17 sitting MPs participated in Tory ad scheme

Ottawa Citizen Sept 10 (Full Story)

Elections Canada has listed 17 sitting MPs among Conservative candidates who participated in a contentious scheme to channel $1.2 million through riding campaigns to pay for blanket regional television and radio advertising during the 2006 election, court documents show. One of the Conservative MPs, cabinet minister and Government Whip Jay Hill, sits on a committee the opposition has forced to meet today to begin probing a series of "in and out" transactions the Liberals claim may have been used by the Conservative party to skirt campaign spending limits. Internal Elections Canada records the agency filed in a Federal Court action list a total of 67 Conservative candidates who took part in the transfer scheme. The party transferred tens of thousands of dollars each to the candidate campaigns, which simply turned the money around by using bank transfers to pay the party for the ads. The candidates later claimed election expense rebates for 60 per cent of the ad expenses, but Elections Canada rejected the claims. Other than the 17 who won their seats, including 10 Quebec MPs who were long shots at the outset of the campaign, the vast majority of the candidates who received the money lost their election bids and had little or no chance from the start. In most cases, their donation levels were low and for some, the party ad payment took up most of their expenses.

According to the court documents filed by Elections Canada, the list of other MPs who participated in what the party called a "regional media buy" include Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Heritage Minister Josée Verner and Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon. The other MPs are: Quebec MPs Sylvie Boucher, Daniel Petit, Steven Blaney, Jacques Gourde, Luc Harvey, and Christian Paradis; B.C. MPs Ron Cannan, Dick Harris, Jim Abbott and Colin Mayes; Ontario MP Patricia Davidson; and Saskatchewan MP David Anderson.