The official explanation

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 1:49 PM - 239 Comments

When chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand testified before the ethics committee three years ago, he explained his decision on the Conservative in-and-out transactions as the result of five factors.

There was no single deciding factor leading to my decision. In fact, rather, it was an aggregate of factors that precluded me from being satisfied that this expense was an election expense warranting a reimbursement. In addition to the statement by an official agent to which I have already referred, other statements were made by other official agents or candidates also disclosing a lack of detail and knowledge of the regional media buy expense.

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The Commons: Stephen Harper, ever undaunted

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 6:34 PM - 222 Comments

The Scene. Mr. Harper’s government, as the government of Canada is now to be known, stands accused of various breaches. Of violating electoral law when it won office. Of withholding information demanded of it by Parliament. Of employing a minister who has misled Parliament. Of employing a minister who has misused government resources for his party’s gain. Of paying an exorbitant amount of money to disappear a woman who once held the title of “integrity commissioner.” And yes, of renaming the federal government in the Prime Minister’s own surname.

And so, of course, the government side this afternoon was as gleeful and aggressive as it has ever been. It roared and cheered and mocked and jeered. It laughed and lashed at its critics, it delighted in itself. It was loud and proud.

Mr. Harper sat and smiled and shared the odd chuckle. He reclined as best he could in his chair and fiddled with the cord of his desk’s earpiece. When he stood to answer the Liberal leader’s charges, he shrugged and sighed. If he was the least bit concerned, a tiny bit chastened, it was impossible to tell.

But, of course, he hardly ever appears daunted by such stuff. Indeed, if there is one thing that defines this Prime Minister it is his unrelenting undauntedness, his undaunting relentlessness. He is a man of the post-shame world. Continue…

'We are all proud to share basic principles'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, February 14, 2011 at 11:42 AM - 91 Comments

Conservative backbencher Steven Blaney—with the public support of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney—has introduced a bill that would ban so-called “veiled voters.”

Blaney said it’s not an issue of religion. ”I think we are all proud to live in this country,” he said. “We are all proud to share basic principles… one of those basic principles is transparency through our democratic process.”

The government side has known since 2007—after some schooling from commissioner Marc Mayrand—that the current electoral law does not include an absolute demand on visual identification before voting. In 2009, the government abandoned plans to change that. At that time, Elections Canada noted that the apparent problem had not resulted in any apparent issues during the 2008 general election. Continue…

The In-and-Out election

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 13, 2010 at 1:49 PM - 73 Comments

The 2006 election campaign that brought Stephen Harper to power on a promise of new accountability continues to raise questions of accounting.

The Canadian Press has learned that chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand has taken the governing party to task for failing to properly report the cost of running two regional campaign offices in Quebec. The $107,000 tab was divvied up and claimed as a shared expense by 15 candidates in Montreal and Quebec City. They claimed the expense even though Elections Canada found many candidates never used the regional offices, which were staffed by central party workers involved in what appear to have been national campaign activities.

Pundits Guide has more.

Twelve of a kind?

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 12:05 PM - 0 Comments

To the cases of Linda Keen, Arthur Carty, Bernard Shapiro, Kevin Page, Peter Tinsley, Richard Colvin, Marc Mayrand, Paul Kennedy, Robert Marleau, Munir Sheikh and Pat Stogran, you can perhaps add the curious case of Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak.

The head of the Canadian Firearms Program, who is a strong supporter of the long-gun registry, is quietly being bounced out of the position, CBC News has learned…

CBC’s Brian Stewart reported that Cheliak was set to unveil a major report before the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police at their annual general meeting in Edmonton and get a president’s award for his work on the long-gun registry. But Stewart said Cheliak was told by the RCMP he’s not going to be sent there.

In-and-Out is in?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 18, 2010 at 12:28 PM - 129 Comments

A Federal Court judge rules in favour of the Conservative side, with a caveat of sorts.

Elections Canada had contended that the Conservatives effectively skated around the party’s $18.3 million spending limit by channeling the cost of the ads through its candidates’ campaigns, which have their own spending limits. There was no evidence, the electoral agency argued, that the expenses were legitimately incurred by the candidates.

In a ruling released Monday, Justice Luc Martineau disagreed, saying the two candidates did incur the expenses. He ordered Mayrand to approve the claims. Martineau said, however, that the decision does not necessarily bear on an investigation of the ad buying program currently being conducted by the Commissioner of Canada Elections, William Corbett.

“There is a fundamental distinction between legality and legitimacy,” Martineau wrote. “As far as the overall legitimacy of the (regional-media buy) program is concerned, this is a debatable issue, which is better left for public commentary and debate by all interested persons outside the courts.”

Goodbye to all that

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:24 PM - 14 Comments

Chris Selley memorializes the veiled-voter debate.

