CBC: Elections chief counters Tory defence on expenses practices

[tuvor]

Elections officials found no evidence that other political parties engaged in a scheme to circumvent spending limits as the Conservatives are accused of doing in the 2006 federal election, Canada's chief electoral officer said Tuesday.

Elections Canada has alleged the Tories overspent on election ads by disguising the cost of national ads as local expenses in an "in-and-out" scheme that involved the participation of 67 candidates — including four cabinet ministers.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's party has denied any wrongdoing, and repeatedly maintained that all parties engage in the practice.

But in his appearance before a Commons ethics committee Tuesday in Ottawa, Marc Mayrand told MPs he asked Elections Canada staff to review the returns of all major political parties in the 2004 and 2006 federal elections.

The review, he said, found no evidence of other parties directing money to local candidates who would then transfer the funds back to the party to spend on more advertising for the national campaign.

...

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/15/inandout.html

[CHIMO]

1. Yep

So what do the cons do? Attack. Same old story.

Tory MPs grill chief electoral officer

In what opposition MPs later called a "smokescreen," the Tories on the committee spent most of the day fixated on the alleged leak. Only occasionally did they touch on Election Canada's central thesis concerning offside party transfers.

Conservative MPs Pierre Poilievre and Scott Reid testily pressed Mayrand about an internal review he conducted in response to Tory claims that the raid details were leaked in advance.

NDP MP Pat Martin and Liberal MP Charles Hubbard pointed out the Conservatives won the last election by only 30,000 votes, and the controversial advertising could have made a difference because it may have allowed hotly contested ridings more TV ads than they could otherwise have afforded.

If the allegations are true, the Conservatives won the election because "they had a fatter chequebook," Martin said.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/460845

[daleo]

2. The alleged leak

is an irrelevancy wrapped up in a non-sequitur, surrounded by a WTF.