannot be trusted, lawyer Ted Frankel said Friday.

“I think common sense ought to tell us, when the stakes are this high, we can’t trust a survey of anonymous people 11 months later,” Frankel said.

People’s memories of the calls almost certainly faded during the 11 months between the time when the poll was done and when the harassing and misleading calls allegedly occurred, Frankel said.

Given the flurry of telephone polls that occur during an election campaign, he added, it’s entirely likely people might mistake one survey for another.

“To distinguish those details of whether I was called by Ipsos Reid or by a party asking me if I was going to vote, or two parties, it’s a lot to expect from someone,” Frankel said.

“And it’s a lot to ask this court to rely on the responses. … It’s impossible, I would suggest.”

The Conservative legal team has spent much of the week trying to discredit the survey — which points to signs of a far-reaching, targeted voter-suppression campaign aimed at non-Conservative voters during the May 2011 election — as well as pollster Frank Graves of Ekos Research.

They have questioned Graves’ donations to the federal Liberals and inconsistencies in prior court affidavits submitted as part of the case.

There was also a kerfuffle this week after it was revealed Graves — asked to leave the courtroom during his cross-examination so lawyers could confer with the judge — had examined the Twitter feeds of journalists who were tweeting from inside.

On Friday, Steven Shrybman, who represents eight Canadians who are challenging the election results, conveyed Graves’s apology for snooping on the courtroom chat.

On the fifth day of scheduled hearings, Frankel took aim at the Ekos survey itself. The poll is being held up by the eight as a sure sign of a targeted and widespread campaign of dirty tricks that marred the election results.

Those who participated in the telephone survey could easily have rushed through it, pressing the number 1 repeatedly on their keypads, in order to qualify for the polling firm’s draw for a $500 cash prize, Frankel said.

That means they could easily have mistakenly told pollsters they received a call telling them their polling station had changed and that they did not vote as a result, he continued.

Frankel also noted that several people who told Ekos they were prevented from voting also indicated they voted for a particular party — a contradiction the lawyer held up as further proof the survey was flawed.

He urged Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley not to allow the survey as evidence, saying it could create an unwanted precedent.

“This case would … open up floodgates to this kind of tactic when people are unhappy with the outcome of the election,” Frankel said.

Eight Canadians — bankrolled by the left-leaning Council of Canadians — are challenging the results in six ridings in Federal Court, alleging the calls prevented some people from voting, affecting the outcomes.

None of the eight were actually prevented from voting.

The six ridings in question are Vancouver Island North; Yukon; Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar; Elmwood-Transcona and Winnipeg South Centre in Manitoba; and Nipissing-Timiskaming in Ontario.

The case is parallel to — and unsupported by — a continuing Elections Canada investigation into fraudulent robocalls, stemming from complaints that have surfaced in 56 ridings across the country.

The hearing is scheduled to conclude Monday.

Robocalls hearing to continue Friday

By The Canadian Press - Friday, December 14, 2012 at 7:19 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – A court hearing of a challenge of the results in six ridings from the last federal election continues today with the Tories trying to have the case tossed out.

On Thursday, a Conservative party lawyer said the threshold for overturning the results of an election ought to be exceedingly high.

Otherwise, said Arthur Hamilton, Canadian courts would be inundated with a deluge of legal challenges after future contests.

The hearing is examining the effect of misleading robocalls on the results in those ridings.

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Federal Court to hear robocalls complaints

By The Canadian Press - Monday, December 10, 2012 at 5:15 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Lawyers for eight Canadians challenging the outcomes of the last federal election in six closely contested ridings will argue in Federal Court on Monday that the results should be overturned because of alleged voter-suppression tactics.

The eight voters, who are being supported by the Council of Canadians, allege misleading or harassing phone calls in those ridings — all won by Conservative candidates — kept some people from voting and may have affected the results.

The Conservative party says it was not behind the fraudulent calls.

Over the course of five days of hearings scheduled to start Monday in Ottawa, Tory lawyers will ask the court to dismiss each of the applications. They will argue the Council of Canadians has no bona fide witnesses who could testify that they actually were dissuaded from casting a ballot because of the calls.

Indeed, none of the eight applicants actually failed to vote in the 2011 election as a result of the alleged tactics.

“It is increasingly apparent that this is a political activist campaign masquerading as a lawsuit — a left-wing group is seeking to overturn democratic elections because it doesn’t like how people voted,” Conservative party spokesman Fred DeLorey said in an email.