The first law that was supposed to do that is now in effect. But all it does is instruct poll clerks, having determined that a voter’s name and address are on the register, to ask for either one piece of photo ID that lists the voter’s home address or “two pieces of identification authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer each of which establish the elector’s name and at least one of which establishes the elector’s address.” So not only does it not ban veiled voting, in other words, but it doesn’t even require photo ID.

Nevertheless, when Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand said as much, he was pilloried. “We just adopted this spring… a law designed to have the visual identification of voters,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper fumed. “That’s the purpose of the law,” he added, astonishingly. Not satisfied with his boss’s gaffe, Tory MP Joe Preston—a real live member of the committee that OKed the legislation, apparently without having read it—then upped the ante. “I’d love for [Mayrand] to come here and try to explain to us what he doesn’t understand,” he said, causing numerous heads to explode in the few Canadian newsrooms that actually noticed what was going on.

One of the first public events I attended after arriving in Ottawa was Marc Mayrand’s press conference to respond to all this. For a half hour he sat and calmly refuted his interrogators as reporter after reporter told him how sorely mistaken he was. Then everyone went back to their offices, read the law and realized he was right. Probably one of the five best performances I’ve witnessed in these two years.

He's like the Kevin Page of elections! Liveblogging the Chief Electoral Officer at Procedure and House Affairs

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 27 Comments

ITQ has had this particular meeting circled on her calendar for weeks now – yes, in case y’all wondered, in red, surrounded by exclamation marks and little happy faces. Bring on the only-tangentially-related-to-the-official-order-of-business-yet-oddly-pointed questions!

10:51:48 AM
Eeee! It’s Marc Mayrand!

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I made it to committee just in time to miss out on the last seat at the media table – damn you, Colleague McGregor and your uncharacteristic punctuality – which is why I’m now sitting in the staffer section, but on the *government* side of the room for a change.

Along with Marc Mayrand, by the way, we have various other Elections Canada luminaries, including Rennie Molnar,Stephane Perrault and Belaineh Deguefe, and there is no way on earth I’m going to be able to spell that with any consistency once the meeting starts, so let’s call him BD, shall we?

The meeting is about to get underway – Yvon Godin is, adorably, greeting the witnesses – and most of the MPs are already at the table. I see that Kelly Block is stalking me — well, or I’m stalking her – as is Guy Lauzon, but as yet, we are short one pixie dancer. Where are you, Pierre?

10:58:36 AM
With an odd sort of vaguely nervous warning to his colleagues that “we’re in public today,” Chairman Joe hands the floor over to Marc Mayrand.

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ITQ Committee Lookahead—In and out? Listeriosis outbreak? Plaines d’Abraham? That’s more like it, guys.

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:04 AM - 2 Comments

Well, we got a hint of it during yesterday’s Ethics meeting, but a quick scan of upcoming committee meetings suggests that the era of parliamentary gentility, multipartisan cooperation and political restraint may be about to draw to a (not entirely unwelcome, in ITQ’s case) close –—and it’s likely no coincidence that it’s happening right as the budget bill is about to head off into the sunset – that is, if the Finance committee makes it through clause by clause without any unforeseen delays. (Was ITQ on that committee, we’d be keeping an eye out for NDP and Bloc members bearing extra-large coffee mugs and sleeping bags.)

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The Commons: A cold and miserable day

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 4:43 PM - 44 Comments

The Prime Minister arrived promptly at 9:30am. Stepping out of the car, he waved to the reporters assembled 70 metres away and then strode through the back door of Rideau Hall. His staff followed behind.

Half a dozen news trucks idled in the Governor-General’s driveway. A dozen television cameras lined up by the fountain, aimed at her front door. Madame Jean’s staff had set out coffee and, though lukewarm, it eventually became necessary.

Thus, the wait began. Two and a half hours of chilly anticipation.

***

So how did we get here? The answer depends on your perspective. Continue…

Happy International Tyranny of the Majority Day, everyone!

By kadyomalley - Monday, September 15, 2008 at 9:17 AM - 23 Comments

Or, as it is more commonly known, International Day of Democracy.

To mark the occasion, Marc Mayrand – Chief Electoral Officer and star of many fantastically convoluted conspiracy theories involving police raids and Liberal camera crews – sat down with the Ottawa Citizen, where he cheerfully discussed some of the initiatives underway at Elections Canada to reach out to the chronically franchise-challenged – youth, aboriginal voters, Canadian Forces members posted abroad.

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Liveblogging the Ethics committee – Day Four, Part Two: Have the Goldsteins stopped screaming, Clarice?

