Sen. Duffy resigned from the Conservative Parliamentary caucus at the same it was revealed a week ago that Nigel Wright, now the former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), wrote a $90,172 cheque on his own bank account so Sen. Duffy could repay impugned expense claims in the midst of a long and damaging controversy over expenses by him and two other Conservative Senators, who have also resigned, as well as a Liberal Senator who had to leave his caucus over questions about his expenses and primary resident claims.
The Senate earlier this month released an independent audit on the expenses of Sen. Duffy, former Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, who earlier resigned over separate allegations involving an alleged domestic assault, and former Liberal Sen. Mac Harb, who resigned as the audit was released.
The audit on Sen. Duffy’s expenses indicated he was claiming travel expenses from the Senate during the period was campaigning for Conservative candidates in the Atlantic provinces and Toronto, and the Conservative Party said that disclosure was behind Sen. Duffy’s expulsion from the caucus.
Invoices and bill records that Sen. Duffy submitted to six Conservative candidates and the Conservative candidate in the Western Arctic riding show that none of the candidates was billed for a total of $1,398.84 in payments for hotels and meals as he was stumping from April 7 to April 21, 2011. In one of his invoices, to the campaign of Conservative candidate Sandy Lee in Western Arctic, Sen. Duffy explicitly states that his travel and hotel costs for his campaigning on behalf of Ms. Lee were paid by the Conservative Party of Canada.
Sen. Duffy flew to Yellowknife on Mr. Harper’s national campaign plane, and billed Ms. Lee’s campaign for a total of only $209, including $155 for two airport limo trips in Toronto and $54 for Park and Fly charges at Ottawa’s Macdonald-Cartier International Airport.
A record of charges on Sen. Duffy’s RBC Visa statement—covering the period from March 30, 2011, to April 19, 2011, and which he included as evidence of expenses to Ms. Lee’s campaign—shows Sen. Duffy spent $330 on a dinner at the Fuego International Restaurant in Yellowknife, N.W.T.
The Canada Elections Act and the Elections Canada handbook for political parties state a party’s national campaign cannot pay travel and meal expenses for senators or other Members of Parliament who are campaigning for election candidates, and that the candidates themselves must report those costs as their own election expenses.
National campaigns are allowed to pay—and claim and report—travel expenses for senators or MPs who are campaigning as party of the party leader’s national tour.
Sen. Duffy invoiced Ms. Lee and the six Conservative campaigns a total of $1,740 in expenses for the period from April 7, 2011, but none of the invoices included any charges for meals or entertainment, only gas, hotel rooms and rental car costs which were split up between the candidates in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The meal costs and hotel rooms that he paid for during the period he was travelling from riding to riding in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick included a $179 dinner at the Keg Steakhouse in Moncton, N.B. and a $232 meal at the Pilot House restaurant in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
None of the four Conservative candidates in Prince Edward Island reported any campaign expenses paid to Sen. Duffy, even though Liberal MP Wayne Easter (Malpeque, P.E.I.) said Sen. Duffy appeared to support Conservative candidate Tim Ogilvie several times.
Sen. Duffy’s RBC Visa statement, on file with Ms. Lee’s campaign expense returns at Elections Canada, shows Sen. Duffy paid $232.86 to the Great George Hotel in Charlottetown on April 14, but, because Charlottetown is only 39 km from Cavendish, P.E.I., he could not have claimed that payment as a Senate expense.
Sen. Duffy was claiming a cottage in Cavendish as his primary residence at the time, and Senators are not allowed to claim travel expenses within 100 km of their primary residence.
Sen. Duffy over the past several months failed to prove he used the Cavendish house as his primary residence, leading to the controversy that surrounded him and his decision to repay the $90,172, including interest, to the Senate in March.
Asked earlier this month whether the Conservative Party paid campaign expenses for Sen. Duffy and Sen. Wallin, party spokesman Fred DeLorey said such expenses would have been included in either candidate or Conservative Party election expense reports to Elections Canada.
“All national or local campaign expenses would have been submitted to and paid for by the national or local campaigns, and included in the respective campaign returns,” Mr. DeLorey told The Hill Times.
Sen. Duffy campaigned in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during the period covered by the expense reports for Conservative MP Gerald Keddy (South Shore-St. Margaret’s, N.S.), Conservative MP Scott Armstrong (Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodobit Valley, N.S.), Conservative candidate David Morse, who lost against Liberal MP Scott Brison (Kings Hants, N.S.), Conservative MP Gregg Kerr (West Nova, N.S.), Conservative MP Rodney Weston (Saint John, N.B.) and Conservative MP Tilly O’Neill Gordon (Miramichi, N.B.).
Sen. Duffy did not respond to an email from The Hill Times.
Several of the candidates whom Sen. Duffy invoiced spent close to the maximum expense limit allowed under the Canada Elections Act.
Ms. Lee, who lost in a hard-fought battle against NDP MP Dennis Bevington (Western Arctic, N.W.T.), spent $87,026 on her campaign, which had a spending limit of $87,785.
Mr. Armstrong, with an expense ceiling of $87,350 on his campaign, spent $86,045 and Mr. Morse, who had an expense limit of $82,155, spent $80,040 on his campaign.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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