But Garry Neil of the Council of Canadians dismissed the Conservative argument, saying lawyers for the eight applicants will only need to show the calls were made — and therefore sullied the electoral process — and not that those calls actually tricked anyone, for the results to be overturned.

“We’re pretty confident that, first of all, we don’t really have to demonstrate that,” Neil said. “Because if we can simply demonstrate that fraudulent calling was really widespread, then the argument will be that that has compromised the very integrity of the electoral process, and that should be the end of the story.

“If the integrity of the process is compromised, then the judge ought to just throw out the results and order that byelections be called.”

The six ridings in question are Vancouver Island North in British Columbia; Yukon; Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar in Saskatchewan; Elmwood-Transcona and Winnipeg South Centre in Manitoba; and Nipissing-Timiskaming in Ontario.

Getting the election results overturned in those ridings would appear to be a tall order, if the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case of Conservative MP Ted Opitz is any indication. The court upheld Opitz’s close-fought 2011 election win in his Toronto riding despite proven procedural problems.

The Federal Court case is parallel to — and unsupported by — an ongoing Elections Canada investigation into fraudulent robocalls, stemming from complaints that have surfaced in 56 ridings across the country.

The agency’s investigation has centred on the southwestern Ontario riding of Guelph, where a number of residents say they received automated phone calls from someone claiming to be from Elections Canada and directing them to a wrong or non-existent polling station.

Among the complaints contained in court documents are accounts of rude calls, calls in the middle of the night, swearing and even a mysterious message from North Dakota.

While the misleading phone calls appeared to target non-Conservative voters, the Conservative party insists it had no involvement in any such scheme and says it is assisting the investigation.

A shadowy operative known only as “Pierre Poutine” is believed to be behind the calls. However, Elections Canada has not yet been able to find that person.

How many Pierre Poutines are out there?

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 30, 2012 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher review the latest numbers from Elections Canada.

Dickson writes that Elections Canada has received 1,147 complaints of inappropriate calls, in 247 ridings, including 252 complaints from Guelph, where the “Pierre Poutine” robocall send hundreds of voters to the wrong polling station. Dickson notes the calls in Guelph are the subject of an investigation that is “separate, but related” to his own.

A total of 1,043 complaints are from voters who say they were directed to a wrong polling station by callers, 625 of them from live or recorded callers “claiming to emanate from Elections Canada.” Elections Canada does not call voters to tell them their polling stations have moved. The other calls are rude or harassing calls from people identifying themselves as Liberals or New Democrats, calling at odd hours, swearing or rudely demanding donations.

‘No one is more surprised than I am’

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 2:00 PM - 0 Comments

Peter Penashue has released a letter to his constituents.

I was very clear during the campaign that we would follow the rules. I specifically indicated that, in accordance with the law, we could not accept corporate donations. I was not aware of any problems or irregularities during the campaign.

No one is more surprised than I am at the allegations that have arisen since the campaign. No one is more disappointed. That’s why there is a new Official Agent in place to examine all of the paperwork and to work with Elections Canada to correct any mistakes.

The difficult fight against election fraud

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 9, 2012 at 3:08 PM - 0 Comments

Elections Canada released a discussion paper this week that explained the challenges of cracking down on robocall fraud and harassment.

In addition to the Guelph calls, the paper acknowledges for the first time that Elections Canada has received complaints of harassing live telephone calls at odd hours from the U.S. These are described as “numerous, repetitive, annoying or sometimes aggressive live or automated calls, as well as calls made late at night, on a religious holiday or from American area codes, purportedly from candidates whose campaigns have subsequently often denied making the calls.”

Such deceptive calls appear to be prohibited by Elections Act clauses that forbid preventing voters from casting their ballots, but the structure of the law makes it difficult to enforce, the agency reports. Even though the penalties for the breaking the elections law are light, investigators must follow the more onerous procedures required in criminal investigations. This creates “a significant imbalance between these lengthy and cumbersome procedures and the small fines that may be imposed as a result of a guilty finding, thus limiting the deterrent effect of such a finding.”

The full report is here.

The post-Etobicoke Centre future of elections

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 29, 2012 at 12:41 PM - 0 Comments

Stephen Thiele and Gavin Tighe, Borys Wrzesnewskyj’s lawyers, consider the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decisions.