By kadyomalley - Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 3:25 PM - 0 Comments

3:32:28 PM
You know, it’s amazing how a former candidate holding a screem in the middle of a committee room can reenergize a hearing. Spirits are high – at least, in every part of the room except Conservative Corner.

Dean del Mastro unwisely takes a shot at Pat Martin before the meeting gets underway: “Are you going to attack that witness too?” He asks, pointing at poor. Francois Bernier. “Are there any lunatics left in the room?” Martin shoots back, which cracks up the audience.

Sam Goldstein’s webmaster, by the way, might be somewhat surprised by the sudden upswing in hits this afternoon, as opposition staffers have been merrily passing out printouts of the site. Our working theory now: He resolves stress for his clients by absorbing it all himself, and releasing it, all at once, at parliamentary committees. It’s like the Arc of the Covenant, but with demands for payment upfront.

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Liveblogging the Ethics committee – Day Four, Part One: Camp In and Out packs up the tents … for now. (But not for long.)

By kadyomalley - Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 9:16 AM - 0 Comments

9:54:41 AM
Oyez, oyez, the Court Of Star-Studded Kangaroo Stormtroopers is now in session, and the Head Inquisitor himself is already. scrumming, while an envious Dean Del Mastro looks on.

The session hasn’t actually started yet, but there is already much buzzing and burbling amongst the inmates – that would be us – over what today might bring. Team. Public Prosecution Service are already in place at the table, and Marc Mayrand – of the entirely reasonable accommodation that bears his name – will soon be here, we assume. And all without a single summonses!

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ITQ Committee Lookahead: Search warrants and Speaker’s warrants

By kadyomalley - Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 8:17 AM - 0 Comments

A quick rundown of the witnesses for the fourth (but not, by any stretch of the imagination, final) hearing on the Conservative in-and-out financing scheme, not one of whom required the chair to issue a summons in order to appear:

Morning session – 10am to 5pm

Public Prosecution Service of Canada Acting Deputy Director Chantal Proulx and senior counsel Don Beardall, who will discuss the role that the office has played thus far during ongoing investigation by Elections Commissioner William Corbett, and outline how an eventual prosecution might proceed, should charges be laid against party officials.

Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand and Elections Canada legal services director Francois Bernier are back for a second round  to answer questions on any issues that may have come up since their appearance last month. It might be a very short session – it’s not clear whether there are, in fact, all that many new questions, although the Conservative members will likely hammer the Chief Electoral Officer over the so-called “Mayrand Accommodation”.

Afterwards, it’s time for committee business – selection of future witnesses, scheduling for future meetings. If Pat Martin gets his way, however, it could also lead to discussion over what steps should be taken against those witnesses who failed to show up this week, despite being issued – and in many cases, served – with summonses compelling their appearance. If that happens, expect endless peevish points of order from the government side — possibly even a theatrical walk-out midway through, cleverly timed to capture maximum media attention.

Megapundit: Countdown to the 'Olympics of Shame'

By selley - Friday, August 1, 2008 at 2:27 PM - 0 Comments

Must-reads: Colby Cosh on the tyranny of statistics; Marcus Gee on human rights in China; Graham Thomson in Afghanistan; Vaughn Palmer on B.C. healthcare spending; Dan Gardner on prognostication.

Badmouthing China—the newest Olympic sport
As the pundits’ eyes turn to Beijing, their keyboards turn to human rights abuses and the appalling International Olympic Committee.

The Globe and Mail‘s Marcus Gee argues that the aftermath of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake put the lie to the idea that if Chinese citizens “don’t challenge the government head on or make other conspicuous trouble, they can go about living their lives with a degree of personal freedom unheard of in earlier times”—a common argument, he says, against making too much of “a fuss” about human rights in China. People have been sent to labour camps for the simple act of reporting demands by bereaved parents for an investigation into school collapses, Gee notes, and families have been effectively blackmailed into absolving the government of any responsibility. “Most of these people are not dissidents,” Gee writes. “They just want the truth about why their innocent children died.”

In the Ottawa Citizen, John Robson compares modern China to the world of Soylent Green, and celebrates that the western world has moved on from the drab 1970s ethos that produced the film into “a hedonism that, while shallow, possesses at least a veneer of cheerfulness.” If that doesn’t make any sense to you, please direct your inquiries to Mr. Robson and not to us. We’ve done our best.

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Veiled voting redux: Here we go again …

By kadyomalley - Monday, July 28, 2008 at 12:16 PM - 0 Comments

Xenophobes, start your engines — or, alternately, don’t. As much fun as it might have been to watch Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand makes mincemeat of MPs during last summer’s pre-by-election “emergency” hearings over the menace of veiled voters, I’m not sure how much more media coverage we need of Pumpkinhead and friends, since the law hasn’t changed.

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Oyez, oyez! All rise! And … you know, I'm not actually sure what happens next.

