Liberal Party MP Garth Turner ran under the Conservative Party banner in the 2006 election. During that election, a mistake was made.
He was not confirmed as the candidate for the Conservative Party until December 5, 2005. How do I know this? Well, Garth Turner reports on his official confirmation in his blog on December 5:
While I was chewing through poll 2030 tonight, the Returning Officer called me to say my nomination papers had been approved, which means I am an official candidate. He sounded happy for me, but I could only imagine what the feeling might have been -- after seven months of campaigning -- to be rejected on some technicality. In fact, this campaign is getting more and more intense for me as we enter the endgame.
I love his reference to a "technicality" because even as he was posting this, a technicaiity was hiding in his bank account. He had accepted a whopping $10,000 transfer into his campaign four days before he was the official candidate:
You can click to enlarge this.
Now follow me on this. Garth Turner's confirmation comes from Elections Canada in the form of a call from a Returning Officer. Elections Canada also has on record the transfer of $10,000 date four days earlier.
Elections Canada knew about the discrepancy and called Garth Turner out on it:
Today I keyed open my mailbox and found inside a letter from Elections Canada, telling me that I had been cleared in an investigation regarding election financing. That was news, since I didn’t know there’d been any investigation. But the letter also told me that the Halton Conservative Association and its president, Will Stewart, had recently provided information to the vote cop showing that some money was transferred from the local association bank account to the campaign bank account two business days before I’d been certified by the local returning officer as a candidate.
That kind of transfer happens in every campaign, but it’s not supposed to transpire before a candidate’s papers are stamped. It was all a surprise, so I investigated. What I found in archived notes and emails was that the Halton Conservative treasurer was going out of town, so he gave a cheque to the riding president who deposited it on a Thursday afternoon assuming the returning officer would have me certified by then. But the local Elections Canada guy set my visit for Monday, at which time my papers were approved. So, the money ($10,000) sat in the campaign account for the weekend.
But how did Elections Canada know? According to Garth Turner, Will Stewart, the CEO of the Halton Conservative Association, ratted him out:
But the letter also told me that the Halton Conservative Association and its president, Will Stewart, had recently provided information to the vote cop showing that some money was transferred from the local association bank account to the campaign bank account two business days before I’d been certified by the local returning officer as a candidate.
I find it odd that Elections Canada would reveal the source of the information, especially of information it has in its own database. A quick database query of deposit dates against confirmation dates would have revealed the problem. There is no need to for Elections Canada to have depended on an outside agent to find out about this.
I also find it hard to believe that Elections Canada would burn a source of information by revealing his identity, assuming the information was brought to Elections Canada's attention by someone on the outside, someone like Will Stewart.
So I poked around, and got my hands on the letter that Elections Canada sent to Lorne Greenwood, Garth Turner's former agent in the 2006 election.
Here's the relevant portion:
The Political Financing and Audit Section of Elections Canada has referred to our Office [Commissioner of Canada Elections] information indicating that there appears to be a failure to comply with subsection 404(2) of the Act. This appears from information indicating that the Turner campaign received a monetary transfer of $10,000 from the Halton Conservative Association on December 1, 2005, before the nominated candidate was confirmed by the returning officer as a candidate on December 5, 2005. You would have accepted this amount in your capacity as Official Agent of Garth Turner.
No mention of Will Stewart. Indeed, the letter indicates that the problem was noticed by the auditors at Elections Canada, with no reference to some outside snitch.
The only place Will Stewart's name appears is in the cc section -- no surprise in his role CEO of the Halton Conservative Association at the time this mistake happened.
So where did Garth Turner get this idea that Will Stewart called Elections Canada and told them about information that Elections Canada already had in its possession?
Perhaps Garth Turner's letter is different. Perhaps Elections Canada legal counsel Jack Hansen writes different letters to MPs, in which he outlines the detailed history of how the investigation evolved. Perhaps he even provides names and addresses of those who squealed, to help with the settling of scores in the future.
Or maybe the two letters are substantially the same, and maybe it was indeed the auditors in the Political Financing and Audit Section who spotted the problem using the information in their databases. No references anywhere to snitches or to dirty tricks. Just the auditors getting the job done, as the letter I've obtained clearly states.
In any case, Garth Turner uses his unique insight into who called the "vote cop" to try to embarrass the Conservatives:
But here’s the thing. If the ruling had been against me, then I guess the local Conservatives would be looking for $10,000, since any advance transfers to an election campaign are deemed to be illegal, and must be returned.
