Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion announced the Victory Fund in an email this week:

On Tuesday, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion launched the Victory Fund, an innovative new fundraising initiative created as a means for all Liberals to participate in an inexpensive and meaningful way to finance Liberal victories at both the riding and the national level.

Contributions of as little as $10 per month – shared equally between a riding association and the Liberal Party of Canada – will ensure a strong Liberal Party and a strong Canada. Working together to build the Victory Fund, we can close the fundraising gap, build a stronger Liberal Party and be ready to take on Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

The Victory Fund looked a lot like the ChequeMate Plan run by the Ontario wing of the federal Liberal Party:

The ChequeMate plan is a simple, yet highly effective way of donating regularly to the Liberal Party through a pre-authorized chequing plan.

You decide how much to give, you decide where it should go.  Simply decide how much you would like to donate monthly, return the form with one void cheque or with credit card information, and we’ll take care of the rest.

Through the ChequeMate Plan, you can donate to our local riding association, or to Party Headquarters.  It’s your choice.

You might notice that the link I provided is from the Google cache.  That is because, this week, the original ChequeMate page has gone blank.

I actually saw it happen.  I had the page open in my browser.  I turned off my computer then turned it back on.  When the former browser session was re-established, the page lacked any content.  That was my first clue that something was up.

So I checked around.  Here is the webpage for Liberal MP John Maloney.  Notice the document drop-down menu references the Victory Fund:

So what did it look like before the Victory Fund was rolled out this week?  It referenced the ChequeMate Plan in that spot:

So it looks like the Victory Fund, run out of party headquarters in Ottawa, will be replacing the ChequeMate Plan run by the Ontario wing.

So I have to ask myself, are the current ChequeMate Plan members being migrated to the Victory Fund?  To do that would be legal, since from Elections Canada's point of view, a donation to a provincial wing of a federal party is treated as a donation to the party as a whole -- the provincial wings have no distinct existence from that point of view.

I haven't seen evidence that this is the case, by the way.  Just because the ChequeMate Plan no longer seems to be taking on new members doesn't mean that existing members are being moved anywhere.

Nevertheless, there would be some legal housekeeping if they were being moved.  The brochure for the ChequeMate Plan is explicit:

I hereby request that the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) and its agent bank draw and issue monthly cheques for contributions in the amount indicated above. I hereby authorize my bank, credit union or financial institution to pay such cheques and debit my bank account as specified. Such cheques are to be drawn on the fifteenth day of each month. Delivery of this Authorization to my bank constitutes delivery of it by myself and the treatment of each debit should be the same as if the undersigned had personally directed the payment as indicated. I understand that I may cancel this authorization at any time by written notice either to the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) or to my bank, and that upon receipt the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) and/or my bank shall cease the withdrawals authorized by this agreement.

There is nothing in the fine print about redirecting the donations to another fund, or transferring authority to make pre-authorized donations to the federal party -- the form names either a local Ontario riding or the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario).

The Victory Fund is administered by the Liberal Party of Canada.  I don't know if legally the authorization is transferable between the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) and the Liberal Party of Canada.

Perhaps ChequeMate Plan members will be getting letters asking them for permission to move to Victory Fund.   I wonder if it will be negative optioning.  Respond if you don't want to transfer authority.

Does any of this matter?  Probably not.  But if in two weeks the Liberals announce that they already have 2,000 Victory Fund members, I'd be interested to know if any, or perhaps most, of these new members were members of what seems to be the defunct ChequeMate Plan.  If so, such an announcement would be less than impressive, since (1) these aren't really new members, and (2) it represents existing pre-authorized donations being being re-labeled.