In today’s modern era where most people have access to computers and telephones, it no longer makes sense to rely on a purely paper-based system of voting and record-keeping. Voting over the Internet utilizing a secure pin number already exists and has been adopted by various organizations without complaint. Such a system would eliminate, among other things, the need for the completion of a paper “Registration Certificate” for unregistered electors, do away with “vouching” in order for an elector to prove his or her identity, and possibly eliminate the need to show up at a polling station at all.

Such a system may also make voting more convenient and thus “enfranchise” more voters by making it easier for electors to vote in elections. Accordingly, we hope that the decision of the Court may have some unintended positive consequences for electoral reform. A system not unlike that used by the Canada Revenue Agency in the filing of tax returns could be envisaged for the operation of elections.

See previously: Accepting imperfection

Liberals call for formal investigation of Penashue’s election spending

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 1:36 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae wants an investigation into what he calls spending irregularities in the campaign of Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter Penashue during the last federal election.

In a letter to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Rae requests a formal probe into a number of questionable transactions by Penashue’s campaign in the riding of Labrador during the 2011 election.

Penashue has blamed rookie mistakes and says he’s working with Elections Canada after spending thousands of dollars more than the legal limit in the campaign.

An Elections Canada review showed Penashue spent $4,000 over his limit of just under $84,500.

And CBC News has cited documents alleging he also took thousands of dollars in free flights around his sprawling Labrador riding.

Rae also wants the commissioner to determine whether a $25,000 loan Penashue received from the Innu Development Limited Partnership came with a commercial rate of interest as required under the rules.

Rae says the financial dealings could affect the vote’s outcome, given that Penashue won by just 79 votes.

Federal cabinet minister’s overspending prompts calls for tougher penalties

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, October 21, 2012 at 11:16 AM - 0 Comments

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Penalties and enforcement should be toughened up to deter illegal overspending by candidates in federal elections, say Democracy Watch and other political observers.

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter Penashue has blamed rookie mistakes and says he’s working with Elections Canada after spending thousands of dollars more than the legal limit in the 2011 campaign.

An Elections Canada review showed Penashue spent $4,000 over his limit of just under $84,500 before CBC News cited documents alleging he also took thousands of dollars in free flights around his far-flung Labrador riding.

Opposition MPs and Todd Russell, the former Liberal MP who lost to Penashue by just 79 votes, have demanded he resign for a byelection.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has deflected such pressure. He told the House of Commons last week that mistakes made were the fault of Penashue’s former official agent and campaign manager, Reg Bowers.

Tyler Sommers of the independent advocacy group Democracy Watch is calling for a full Elections Canada investigation but says it doesn’t help that penalties for candidates who overspend are “a joke.”

A major failing is that even when penalties are tough enough, “there’s no requirement that they actually use it,” he said in an interview.

“So what we’ve been calling for, for some time, is for watchdogs at Elections Canada and others to be given the power to levy severe penalties against individuals who violate the law, and be required to actually use that.

“Take out the discretionary aspects and ensure candidates care enough about the rules that they familiarize themselves and that they stay on the right side.”

A broader problem is the lack of public reporting by Elections Canada about action taken on various complaints that could have covered any range of issues, Sommers said.

“We looked into the last 15 years and we found that there were over 3,000 complaints and very little information about what Elections Canada has actually done with those complaints. They don’t release the results of their investigations to the Canadian public, so we have virtually no way of knowing whether or not Elections Canada is ensuring that our elections are free and fair.”

Except for the most high profile cases, such as Elections Canada’s drawn-out battle with the Conservative party over the so-called in-and-out scheme to fund advertising in the 2006 campaign, there is little public information on recent enforcement efforts.

Penalties for candidate overspending range from $1,000 to $5,000 in fines or three months to five years in jail, or both, depending on the seriousness of the offence.

“If there’s wilful intent, which falls under illegal practices, then it’s even more serious,” said Diane Benson, a spokeswoman for Elections Canada.

Anyone convicted of an illegal practice may also be banned from election to the Commons for five years.

The agency does not discuss details of ongoing investigations.

Political scientist Nelson Wiseman, associate professor at the University of Toronto, said he doesn’t buy excuses of inexperience or ignorance of the law.

In the Penashue case, Bowers apologized to Elections Canada for missing paperwork and lax reporting but then went on to be named last December by the federal government to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, Wiseman said.

“The petroleum board lists his expertise as accounting in business. I mean, it’s not as if the guy was a social worker or an egghead like me and isn’t familiar with accounting principles.”

