Like A Rotted Onion, Are There More Layers To The "In and Out" Scam???

The "In and Out" Scandal has hit and hit hard, leaving the Conservatives running scared and trying to paint everyone as either guilty, out to get them, or a mutant elf (wait... that one hasn't happened yet, but it's the natural next one to come, isn't it??). So far we've seen RCMP raids, attempts to select media and escapes down fire escapes. It's been a bad story the whole way around for the Conservatives and only promises to get even uglier.

So far though this story has been restricted to the Conservatives alleged attempts to skirt election laws in regards to financing, but what if they tried to do the same thing with other election expenses? When this story first broke, as someone who's worked on a few campaigns, I just thought to myself of all of the possibly things that this scheme could be applied to, and wondered quietly to myself it they would try it. Well, it looks like I wasn't alone in thinking that way. Today, the Winnipeg Free Press is reporting that Manitoba NDP MP Pat Martin was written the Elections Commissioner requesting that Elections Canada expand it's probe into the Conservatives elections spending practices to include money paid to the federal Conservatives for polling. The Free Press goes on to say the following:

Martin said the way the funds are flowing is eerily reminiscent of the scheme Elections Canada flagged last year involving advertising expenses.

"This is identical in structure to the advertising," said Martin. "This could be a whole second tier of scamming."

A Free Press review of Conservative expense claims turned up 50 Tory candidates who sent a total of $854,000 to the national Conservative campaign under the category of "Election surveys or other surveys and research."

In all but two of the campaigns, the amounts transferred were either $15,000 or $20,000. Sixteen campaigns saw "in-and-out" transactions, where money was paid to the central campaign, and then returned to the local campaign or where the central campaign paid money to the local campaigns and then it was returned to central.

In the other 34 campaigns, the transaction only involved a local campaign paying the national campaign. In many, the transactions occurred weeks, even months, after the election was over.

Hmmmm.... Interesting. Maybe Mr. Martin is onto something here. Why would you be making transactions for polling months after an election is over??? That's very odd to say the least. On top of that, how many local campaigns, with limits usually far below $100,000 can afford to spend $15,000 to $20,000 on polling??? That's over 20% of your campaign expenses on polling, which for any local campaign is quite odd. As Mr. Martin pointed out in the piece, the maximum that he spends for a poll in his Winnipeg riding is $6,000, and Winnipeg Liberal MP Anita Neville is also quoted in the piece saying that her campaigns have had quotes that where the "low end were about $4,000 and on the high end were $12,000".

Now the article mentioned two Manitoba Conservative MP's, and actually got a quote on the record from one, Steven Fletcher, MP for the Winnipeg riding of Charleswood St. James Assiniboia. According to the investigative work done by the Free Press, Mr. Fletcher's campaign claimed $20,000 for polling, which resulted in a $12,000 rebate to his campaign, courtesy of the taxpayers of Canada. Mr. Fletcher's response was a symptom of having spent to much time around Pierre Poilievre, as he used the whole "everyone does it" speaking point. But some more details of this case printed in the Free Press does sound similar to ConAdscam:

Fletcher's official election expense filing shows his campaign sent $20,000 to the national Conservative campaign for polling on December 13, 2005. As an eligible expense, it created a $12,000 rebate for Fletcher's campaign. However, that same sum of money was transferred back from the national campaign to Fletcher's campaign account just 12 days later, on December 23.

In an earlier email exchange, Fletcher said the initial payment to the central campaign was for "services rendered" during the campaign. Fletcher said the subsequent payment from the central campaign to his local account was not a repayment of the original $20,000, but actually a transfer of money from his riding association.

Many riding associations maintain accounts holding money raised between elections and surpluses from previous campaigns. When a new writ is dropped, the riding associations transfer money to the candidate's campaign account.

In Fletcher's case, the Charleswood St. James Assiniboia riding association did make a $28,320.84 transfer to the central campaign account on December 6, 2005. On December 8, the exact same amount was transferred back to Fletcher's campaign account. However, the riding association did not make an additional $20,000 transfer, as Fletcher suggested.

Wait a minute Mr. Fletcher. If that second transfer, the $20,000 one didn't happen, then why is it in your filings with Elections Canada? It's right there in black and white, so what happened? The plot thickens that much further.

I hope that Elections Canada, will take a look into this angle as well, and given all of the information that the took in their raid of Conservative Headquarters, they probably have the proof on hand already. It makes sense that if you tried to do this trick with one aspect of funding a campaign that you would try to do it with another. Good work by the Winnipeg Free Press and NDP MP Pat Martin on this one for finding this out. It's situations like these, where the press and MP's find this information out because of our freedom to information laws, that show us the danger in what the Conservatives pulled last month by cancelling Canada's Access to Information Database. It also shows us that the Conservatives brand of "transparency" is far from transparent, and their brand of "accountability" doesn't include them being accountable. This storm of scandal keeps growing stronger, and can't help but make you wonder what else might be out there waiting to be found by the Canadian people.Recommend this Post