By kadyomalley - Monday, July 21, 2008 at 7:48 AM - 0 Comments

But if all goes according to plan, I’m going to find out later this morning. I’m hoping to make it to a procedural hearing on the In-and-Out scandal: specifically, the application for judicial review filed by a couple of former Conservative candidates over the decision by Elections Canada to deny their respective advertising expense claims.
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BTC: Checking in

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 12:07 PM - 0 Comments

Been out of Ottawa for a couple weeks now and out of the country entirely for a few days. And for most of that, horror of horrors, Internet access has been sporadic.

A couple things though while there’s a free moment. Continue…

Megapundit: Pierre Poilievre redeemed!

By selley - Friday, July 18, 2008 at 12:08 PM - 0 Comments

Must-reads: Colby Cosh and Richard Gwyn on Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac; Peter Worthington on the Israeli prisoner exchange; Daphne Bramham on addictions treatment.

The Friday miscellany
Among other things, Ottawa is: too profligate, too callous, too bereft of tourists, and too scandal-obsessed, or possibly not obsessed about the right scandals.

Lorne Gunter, writing in the Edmonton Journal, has about ten different ways to say the Conservative government is spending too much damn money—and probably more than the 3.4 per cent increase, representing a total of $208 billion, at which Jim Flaherty promised to draw the line. Stephen Harper’s government is actually ramping up spending faster (gasp!) than Paul Martin’s, says Gunter, citing the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. And while he’s somewhat sympathetic to the entreaties of Tory MPs, who say ” their spending has been of real value”—as opposed, say, to funding a rutabaga farm in Papineau—he says $46 million for Quebec’s quadricentennial and $300 million for Bombardier “to build a plane for which there are no firm orders yet” are definite red-flag issues.

Lorne Gunter doesn’t exist, L. Ian MacDonald argues in the National Post—well, not really. But his statement that “for once, the English-and French-language media have been on the same page, celebrating Bombardier as the Canadian world champion it is” in the wake of its C-series announcement, has been sadly tarnished. But we should all be on the same page, he believes, since government lobbying and financial input are, like it or lump it, an intrinsic part of the plane-building business. It’s interesting too, he suggests, that “the auto industry in Ontario and the oil patch in Alberta have never been held to the same standard” as Bombardier.

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Summer school for scandal – An ITQ refresher course on in-and-out (and why it matters)

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 6:15 AM - 0 Comments

With just hours to go before the Ethics committee kicks off its eleven-months-in-the-making investigation into the Conservative in and out election spending scheme, it seems like as good a time as any to re-post the official ITQ In and Out FAQ, which was originally published on April 28, 2008.

What, exactly, are the Conservatives accused of?
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Sun, fun and in and out committee hearings – An ITQ liveblogging summer spectacular!

By kadyomalley - Monday, July 7, 2008 at 11:15 AM - 0 Comments

We all knew it was coming – some of us have been counting down the hours, in fact – but still, now it’s official. In the Big Committee Room too — not holed away in West Block, where no one can hear you scream (unless you happen to be David Tilson):
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BLAST FROM THE PAST: And then it got worse.

By kadyomalley - Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 2:51 PM - 0 Comments

Note to readers: For some reason, while watching Question Period this afternoon, I suddenly had the urge to repost this. I blame Peter Van Loan:

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2007

How the Conservatives used veiled voting to distract the easily confused opposition

For those of you who weren’t able to make Tuesday’s meeting of the
House Committee on Procedure and House Affairs – which has somehow
found itself at the nexus of not one but two off-season political
controversies – a mini-recap of the surprisingly dramatic proceedings.

First, a little background.

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I love you, Marc Mayrand, but …

By kadyomalley - Monday, March 17, 2008 at 6:06 PM - 0 Comments

Can you — or anyone else — give me one good reason why polling hours should be staggered for tonight’s byelections? I mean, does it really matter to the people of Vancouver Quadra if we get the results for Toronto Centre two hours before their polls close?

I understand – well, grudgingly understand, at least – the reason behind the byzantine polling schedules during a general election — BC gets cranky when the networks call it twenty minutes after the Ontario results come in — but this is just silly.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: That whole veiled voting debacle

By kadyomalley - Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 2:32 PM - 0 Comments

Round 1 – Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand vs. the Will of the People (according to the Conservatives on the committee, that is)

Not only does Mayrand stick to his guns, but he fires back at the Prime Minister who has accused him of flouting the law, albeit indirectly. In response to a question from the Liberals, Mayrand tells the committee tha back in August – more than a month before the “veiled voter” controversy had surfaced in the press – he had alerted the Prime Minister’s most senior civil servant advisors that there could be problems with the Conservative government’s recent amendments to the Elections Act.
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