Nor should Penashue be allowed to plead inexperience as a first-time federal candidate, Wiseman said.

“If you’re so inexperienced, maybe you ought not to be in the cabinet.”

Canada Elections Act penalties in most cases “seem to be minimal or nil,” Wiseman added. “And whatever penalties there are, they’re generally not enforced and Elections Canada goes out of its way to accommodate that stuff doesn’t come out public and isn’t enforced.”

Penashue won the only Conservative victory in the province as the other six federal seats went to the Liberals and NDP.

Updated: PM announces three byelections for Nov. 26

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, October 21, 2012 at 11:13 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper called three federal byelections on Sunday, a move Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair says is an important warmup for the clash of visions he expects in the next general election.

The votes — in Victoria, Calgary-Centre and the Ontario riding of Durham — will be held Nov. 26 and have been called because MPs in each riding stepped down for various reasons.

The most high-profile vacancy in Durham, where former cabinet minister Bev Oda quit following controversy over her expenses, including an infamous $16 glass of orange juice.

New Democrat Denise Savoie resigned her Victoria seat for health reasons and long-time Conservative Lee Richardson quit in Calgary-Centre to work for Alberta Premier Alison Redford.

The call came just as Mulcair was attempting to rev up the NDP machine at a meeting of the party’s federal council, which is already plotting strategy for the next general election in 2015.

He found the timing of the prime minister’s announcement curious, given that the Supreme Court of Canada will rule this week on whether Conservative MP Ted Opitz will continue to serve as MP for Etobicoke Centre.

“We were expecting the call soon, but we’re a little bit surprised,” Mulcair told reporters Sunday. “If he’d waited four days we could’ve at least had that information from the Supreme Court.”

Last spring, the Ontario Superior Court overturned Opitz’s win in the May 2, 2011 election after a legal challenge by former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who argued Elections Canada workers counted at least 79 votes that couldn’t be validated. The Supreme Court will rule on Thursday and Wrzesnewskyj has been out knocking on doors preparing for what he expects will be a byelection.

Mulcair, who took over as NDP leader last March following the death of Jack Layton, said his party intends to turn each of the current byelections into a referendum on the Harper government’s record, even in the Conservative heartland of Calgary.

“We’re going to fight hard in all of these byelections. It’s the only way I know how to do politics. I don’t concede anything to an adversary — ever,” he said.

New Democrats say they’ve started their organizational spade work for 2015 and Mulcair used both the meeting and the byelections as a chance to frame the differences between his party and the Conservatives.

“When Canadians go to the polls in 2015, for the first time in a very long time, they’ll have a clear choice between two parties with two clear visions for a our country’s future,” he told delegates, adding later to reporters: “We’re already starting to see a choice and that’s what is going to be reflected in these three byelections.

In a bid to underscore the perceived differences, he attacked the Harper government for a lack of transparency on key decisions, such as the rejection of a $6 billion bid by Malaysia’s Petronas to take over Calgary natural gas producer Progress Energy Resources Corp.

The decision was released at 11:57 p.m. on Friday night.

“Who releases such an important decision at midnight on a Friday? Someone who has something to hide and no way to explain it,” he said.

Petronas will have the opportunity to refile its bid, but Industry Minister Christian Paradis has said the proposed investment as written was not likely to be of net benefit to the country.

New Democrat Murray Rankin, a B.C. lawyer who is running in the Victoria byelection, says the Harper government’s approach is making Canada “the Wal-Mart” of the natural resources sector.

He said people, particularly in B.C., don’t understand why the refining of resources can’t be done at home.

“We seem to be selling our resources out to the lowest bidder,” said Rankin. “People think that is just utter folly and they don’t understand why we aren’t capturing those jobs in Canada.”

The Commons: Gerry Ritz did not inspect that ground beef

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 5:27 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. Shortly before the farce was laid bare before the House yesterday, Stephen Harper stood and offered an important clarification on the contractual obligations of the Minister of Agriculture.

“Mr. Speaker,” the Prime Minister explained, “it is not the minister who does food inspection; it is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that does food inspection.”

Indeed, the nation’s conveyor belts are not directed through Gerry Ritz’s Parliament Hill office. Each package of meat, each piece of produce, is not personally stamped by him with his ministerial approval. He does not spend his weekends swabbing for bacteria, or at least he is not required by the standing orders to do so.

