2006 ad scheme was legal, Tories say in final court arguments

TIM NAUMETZ The Canadian Press September 17, 2008 OTTAWA —

The Conservative Party acknowledges in Federal Court documents that $1.3-million worth of advertising allotted to individual Tory candidates in the 2006 election was in reality produced for the party's national campaign and had no bearing on candidates or local issues. But the Conservatives, in a lawsuit mounted by candidate agents against Elections Canada, insist that federal election law allowed the party to place the ads on behalf of the candidates, and to give the candidates money that they then used to pay the party for the advertising. In a final argument in the lengthy court case, the party also accuses Elections Canada of changing its interpretation of the law after the election and introducing rules that would have prevented the scheme.The question of whether the Conservatives should have assigned the cost of the radio and television ads to their national campaign, which has spending limits under the Elections Act that are separate from the ceilings for local candidates, is central to what has been dubbed the "in and out" controversy. Elections Canada alleges the Conservatives used the transactions to skirt its national campaign spending cap by $1.1-million.For the first time, the party admits in its final Federal Court filing that the ads, which it placed through "regional media buys," were designed for the national campaign.