The irony: It was the Halton Conservatives who pushed the money into the campaign days early to accommodate its treasurer. And now it was the same Halton Conservatives complaining about their own action.
The would be ironic if it were true. I bet it makes Garth Turner feel really important to think that Conservatives would burn their own riding association in order to get him.
Why would a local political organization call on Elections Canada for a ruling three years later on its own incompetence?
Right. Because I’m not dead yet.
At least, that's what he wants his fans to think.
On the other hand, if it turns out that Will Stewart had nothing to do with this, and that the Conservative were no more aware of the problem spotted by the auditors at Elections Canada than Garth Turner was, then Garth Turner is embarrassing himself with yet another crazy and unsubstantiated allegation.
I suppose I'll be the one who is embarrassed when Garth Turner publishes his letter that names Will Stewart as the source of the information. I'll leave the space below this paragraph open for that apology.
The Apology: Here's the apology I promised, but it's coming from Garth Turner:
Well, this blog certainly got the attention of the Halton Conservatives and its CEO, Will Stewart. Mr. Stewart, who has a long political past and was, he tells me, an one-time assistant of Environment Minister John Baird, is categorically denying that he or his local Tory colleagues were the source of the information EC acted upon. He cites unreferenced information that Elections Canada is doing audits on “most ridings” dating back “as far as three years.” Thus, he asked that my blog reference to him be removed. As I have no idea if his information is correct (my own research shows Elections Canada will not make public which ridings, if any, are being audited, or the results), I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, and have done so. I’d like to think Will is an honourable guy, even if he is surrounded by people who have no idea of the concept.
So has Garth Turner withdrawn his accusation? Only in part. In order to maintain the notion that the Conservatives are behind this, the snitch is now someone inside the Halton Conservative Association, one of the people, unnamed, who surround Will Stewart:
But the letter also suggested the Halton Conservative Association, had provided information to the vote cop showing some money was transferred from the local association bank account to the campaign bank account two business days before I’d been certified by the local returning officer as a candidate.
Garth Turner forgot to remove the second comma from the phrase "and its president, Will Stewart," in this hasty bit of backpedalling.
You see, if Garth Turner simply admitted that the auditors at Elections Canada were doing their jobs and spotted the four day discrepancy using the information easily extracted from their own databases, then he wouldn't have a story about being the target of sneak attacks from Conservatives so crazed to take him down that they would hurt their own riding association to do it.
And here is a measure of Mr. Harper’s adherents. My decision in 2005 saved the locals from the embarrassment and shame of the in-and-out fiasco. I turned down sleazy internal Conservative financial deals. And I left them $30,000 in the bank account after the party tossed me. Their response: Write Elections Canada to have my campaign investigated and charged, and my reputation shot up, based on decisions they themselves made.
No, Garth Turner needs to hang on to that theory at all costs. It's too precious a fiction to let go. He won't let go of the notion that his reputation is being attacked by the Conservatives on some sort of kamikaze mission.
It seems almost pathetic, really, the way Garth Turner needs to portray himself the victim of some grand conspiracy. Being an MP helping the people of Halton isn't good enough. He needs to be an MP under attack.
Perhaps Garth Turner thinks that if Liberals think that Conservatives think he is so important and such a threat that he needs to be brought down, that the Liberals will figure the Conservatives must have a reason and that Garth Turner must be important enough to get a cabinet seat in a Liberal government.
Now I'm constructing conspiracy theories!
Like I said, it's very sad. Unless, of course, it's all true. I mean, maybe his version of the letter from Elections Canada (which he has so far not seen fit to make available, nor even to quote from directly) does point the finger at the Halton Conservatives and identifies them as the people who triggered this investigation. That might be the case. I guess we'll know when we see the letter.
While we wait, let's all reconsider Garth's last line in his post:
I used to feel some honour being in politics. Perhaps, when these folks are gone, it may return.
Which folks are those?
Addendum: The space for my apology to Garth Turner remains. All he has to do is publish the letter from Elections Canada that "suggested the Halton Conservative Association, had provided information". Just show us how it is different from the letter I have.
A sudden thought: It would seem that Garth Turner might be using this yet unseen letter from Elections Canada as a way of smearing Will Stewart (a smear since withdrawn) and the Conservatives of Halton. If that's true, then we would have an example of the Liberals using Elections Canada to hurt the Conservatives.
Thanks to Garth Turner.
Isn't that interesting.
Of course, the letter would put all doubts to rest, and prove that the Conservatives are the ones using Elections Canada to hurt Garth Turner, and not the other way around.