Nonetheless, it is the opinion of both the New Democrats and the Liberals that Mr. Ritz should bear some of the blame for the largest beef recall in this country’s history.

“Mr. Speaker, 44 days after the onset of the crisis of contaminated meat, there is still another product recall that has just taken place,” Thomas Mulcair reported this afternoon. “Does the Prime Minister realize that his Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food is responsible because it is his program, his way of doing things, that put the lives of Canadians in danger?”

The business of responsible government is a constant debate about what precisely the government is responsible for. Continue…

New allegations of campaign overspending aimed at federal Labrador minister

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 5:01 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae says Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter Penashue should run for his seat again if fresh allegations that he overspent his campaign limit in last year’s federal election are true.

An Elections Canada review had already indicated Penashue overspent his legal limit by almost $4,000.

Penashue’s former campaign manager Reginald Bowers later apologized to Elections Canada for mistakes and missing paperwork.

CBC News cites new documents from Penashue’s Elections Canada file that an airline in Labrador wrote off all but $7,000 of a nearly $25,000 travel bill.

During question period today, Rae asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the new allegations.

Harper said a new agent has been working with Elections Canada to fix those errors.

Penashue won an upset victory over Liberal incumbent Todd Russell by just 79 votes in the sprawling Labrador riding.

Political loans law incoherent, unenforceable: chief elections watchdog

By Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press - Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 7:14 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – The Harper Conservatives are demanding that Elections Canada impose penalties on deadbeat Liberals who’ve failed to pay back loans taken out during their 2006 leadership contest.

But they’re curiously mum about 80 candidates — including 21 Conservatives — who are similarly in arrears on money borrowed to fight the 2004, 2008 and 2011 election campaigns.

Elections Canada has not fined or jailed any of those deadbeats either, although they owe some $3 million collectively and are long past the 18-month deadline for repaying loans.

Chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand told The Canadian Press recently that it’s virtually impossible to enforce the law on political loans because it is “not only overly complex, it’s incoherent and ineffective.” He has repeatedly urged Parliament to fix it.

The Tories introduced legislation almost a year ago that would resolve some of the problems and which former Liberal leadership contenders say would enable them to clear their debts almost instantly.

But the Harper government has let Bill C-21 — the Tories’ fifth attempt at reforming the law on political loans — languish since introducing it last November.

A spokesman for government House Leader Peter Van Loan said there appears to be agreement with other parties to finish second-reading debate on C-21 on Friday so that it can finally proceed to a House of Commons committee for detailed examination.

But Liberals suspect the Harper government remains in no rush to fix a seriously flawed law until it has wrung the maximum amount political mileage out of it.

“You’d like to believe in our system that it’s not deliberate chicanery but, given Mr. Harper’s track record, it is really hard to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to this,” deputy Liberal leader Ralph Goodale said in an interview.

“They’re clearly in a permanent campaign mode; it’s all politics all the time. And it’s hard to conclude it’s anything other than deliberate (that C-21 has made so little progress so far).”

In the meantime, the Tories are happily using the current law to humiliate the Liberals. And if they stall C-21 for another year, they may be able to do the same to the NDP, if any of its contestants from last March’s leadership race fail to pay off their loans by next September (the 18-month deadline).

In a recent letter to Mayrand, Jenni Byrne, director of political operations for the Conservative party, noted that an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled recently that three candidates from the 2006 Liberal leadership contest — Vancouver MP Hedy Fry and former MPs Martha Hall Findlay and Joe Volpe — have broken the law by failing to repay their loans. The judge refused to grant them any further extensions for repayment.

A fourth contender, former MP Ken Dryden, is also in arrears but had previously received an extension.

“It is important that Elections Canada take action,” Byrne wrote. “What will Elections Canada do to prevent circumvention of the law on political donations and what penalties will it impose on these candidates?”

Unpaid loans are, in effect, illegal donations and undermine “the effort to keep big money out of politics,” Byrne argued.

Loan repayment is particularly troublesome for leadership contestants, who face an obstacle to fundraising that does not apply to anyone else in the federal political realm.

Political financing reforms enacted by the previous Liberal regime in 2004, limited individual donations to a maximum of $5,000 per year to parties, riding associations and election candidates. But individuals were limited to a maximum of $5,000 per contest, rather than per year, in leadership races.

A contest is deemed to be continuing as long as debts remain to be paid. Hence, anyone who donated the max to any single or combination of Liberal candidates in 2006 was prohibited from giving a nickel in subsequent years to help retire any candidate’s debt.

