This is probably a minor thing, but there is something strange about the registration of the leadership website of Gerard Kennedy, a leading candidate for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party.
Here is an excerpt of the registration record:
Subdomain: gerardkennedy.ca
Renewal-Date: 2008/01/08
Date-Approved: 2003/01/08
Date-Modified: 2006/06/26
Organization: Parkdale High Park Liberal Riding Association
Description:
Admin-Name: Andrew Tereshyn
Admin-Title:
Admin-Postal: 276 Pacific Ave, Toronto ON M6P 2P9 Canada
Now according to the website itself, the website was authorized by the Gerard Kennedy Campaign on St Clair Ave in Toronto.
But the registration says the site was established by the Parkdale High Park Liberal Riding Association under the direction of Andrew Tereshyn. Andrew Tereshyn is an employee of the provinical government, working as a computer system administrator. He is also a supporter of the Ontario Liberal Party. The address given is Mr Tereshyn's personal residence.
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with Mr Tereshyn providing time and services to support his favoured candidate.
But what about this Parkdale High Park Liberal Riding Association?
Is the federal riding association supporting Gerard Kennedy?
It isn't. First, that's not the name of the riding association. The proper name for the federal riding association is Parkdale High-Park Federal Liberal Association.
But it's not just the name. I got in touch with the riding association, on the off chance that the name was typed incorrectly in the registration information. A member of the executive promptly responded and explained that (1) the riding association as a whole has not endorsed any candidate, and (2) he doesn't know who Mr Tereshyn is.
So I think it's safe to say that the "Parkdale High Park Liberal Riding Association" is not the federal Liberal riding association, just mislabelled. Is it the provincial riding association?
Well, I can't find any organization called the "Parkdale High Park Liberal Riding Association". But even if it refers to a provincial riding association, what is a provincial riding association doing managing the website of a federal Liberal leadership candidate? Shouldn't the association be busy helping Sylvia Watson win the by-election to fill the seat vacated by Kennedy?
And in any case, what about the Gerard Kennedy Campaign?
Fact is, this is probably nothing. Maybe all that needs to happen is someone has to update the registration information. But it makes me wonder just who was working the Kennedy Campaign and when. Was someone just making up names of "riding associations" while setting up the website? Even though Gerard Kennedy is coming from the provincial party, you would think all Liberals would have learned a lesson when it came to being less than 100% honest on documentation. It will be a while before little slip ups like this can be dismissed as mere paperwork issues.
I wonder what CIRA would think. That Joe Volpe parody website was shut down by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority because the person who set up the site provided a bad phone number. CIRA seems to take the integrity of the registration records very seriously.
Skew my story on Skewz.com
Rate political news for their bias, read related stories, and leave your own skewed commentary
Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords
Gerard Kennedy Liberal Party leadership campaign CIRA
Sphere presents related news articles and blog posts
Sphere It!
I'm sorry, what's the story here? Yawn.
And if you don't have a problem with public servants playing ball, why do you bring it up? Stop it.
Posted by: James Bowie at July 27, 2006 08:33 AM
The riding association might be miffed. So might CIRA. It seems minor, I know, but it's quite possible that some people will be annoyed (or worse) by sloppy record keeping like this.
Posted by: Steve Janke at July 27, 2006 08:45 AM
This is such a non-story! How do you even look up the registration record on a website anyway? Doesn't seem readily accessible to the average person. Did you actually spend time pouring over the technical specs behind all the Liberal leadership websites, hoping to find something--anything!--even remotely anomalous so that you could spin it as yet another instance of Liberal deceit?
Posted by: Godel at July 27, 2006 09:00 AM
Has Gerhard committed to challenging Peggy Nash in the next federal election (whether he becomes leader or not)?
Posted by: Joan Tintor at July 27, 2006 09:15 AM
Too much time on your hands. Too much time...
Posted by: hangin to the left at July 27, 2006 02:23 PM
Close him down!
Oh waitr this canada there is no attempt at equal treatment.
Posted by: DrWright at July 27, 2006 02:39 PM
Ontario ridings mirror federally and provincially. So Parkdale is Gerard's old provincial riding. I presume Andrew is involved with the board in that riding association - most likely they registered the domain when Gerard was still an MPP hence the organization.
Posted by: Dan at July 27, 2006 04:41 PM
It takes all of about 6 seconds to look up the registration info on a domain. But I guess only a member of the VRWC would know that, right? :-)
Steve *might* have been doing whois lookups on every single Liberal site on the internet. Then again, he might have gotten a tip from someone, or been acting on a hunch. I didn't hear any of you complaining when the Star was digging up whatever dirt they could find on Stephen Harper (which was precious little) to claim evidence of his "hidden agenda".
Seriously, what's with this "doesn't seem readily accessible to the average person" and "too much time on your hands" stuff? I would've pegged this as a non-story too, but the weird defensiveness from Libs in this thread is going to make it into a story.
Posted by: Aaron G at July 27, 2006 07:16 PM
"but the weird defensiveness from Libs in this thread is going to make it into a story."
Huh?
Posted by: Dan McKenzie at August 2, 2006 12:06 AM