Angry in the Great White North

The fifth charge against former Liberal MP Blair Wilson under investigation by Elections Canada focuses on a donation of custom-printed umbrellas:

Umbrellas: The TAG group provided approximately 60 printed umbrellas as a donation to the Blair Wilson campaign. In an email chain on December 7, 2005 Wayne Rowe the former official agent asks Spencer Gray of the TAG Group for the commercial donation so that it can be counted as a donation. Mr Gray provides the value at "$3,531.00 before taxes." No donation for this amount or expense for the umbrellas appears anywhere in Mr Wilson's filed campaign expenses. Not only is this an illegal corporate donation (over the $1,000.00 limit), but it is not reported.

You can study the supporting material related to the umbrellas charge against Blair Wilson for yourself.

The umbrellas, with Liberal Party and Blair Wilson artwork on them, were meant to be given out as gifts to voters. They were intended for use by the campaign team and by volunteers to use in the rainy BC weather.

The discussion suggests that Spencer Gray of the TAG Group offered to make the umbrellas for the Blair Wilson campaign, the artwork files were provided, and the umbrellas manufactured.

It seems that it was only then that Official Agent Wayne Rowe asked for the monetary value of the donation, and was told it was almost three times the legal limit.

We don't know based on the evidence provided what happened next. Somehow, though, the umbrella donation was not accounted for. Wayne Rowe did think to ask after the value of the donation, and sometime later, Wayne Rowe quit the Blair Wilson campaign over the issue of financial management:

Elizabeth Wood, a former campaign worker for Wilson on the Sunshine Coast who was quoted extensively in the Province article, did not return phone calls from the North Shore News.

But Wayne Rowe, a Sunshine Coast lawyer who worked briefly with Wood on Wilson's campaign, said Wood told him that she was paid in cash. Rowe said while he didn't witness any cash exchanges, if they did occur, he would consider it a questionable practice. Rowe -- who is not a member of the Liberal Party -- said he was originally asked by Wood to consider being Wilson's official agent on the election campaign.

But by early December 2005, Rowe said Wood was replaced as campaign manager and he observed the campaign committing to expenses like office space without an official agent in place and before a budget had been worked out.

Rowe said soon after he bowed out of the campaign because he felt "I wasn't going to have the control that I would need to be comfortable. I didn't actually know where the money was going to come from."

Rowe added, however, that Wood told him she was not the person who filed the Elections Act complaint against Wilson.

Elizabeth Woods remembers Rowe's departure from the Blair Wilson campaign differently:

Wood alleges Wilson conquered this vast riding by spending lavishly; failing to declare rent discounts as donations as required by law; accepting, but not accounting for, items such as umbrellas and fleece jackets; omitting payments for brochures and business cards, auto-dial phone services and Canada Post drops; and paying cash and failing to leave a paper trail of dozens of office expenses.

She claims that the week the writ was dropped (the campaign ran from Nov. 29, 2005, to January 23, 2006), she, Wayne Rowe, who was being considered for the role of official agent, and her conservative budget were tossed out. She was replaced with a man Wilson met at a Liberal convention in Richmond named Guillio Vilas.

Whether Rowe quit or was fired, it would seem that that the information he collected about the TAG umbrella donation just disappeared.

The Charges Against Blair Wilson:

1. The Charges (The letter of complaint)
2. The Cowrie Street Office (The Cowrie Street evidence)
3. The Marine Drive Office (The Marine Drive evidence)
4. Printing (The Printing evidence)
5. Canada Post (The Canada Post evidence)
6. The Umbrellas (The Umbrellas evidence)
7. The Coast Reporter (The Coast Reporter evidence)
8. The Whistler Question (The Whistler Question evidence)
9. Jamey Kramer (The Jamey Kramer evidence)
10. Conclusion

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