The Harper Conservatives complicated matters further by reducing the individual donation limit to $1,000 as of January 2007, several weeks following the Liberal leadership vote.

Had supporters been able to give yearly, Hall Findlay, Fry and Volpe all maintain they’d have paid off their debts long ago.

Hall Findlay, who wants to join the current Liberal leadership race if she can clear the final $20,000 or so left owing from 2006, said she’s had to return at least $10,000 in the last couple of weeks from donors who’d already given the one-time maximum.

The Conservatives have recognized the problem and provided a fix in C-21, which would change the per-leadership-contest donation limit to a yearly limit, consistent with the annual donations allowed to all other federal political entities and in keeping with one of Mayrand’s recommendations for overhauling the loans legislation.

A spokesperson for Tim Uppal, minister of state for democratic reform, confirmed that the per-year rule would apply to “existing debts” of Liberal and NDP leadership candidates, once the bill comes into force.

“If that were passed tomorrow, three days from now I would have no debt,” said Hall Findlay.

“And that’s not lost on the current Conservative government,” she added, predicting that the Tories will continue to stall the bill in order to continue making her and her fellow debtors “twist a little bit.”

The recent Ontario court ruling has turned an already difficult situation for the Liberal debtors into one that’s downright Kafka-esque.

According to Elections Canada spokesman John Enright, leadership contestants and election candidates can’t close their campaign bank accounts until all their debts have been paid. But, under the current law, they lose authorization to make payments once a court denies any further extensions to clear their debt.

“They can continue to raise funds but the only option for making a payment is for creditors to pursue payment through the courts,” Enright said.

In the case of Fry and Hall Findlay, who gave personal loans to their leadership campaigns, that means they’d have to sue themselves in order to pay themselves back. And that’s assuming they could find new donors who haven’t felt moved to contribute the maximum to Liberal leadership contenders over the last six years.

“I am in a box with no doors nor windows,” lamented Fry.

Under the law, deadbeat leadership or election candidates can be fined $1,000 and/or jailed for three months. But the law is so badly flawed, no penalties have been imposed.

“If you look at the provisions of the act with regards to offences, they are not very well constructed. I would argue they are very poorly constructed,” said Mayrand.

“It’s very difficult to see how someone could be convicted of failing to pay when they just want to pay but they can’t get a court order (to extend their repayment period). So, there’s a bit of a vicious circle in the act in this regard.”

Elections watchdog mulls regulation of parties’ voter data banks

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at 2:39 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – The federal election watchdog is examining whether regulations are needed to control the use — and abuse — of the massive voter identification data banks assembled by political parties.

Chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand says technology has enabled politicians to communicate with and engage voters more easily.

But he’s been surprised to discover how easily it can be misused.

Mayrand says he’ll report to Parliament by the end of this fiscal year with recommendations on how to improve elections law to prevent the abuse of technology, including possible regulation of party data banks.

Among other things, he says he’s concerned that little is known about the information parties gather on voters, including how long the data is retained, how secure it is or what it’s used for.

Elections Canada is currently investigating the so-called robocall scandal, in which thousands of voters have complained they received automated calls misdirecting them to polling stations during the 2011 election.

The case of the union sponsorships

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 27, 2012 at 9:53 AM - 0 Comments

Joanna Smith reports that the NDP returned $344,468 after the Conservatives complained about union sponsorships at the NDP’s 2011 convention in Vancouver.

An NDP insider familiar with the issue said that in 2003, when the Liberal government under Jean Chrétien moved to limit donations from unions and corporations, the party sought an opinion from Elections Canada as to whether money obtained through selling advertising would be considered a political contribution. “Where a person or entity purchases goods or services from a registered party with the intention of economically benefitting the party, the payment for goods and services will not constitute contributions to the extent that the payment reflects the fair market value of the goods and services purchased. Any amount of the payment above the fair market value will constitute a contribution if the person purchasing the good and service intended to benefit the party,” says a document obtained by the Star outlining Election Canada’s response to the NDP’s question on the matter.

Three years later, the Conservative government banned donations from unions and corporations altogether. The party insider said the NDP also sought legal opinion and hired a third-party company to assess what fair market value for advertising would be in advance of each of the three policy conventions in question and followed those recommendations.

The Conservatives have duly congratulated the NDP on its big victory.

Alice Funke explains what happened here and laments for the current pursuit of gotchas.