The wording of the invoice Sen. Duffy submitted to Ms. Lee’s campaign on May 1, 2011, the day before the federal election, implies that Sen. Duffy travelled to Yellowknife on April 7, 2011, as part of Mr. Harper’s national leader tour for the election campaign.
But archived news reports of Prime Minister Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) election tour show he was in Mississauga, Ont., on April 8, 2011, unveiling a campaign promise that a re-elected Conservative government would cut $4 billion in government spending to balance the budget by 2015, and that he did not arrive in Yellowknife as part of his national campaign until April 18, 2011, when he reiterated a Conservative promise to complete an all-season highway in the Arctic.
Elections Canada handbooks for candidates on parties, based on sections of the Canada Elections Act regarding the reporting and paying of election candidates, stipulate that if a Senator or another Member of Parliament campaign for a party candidate in a federal election, the candidate must pay travel and other expenses the Parliamentarian incurs and retain proof through invoices and other documents that the bills were paid.
The Elections Act allows Senators and MPs to campaign for other candidates in their parties, usually accompanying the national tour or appearing with the party leader, but any expenses in those cases must be invoiced to the party by the Parliamentarian and paid by the party, to preserve a level playing field for all candidates.
The expenses must be accounted for by the candidate or the party and included in the expense reports they submit to Elections Canada after the election, with the candidate report publicly detailing the expenses and the individuals or businesses that were paid.
Twelve Conservative candidates reported campaign expenses they paid to Sen. Duffy during the 2011 federal campaign, totalling more than $2,000, but his invoices included expenses for only gas and hotel rooms, and not meals.
A Senate audit conducted on the expenses of Sen. Duffy and three other Senators during the controversy over the past several months about their expense claims, indicated that Sen. Duffy claimed Senate travel expenses during a seven-day period outside of Ottawa in April 2011, and the Conservative Party has indicated he was billing the Senate for expenses while also billing for campaign expenses by candidates.
But the invoice Sen. Duffy submitted to Ms. Lee indicates the Conservative Party may have paid some of his expenses, at least in the case of the Western Arctic candidate, who finished the campaign only $1,305 under her Elections Canada expense limit of $87,350.
From April 14 to April 21, 2011, Sen. Duffy used a rental car to campaign through four Nova Scotia electoral districts for individual candidates and two in New Brunswick, with expenses totalling $1,770.
The invoices he filed to the Atlantic candidates explained he was billing them each $50.33 to split the cost of his rental.
But Sen. Duffy’s invoice to Ms. Lee, on file at Elections Canada and available for public viewing through reservation, begins, “In account with the Conservative Party of Canada.”
“Mike Duffy travel to meet PMSH (Prime Minister Stephen Harper) in Toronto, campaign in Yellowknife, April 5-9, 2011.”
The only expenses on the invoice are for “5 April Taxi-Pearson Airport to PMSH Hotel—$80.00” and “7 April 2011 Taxi-PMSH Hotel to Pearson Airport—$75.00,” along with a claim for an April 10 Park and Fly charge of $54.01 at Ottawa’s Macdonald-Cartier International Airport.
The total invoice to Ms. Lee’s campaign for Sen. Duffy’s trip to the Northwest Territories totals only $209.01.
“Hotels charged directly to campaign. Boarding passes enclosed for flights; Ottawa/Toronto/Yellowknife/Ottawa Travel charged to CPC,” the invoice says.
Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey did not return an email request from The Hill Timesasking him whether the party paid for Sen. Duffy’s campaigning for Ms. Lee.
In November 2011, the Conservative Party of Canada pleaded guilty to two charges under the Canada Elections Act related to exceeding the maximum of its national campaign expense limit in the 2006 general election, through an elaborate money-transfer scheme Elections Canada argued was an attempt to shift national campaign expenses to local candidates for advertising costs through the unusually long campaign that year. The party was fined a maximum of $25,000 for each count.
The question of Senators campaigning for candidates or parties during federal elections came up when Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand appeared at the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Thursday.
NDP MP Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.), in light of the recent scandal over Sen. Duffy’s expenses and his campaigning in 2011, asked Mr. Mayrand whether it was legal for Senators to campaign in federal elections.
“The Elections Act provides rules as to how you can choose to participate in campaigns,” Mr. Mayrand told the committee. “Whether you’re a Senators or MP, we have a handbook that describes pretty precisely what has to be reported in returns from candidates and for parties. The costs incurred in campaigning in favour of a candidate or party need to be reported as election expenses.”
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: Tim Naumetz
No comments:
Post a Comment