The practice by donors to the National Citizens Coalition, once led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.,) began after current president Peter Coleman assumed the job in 2006. Mr. Coleman was the NCC’s treasurer when Mr. Harper served as its president from 1997 to 2001, after Mr. Harper resigned as a Reform Party MP to temporarily leave politics.
A review of Conservative Party donor filings with Elections Canada and third-party election campaign reports by the National Citizens Coalition found eight Conservative supporters who contributed the maximum allowed to the party in either or both of the 2008 and 2011 election years and donated more than $1,000 to the NCC during those two elections.
At least three of the Conservative Party supporters donated $10,000, and a long-time Calgary friend of Mr. Harper’s, former Encana oil company executive Gwynn Morgan, contributed $20,000 to the Citizens Coalition during the 2008 federal election campaign while also giving the maximum possible to the Conservatives, $1,100.
For the 2004 federal election, the Citizens Coalition had only 18 donors, who gave the group a total of only $6,509, all under the $200 contribution level after which reports by contributor name and amount must be reported to Elections Canada.
For the 2006 election, prior to Mr. Coleman becoming president that year, the Citizens Coalition had 63 donors, who contributed a total of $17,501. But the contribution amounts and totals grew over subsequent elections, to a total of $168,960 from 873 contributors last year. Of those donors, 250 gave more than $200, many of them more than $1,000.
The NCC did not register as a third party participant for the 2000 federal election, after a high-profile court case when Mr. Harper was president. Mr. Harper challenged Elections Act bans limits on third-party advertising during federal elections, but eventually lost in the Supreme Court of Canada.
Following a recent NCC internet attack ad against Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.), the Liberal party’s research bureau matched Elections Canada financial reports with National Citizens Coalition filings at the elections agency and found 54 per cent of NCC donors who contributed more than $200 each to the lobby group also contributed to the Conservative Party, the Ottawa Citizenreported over the weekend.
The NCC says it does not overtly support Conservative provincial and federal parties since its founding by an insurance company executive in 1967 to oppose medicare, but it takes out radio and newspaper ads, in the past also billboards, primarily to attack Conservative opponents.
Despite the appearance that Conservative supporters are able to give the maximum allowed to the Conservatives for an election campaign and then support the same side through substantial contributions to the National Citizens Coalition—as Republican or Democrat supporters are able to do through much larger multi-million-dollar Political Action Committees in the United States—an Ottawa software executive who contributed to the party and the NCC last year told The Hill Times there is no link.
Tom Skinner, chairman of JSI Telecom, which develops and sells wiretap technology for law enforcement agencies internationally and to Canadian government agencies including the RCMP, was among at least seven large donors to the NCC during the campaign for the election last May who also contributed the maximum possible under Elections Act limits to the Conservative party.
Mr. Skinner, who initially indicated he could not be sure whether he donated to both the Conservative party and the NCC, eventually confirmed in a telephone interview that he did, using the address of his business in the suburb of Nepean for his donation to the NCC and his home address in the suburb of Kanata for his contribution to the Conservatives.
“That may be true, that may be right,” Mr. Skinner said when he was initially asked if he donated to both organizations, later saying he remembered both contributions and explaining that his use of separate addresses for the donations was “happenstance, it would be the first who communicated with me, that’s all.”
When The Hill Times pointed out Conservative donors who gave the maximum possible to the party in advance of the election campaign last year, or during it, could support the side they were supporting still further by donating to the NCC, Mr. Skinner replied: “That would not bear in my case, there’s no connection. I’ve supported the National Citizens Coalition for many, many years. That’s got no relation with whatever political donations I make.”
“In my case, there’s absolutely no connection, they’re two totally separate organizations, in fact, the Conservatives don’t espouse all the policies that are supported by the NCC,” he said.
Mr. Skinner’s firm contracts to government agencies, and won a $1.1-million contract with the RCMP in 2007, but he said JSI has also done business with the federal government throughout years of Liberal governments as well.
Mr. Skinner expressed support, though, for the NCC attack ad against Mr. Rae. The ad, recently posted on YouTube, accused Mr. Rae of planning to “take over” the Liberal Party—a reference to speculation he may decide to run in the party’s election to choose a permanent leader next year—and was similar to relentless attack ads the Conservative party launched to pick away at former Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff before and during last year’s election.
