Now They Tell Us! What do you think? Do you think people will believe that Elections Canada is changing the election rules, post facto? If this is so, why didn't the other parties do what the Tories did during the last campaign? Surely, if it was allowed in the last campaign they all would have done the same thing, no?
Update: And before I start getting comments to the effect that They all did do it! , you had better have more proof than the say so of other Tories.
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Actually, they are claiming other parties do this too. It would be interesting to see if there's proof for that.
ReplyDeleteLOL, IP. I swear to you I didn't see your comment before I posted my update.
ReplyDeleteI should have called "JINX" :P
ReplyDeleteThis article seems to be the definitive final word on this matter.
ReplyDeleteThat article is just plain wrong. Here's what the elections act actually says:
ReplyDeleteSection 422:
"2) For the purpose of subsection (1), an election expense of a registered party does not include
(a) a transfer made by or on behalf of it to candidates in the election; or.."
B is immaterial because it excludes expenses made by those unauthorized to do so, so I didn't quote it.
So, 422 says the federal party can transfer funds to any candidate, for any reason, and it doesn't count as an expense.
Now you are saying, ok, everyone does that, but the problem is spending it on 'national' advertising and not 'local' advertising. Well, let's test that out:
"407. (1) An election expense includes any cost incurred, or non-monetary contribution received, by a registered party or a candidate, to the extent that the property or service for which the cost was incurred, or the non-monetary contribution received, is used to directly promote or oppose a registered party, its leader or a candidate during an election period."
No mention of anything 'of a local nature' or whatnot.
So, if elections Canada doesn't like the law they've got, then they should get it changed. The CPC did not violate it.
I seems to me that the act is clear that money transfers from the national party to local candidates are kosher, but this was a case where the national party was just pretending to send money to the local candidate, when in reality it was recycled back to the national campaign to buy advertising. The idea that the parties have wide open discretion of transferring money that way, is a fantasy cooked up by the Tory hierarchy.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen one single comparable example presented by the Tories, of the other parties doing the same thing.
It also seems clear that Elections Canada seem to think it has caught the party violating section 423.
ReplyDelete