Angry in the Great White North

The allegations of financial mismanagement and electoral malfeasance being made against Liberal MP Blair Wilson are serious and apparently supported by documentation in addition to eyewitness accounts. Already people are speaking to the issue of whether Blair Wilson is even fit for office.

Facing this building firestorm, Blair Wilson has resigned from the caucus:

Liberal MP Blair Wilson has resigned from the federal Liberal caucus over allegations that he didn't disclose all of his expenses during the last election campaign.

Mr. Wilson, who represents the riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast, stepped down on Sunday from his position as Liberal national revenue critic.

He said in a statement that he's confident the allegations will be found to be baseless.

"I will collaborate fully with Elections Canada, and do whatever I can to help expedite its investigation into the allegations," the B.C. MP said. He could not be reached for further comment.

Stephane Dion made it clear that no one in the Liberal Party leadership put up any resistance to Wilson's move:

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says he is "pleased" Mr. Wilson has called on Elections Canada to launch a formal review of the matter. Mr. Dion said the allegations against Mr. Wilson are "serious" and "raise questions that Mr. Wilson must address without delay."

Of course, the story is bigger than this:

However, news of Mr. Wilson's alleged improprieties could not have hit at a worse time for Mr. Dion and the Liberals, who have been trying to capitalize on an alleged election expenses scandal involving the governing Conservatives.

The country's electoral watchdog is investigating whether dozens of Tory candidates improperly claimed more than $1-million worth of local advertising expenses in the last election for ads that were actually national in nature. Elections Canada has refused to reimburse candidates for the advertising expenses, a ruling the Conservative party is challenging in court.

The Liberals have hammered away at the issue every day since Parliament resumed earlier this month.

Their attack will doubtless be blunted by news of the allegations of election spending irregularities within their own ranks.

The problem for the Liberals is that the two situations are different, and clearly different to the average voter. The Conservatives transfered money from the national level to the local ridings (legal), and then the local ridings bought advertising from the national level (legal), moving the money back to the national level (legal). The problem? Elections Canada said that the ads that were run (same content as the national ad, but with a frame added at the end naming the local candidate and riding) is not "local enough".

Everything was above board. No one fudged the books. No money was hidden, no cash transacions happened to hide the paper trail. The question is one of interpretation, and whether Elections Canada is supposed to be making editorial judgments when the ad clearly named the local riding. What is the Conservative Party doing about it? Like anyone, they are taking the question to the impartial courts to decide.

But the Blair Wilson case is different. The allegation is that Blair Wilson and his election team routinely paid for election expenses using cash, booking no receipts, and so keeping the reported funds spent below the limits allowed by the law. Money being donated into the campaign was not accounted for either.

People might be confused at exactly what the Conservatives did, or doubtful that it was really illegal. As for the allegations facing Blair Wilson, no one imagines that it could be possibly be explained away as legal. Blair Wilson's only hope is to somehow prove the allegations completely false, and that means blunting eyewitness testimony and supporting documentation. People can quickly understand what Blair Wilson is supposed to have done and what a bind he is in.

That has traction and front-page appeal. People will read and hear about Blair Wilson, while the advertising controversy is relegated to the back pages, and only reported on sporadically.

This is the problem the Liberals don't need, and even worse, in BC the news will dominate for the next while, hurting the Liberal brand in British Columbia. Wilson's riding was just barely won by the Liberals (and allegedly only because of Liberal overspending), so it is likely that the riding will revert back to the Conservatives in any election that is fought in the near future if Wilson cannot break free of these charges.

Is this as bad as it gets? Not for Stephane Dion.

First, there will be questions about just how someone like Blair Wilson could have been allowed to be the nominee with the red flags in his past.

Second, the question has to be asked just who knew about the problems in the Blair Wilson campaign:

[Former] Wilson campaign workers and business associates have come forward claiming the MP committed breaches of the Canada Elections Act in failing to report campaign expenses. Liberal insiders who worked for the candidate in the 2005-2006 election allege Wilson ran a campaign using cash payments and did not report all his spending. They claim many campaign expenses were never reported to Elections Canada after Wilson switched his staff in favour of another team.

After the new team came in? A team from where? From Liberal headquarters? I think a lot of potentially interesting information is hidden behind this detail.

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