Prominent author and University of Toronto professor Stephen Clarkson called the attack ad—which blamed Mr. Rae for Ontario’s economic and governmental problems during a severe recession when he was Ontario’s NDP premier from 1990 to 1995—a “disgusting character assassination.”
Aside from Mr. Skinner, at least six other NCC donors also gave maximum contributions to the Conservative Party before, during, or immediately after the 2011 election. The donors included James Attwood of Toronto, listed as donating $1,000 to the NCC on March 29 last year, after giving $400 to the Conservative Party in January and $500 in March.
A John R. Greenaway of Windsor, Ont., donated $250 to the NCC on March 29, and a John K. Greenaway of Windsor, Ont., with the same postal code as John R. Greenaway in the city, gave $1,100 to the Conservatives on May 1. Mr. Greenaway also gave $1,000 to the Conservative party in 2010.
Robert Colborne of Calgary, who founded the successful Pacific Western Transportation bus line in Alberta, gave $10,000 to the National Citizens Coalition on March 31, after donating his maximum of $1,100 to the Conservative Party earlier in the year. Mr. Colborne used two different addresses, with the NCC contribution registered with the bus line’s postal code. Mr. Colborne donated $500 to the NCC in the 2008 federal election campaign, and also contributed $1,100 to Mr. Harper’s campaign that year and another $1,100 to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Alta.).
Judith Wilder of Toronto donated $1,100 to the Conservative party Feb 1, 2011, and then gave $2,000 to the NCC on March 15. The others who donated maximums to the Conservative Party last year and then similar amounts or greater were Francois Feyter of Fort Macleod, Alta., whose name appears as Frans Feyter on the NCC report; and Darcy Rector of Toronto, who donated $10,000 to the Coalition in April after having given the maximum of $1,100 to the Conservative party in February. Mr. Rector donated $1,100 to the Conservatives in 2008 and then contributed $3,000 to the Citizens Coalition that year.
Since third parties are not required to report the names of donors who contribute less than $200, it is not possible to say exactly how many Conservative Party supporters may have donated to the NCC after reaching the maximum allowable contribution to the Conservative Party.
Donations to third parties, unlike contributions to political parties or candidates, are not tax deductible, and there is no limit on contributions to third parties in elections. Third-party expenses, however, are capped, currently at just over a total of $188,000 for each third-party election intervenor. The NCC spent $48,383 on election advertising last year, apparently leaving it was a fund to conduct campaigns between elections, such as the attack ad against Mr. Rae.
NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) said the funding of the NCC during federal elections by Conservative supporters who have donated the limit allowed to the party may require a review.
“I think we need to look at the role that a group like the National Citizens Coalition is playing,” Mr. Angus told The Hill Times. “If people have maxed out to the Conservative Party and they’re diverting funds over to the National Citizens Coalition and the National Citizens Coalition are taking up the fight for the Conservatives, then once again we’ve got a pattern of the Conservatives and the Conservative movement trying to circumvent the rules that are in place.”
Mr. Angus added: “Those rules are in place for a reason.”
Liberal MP John McCallum (Markham-Unionville, Ont.) said he believes there is little doubt Conservative supporters who have the wealth to donate the maximum to their party in election campaigns are able to donate to the NCC and in that way support the Conservatives indirectly.
“It’s a no-brainer,” Mr. McCallum told The Hill Times.“It’s obvious these Conservative supporters know the National Citizens Coalition supports the Conservative Party, and Stephen Harper has close links to the coalition, as its former president,” Mr. McCallum said. “At a minimum, there should be limits on contacts between these third parties and political parties or candidates, but I think it could go further.”
As for the attack ad against Mr. Rae, Mr. Skinner said he has no objections to it.
“Bob Rae sets himself up for any attack ad I guess,” Mr. Skinner said. “I lived right through his reign in Ontario, and he can’t claim any credit for good things happening then.”
Mr. Coleman, meanwhile, last week told The Hill Times that the NCC is not an agent for Prime Minister Harper or for the Conservatives.
“We do not work for the Conservative Party, never have, never will,” Mr. Coleman said. “
Original Article
Source: Hill Times
Author: Tim Naumetz
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