Conservatives’ Great Election Kickback Scheme

The Commons Ethics committee is meeting in the middle of the summer to investigate the Conservative Party’s Great Kickback scheme of the 2006 elections.

Harper isn’t at all happy with the way things are turning out. He was supposed to have an easy summer of it, getting a nice tan and losing a little weight while watching Stéphane Dion trying his best to win over Canadians.

It all started because the Conservatives had too much money going into the last election. Dion probably wishes he had such a problem.

The Conservatives had picked $1.3 million more than the $18.3 million they would be legally allowed to spend on the election. So the bright boys at Party Central in Toronto came up with a great scheme.

They would give out the extra $1.3 million to individual conservative candidates who would keep it in their election bank accounts only a few days – just long enough for it to show up on the books -- and then kick it back to the party organization in Toronto who would buy national ads, over and above the maximum they would have been allowed to buy.

The kickback scheme has been called the ‘In-and-Out’ scheme - money going in a bank account and coming right back out again.

And the individual Conservative candidates were getting receipts from Toronto for which they could claim a 60% reimbursement from Elections Canada. Now that’s money.

There were about 67 candidates and a pile of cabinet ministers involved in the scheme, including some rather big names in the party, and some of the people in this world closest to Harper and some working right in his office today. Harper himself was not involved.

Many of those involved were from Quebec. Now why is that?

Harper says there was nothing wrong with what the Conservatives did. The other parties do the same thing, so it must be right.

Elections Canada says ‘No!’ and refused to reimburse any of the money kicked back by candidates to the Toronto organisation.

So far Elections Canada has uncovered some of the receipts were unsigned, many were dated strangely January 1, and in some cases they suspect, the ads was never bought, even though the receipt was issued and the reimbursement claimed.

Harper was so furious he took Elections Canada to court to get the reimbursements on the 60% of the $1.3 million he says is owed.

Elections Canada was so furious it sent the RCMP over to raid the Conservative Ottawa headquarters looking for written proof of the In-and-Out kickback scheme the day before the case went to court.

Harper was so furious with all the nasty questions the Opposition was asking in the Commons that he adjourned the session until the fall.

Then the Opposition came up with the idea of calling back the Ethics Committee in August to hold its own investigation into the scheme.

The witness list – 79 names so far – reads like a Who’s Who of the Conservative Party and its backroom, including a number of elected MPs and defeated candidates and their organizers and official agents.

Quebec MPs are especially prominent. They include: Sylvie Boucher (Beauport-Limoilou); Daniel Petit (Charlesbourg); Steven Blaney (Lévis); Jacques Gourde (Lotbinière); Luc Harvey (Québec Louis-Hébert).

Four who became ministers include: Max Bernier, Josée Verner, Christian Paradis, and Lawrence Cannon.

By law MPs and ministers can’t be forced to testify before a parliamentary committee.

The defeated candidates and party organizers who are required by law to testify include: Louise O’Sullivan from Westmount and her official agent Rosa Conte; Gary Caldwell from Compton-Stanstead and his official agent Réjean Fauteux; David Marler from Brome-Missisquoi and his official agent Geoffrey A. Webber.

Prominent Quebec Conservative organizers on the witness list include: Nelson Bouffard; Pierre Coulombe; Benoît Larocque; and Michel Rivard.

From Harper’s office: Michael Donison, former Conservative Campaign Manager; Patrick Muttart, former strategic planner; as well as Don Plett, president of the Conservative Party of Canada.

The Liberal MPs on the committee, who remember what the sponsorship scandal did to their party, will be out gunning for bear.

The Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party, who always say the old parties are corrupt, will be out to prove their point.

It should be quite a show in Ottawa next week.

Mr. Cleroux welcomes comments from readers at richardcleroux@rogers.com