MrPantyFAce
09-24-2007, 06:33 PM
Taken from the liberal website
"OTTAWA - The Liberal Opposition is releasing the names of 129 Conservative candidates and official agents implicated in court documents as participating in an apparent scheme to violate spending limits and pad candidates' rebates in the 2006 federal election, Liberal MP ******* LeBlanc said today.
"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has failed to come clean about mounting evidence that all points toward a shady election financing scheme perpetuated by the Conservative Party, their candidates and official agents," said Mr. LeBlanc.
"Two weeks ago I challenged Stephen Harper to come forward with the names of who is involved. If he won't tell Canadians who Elections Canada has implicated in this alleged scheme, then I am prepared to."
Mr. LeBlanc noted that Elections Canada has found Conservative financial returns to be in violation of the Elections Act. Instead of coming clean, the Conservatives have chosen to challenge Elections Canada in court.
"It's time for the Conservatives to drop their legal action against Elections Canada. How can they, in good conscience, allow Canadian taxpayers to pay to defend a court case launched by the Conservatives for a scheme that was allegedly designed to bilk taxpayers in the first place?" said Mr. LeBlanc.
"It's time for the Prime Minister to break his silence on this very serious issue. He owes it to Canadians to guarantee that his party will never use questionable advertising practices again," said Mr. LeBlanc.
Media reports over the last month revealed that Federal Court documents detail that the Conservatives allegedly funnelled over $1 million in national advertising expenditures through at least 66 of their candidates campaigns, which were also signed off by their official agents.
The implications of this scam are two-fold. If properly accounted for as part of the Conservative Party's national campaign, then the party that forms the current government exceeded the $18 million national spending limit and broke the law in getting itself elected. And, if that's not enough, we then have the spectacle of scores of Conservative candidates having claimed reimbursement of 60 per cent of the money at issue, money that Elections Canada ruled them ineligible to receive. If these allegations are proven, this would amount to election fraud.
"This scheme should certainly be of concern to voters who live in ridings where the Conservative candidate participated, but it should also be of concern to Canadians who live in ridings where the vote was close and the Conservative candidate may have benefited from additional advertising, potentially giving them an unfair advantage," said Mr. LeBlanc.
In a press conference held on August 26, 2007, Mr. LeBlanc called on Stephen Harper to address these mounting concerns. At another press conference on September 5, 2007, Mr. LeBlanc showed that so-called "local" ads are identical to advertisements that ran nationally, with the exception of a list of Conservative candidates in tiny type at the end of each ad."
the list of names
http://www.liberal.ca/pdf/docs/070924_InOutBkgd_en.pdf
why i don't fully understand this, and it in no way is anything close to being as bad the sponsership scandal. the message should be clear to the average canadian that the conservatives got in because they said the liberals were crooked by running a crooked campaign.... as it looks like there might be an election before christmas i think we should all vote ndp to teach these weasels a lesson. then this country can finally be a socialist utopia it ought to be.
"OTTAWA - The Liberal Opposition is releasing the names of 129 Conservative candidates and official agents implicated in court documents as participating in an apparent scheme to violate spending limits and pad candidates' rebates in the 2006 federal election, Liberal MP ******* LeBlanc said today.
"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has failed to come clean about mounting evidence that all points toward a shady election financing scheme perpetuated by the Conservative Party, their candidates and official agents," said Mr. LeBlanc.
"Two weeks ago I challenged Stephen Harper to come forward with the names of who is involved. If he won't tell Canadians who Elections Canada has implicated in this alleged scheme, then I am prepared to."
Mr. LeBlanc noted that Elections Canada has found Conservative financial returns to be in violation of the Elections Act. Instead of coming clean, the Conservatives have chosen to challenge Elections Canada in court.
"It's time for the Conservatives to drop their legal action against Elections Canada. How can they, in good conscience, allow Canadian taxpayers to pay to defend a court case launched by the Conservatives for a scheme that was allegedly designed to bilk taxpayers in the first place?" said Mr. LeBlanc.
"It's time for the Prime Minister to break his silence on this very serious issue. He owes it to Canadians to guarantee that his party will never use questionable advertising practices again," said Mr. LeBlanc.
Media reports over the last month revealed that Federal Court documents detail that the Conservatives allegedly funnelled over $1 million in national advertising expenditures through at least 66 of their candidates campaigns, which were also signed off by their official agents.
The implications of this scam are two-fold. If properly accounted for as part of the Conservative Party's national campaign, then the party that forms the current government exceeded the $18 million national spending limit and broke the law in getting itself elected. And, if that's not enough, we then have the spectacle of scores of Conservative candidates having claimed reimbursement of 60 per cent of the money at issue, money that Elections Canada ruled them ineligible to receive. If these allegations are proven, this would amount to election fraud.
"This scheme should certainly be of concern to voters who live in ridings where the Conservative candidate participated, but it should also be of concern to Canadians who live in ridings where the vote was close and the Conservative candidate may have benefited from additional advertising, potentially giving them an unfair advantage," said Mr. LeBlanc.
In a press conference held on August 26, 2007, Mr. LeBlanc called on Stephen Harper to address these mounting concerns. At another press conference on September 5, 2007, Mr. LeBlanc showed that so-called "local" ads are identical to advertisements that ran nationally, with the exception of a list of Conservative candidates in tiny type at the end of each ad."
the list of names
http://www.liberal.ca/pdf/docs/070924_InOutBkgd_en.pdf
why i don't fully understand this, and it in no way is anything close to being as bad the sponsership scandal. the message should be clear to the average canadian that the conservatives got in because they said the liberals were crooked by running a crooked campaign.... as it looks like there might be an election before christmas i think we should all vote ndp to teach these weasels a lesson. then this country can finally be a socialist utopia it ought to be.