The government promised in March 2012 that it would introduce new legislation within six months, in response to the robocalls scandal and its allegations that automated calls directed voters to the wrong polling locations in the 2011 election.
Now, more than a year later, there is still no legislation.
Should he introduce a bill, Poilievre will bring not only a background as the party’s lead defender on robocalls in the House of Commons, but also first-hand experience in the voter-contact industry.
Before he first ran for federal office in 2004, Poilievre was co-founder of 3D Contact Inc., an Alberta polling and campaign management company that also offered automated calling to its stable of conservative candidates.
Poilievre partnered in the venture with Jonathan Denis, who is now Justice Minister in Alberta’s Progressive Conservative government.
Although Poilievre is no longer an owner of the company – he says he got out in 2005 — he remains business partners with Denis in a Calgary real estate venture.
In a written statement, Poilievre said he discussed his holdings with the office of the ethics commissioner on Tuesday.
“Today, I contacted the Ethics Commissioner to determine if my new position requires me to make any adjustments in my investments,” he said.
“My assets have all been proactively disclosed to the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. I do not have a financial interest in an auto-dial company, nor have I since 2005.”
A spokesman for Denis said 3D Contact has been shut down, although it is unclear when exactly it shuttered.
“The company is no longer operating so there are no clients,” said Josh Stewart in an email.
“All business interests he (Denis) has were declared to the Alberta ethics commissioner without objection.”
Stewart said the company ceased operations in 2009, the year after Denis became a member of the Alberta legislature.
But Elections Canada records show 3D Contact Inc. was active two years later, when three Conservative candidates in the 2011 election – Brent Rathgeber, Earl Dreeshen and Mike Wallace — reported expenses for phone work from the company. (That’s substantially less work than the 2008 election, when 51 Conservative campaigns reported paying 3D Contact).
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s campaign also used 3D Contact for a small amount automated dialing in the 2010 municipal election, his financial report shows.
Although the company may be effectively defunct, it still filed an annual report with Industry Canada for 2013, listing as directors Denis’ mother Marguerite and well-known Calgary lawyer Gerry Chipeur, who has acted for the Conservative Party in the past.
And in his last public disclosure filed with the clerk of the Alberta legislature, for 2012, Denis reported receiving dividend income from 3D Contact.
I asked Stewart to explain.
“The 2011 Elections Canada information doesn’t match the records we have here,” he wrote. “Regardless, 3D Contact no longer does any automated calls and hasn’t for some time. The company is actually in the process of winding down altogether.”
The dividends Denis reported in his 2012 filing, Stewart said, “were pulled out of the account from previous operations.”
According to his conflict of interest disclosure, Poilievre is a 50 per cent owner of a Liberty West Properties Inc., which he describes as a private real estate investment company. Denis’s disclosure shows he is also an owner of Liberty West.
The two companies also appear to have had a financial connection. Under liabilities itemized in his disclosure, Denis lists a “loan or line of credit” to 3D Contact Inc. from his own company, Jonathan B. Denis Professional Corporation. That company, the document says, has a loan or line of credit from Liberty West.
The company receives rental income from a townhouse in southeast Calgary, according to Denis’ disclosure. It has used Chipeur’s office as its mailing address.
Still uncertain is when, if ever, the Conservatives will introduce the long-overdue elections reforms. Poilievre’s predecessor in the democratic reform portfolio, Tim Uppal, was slated to table legislation in April but the bill was suddenly spiked after complaints from backbenchers.
Original Article
Source: blogs.ottawacitizen.com
Author: Glen McGregor
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