Ex-MP accuses Liberals of illegal practices
Alleges election law violations were ignored
OTTAWA • A former Liberal MP is accusing his party and current government members of being involved in illegal nomination practices in the run-up to the last federal election.
In a letter to parliamentarians Wednesday, Paul Szabo alleges the Liberal Party condoned several breaches of election law leading to Sven Spengemann’s nomination as candidate in the Toronto-area riding of Mississauga-Lakeshore.
The Liberal Party insists it ensures “integrity and fairness” in its process, however, and says the Commissioner of Canada Elections has investigated the matter, which is now closed.
In 2011, Szabo lost his 17-year grip on Mississauga South to a Conservative, Stella Ambler. A few years into the Conservative majority, he said it began to seem clear that in 2015 the Liberals would win back the seat, renamed Mississauga-Lakeshore.
In ridings a party believes it will win, “the nomination meeting is more aggressive than the election campaign,” Szabo said, because whoever wins is expected to automatically vault into Parliament.
Spengemann was interested in the seat and had contacted Szabo twice for help, Szabo told the Post. Ultimately, Szabo backed a different candidate, Julie Desjardins, and became her financial agent for the 2014 nomination race.
“By this time, (Spengemann) was dating (now-science minister) Kirsty Duncan, he was spending a lot of time with (now-innovation minister) Navdeep Bains and with (now-parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs) Omar Alghabra and, as a matter of fact, he helped them run Justin (Trudeau)’s campaign in downtown Toronto. He was there every day,” Szabo said.
“So he was earning stripes with people who were closer to the machinery of the Liberal Party.”
During the nomination campaign, Szabo noticed alleged irregularities he details in the letter to MPs and senators. None of his allegations have been proven in court.
From a list of people eligible to vote on the nominees, Szabo describes identifying 349 memberships submitted by Spengemann’s campaign that appeared invalid, most of them from specific apartment complexes. About half of those people said they were never asked for a membership fee, Szabo alleges they told him when he went door-to-door to speak with them, while others never signed a membership and some didn’t live in the riding.
Szabo informed Bains, then-chair of the Liberal Party’s Ontario nominations committee, and the party itself of problems with the memberships, the letter says. “There was no explanation or corrective action taken,” Szabo writes. He alleges the party then barred challenges to memberships from being accepted at the nomination meeting.
Desjardins ended up losing by 19 votes.
Szabo analyzed the Spengemann campaign’s expenses after it was all over. A campaign return appeared to have been submitted late and only contained five expenses, none of which appeared to cover signage, posters or a school bus, Szabo says. He also alleges a campaign manager was being paid under the table.
Three expenses Szabo discovered for a school bus, mailing services and lifesize posters were incurred by Veena Bhullar and Jamie Kippen, on behalf of “The Parkhill Group,” which is not a registered corporation but which helped the campaign benefit from corporate discounts, Szabo alleges. He provided receipts to the Post.
Bhullar and Kippen now both work in the Prime Minister’s Office. The Post made several attempts to reach them but received no reply.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections, Yves Côté, investigated the Spengemann campaign and published a compliance agreement that notes Spengemann exceeded his own contribution limit for the campaign.
The commissioner identified five $10 membership fees that were not from individuals’ own funds, according to the Liberal Party, so the party reimbursed $50 to the receiver general of Canada “earlier this year.” (Last year, the party passed a policy to make all memberships free.)
“The Liberal Party of Canada continues to be committed to ensuring the integrity and fairness of our candidate nomination processes,” said spokesman Braeden Caley in an emailed statement. Spengemann and Bains’s offices both deferred to Caley’s response.
“The nomination process in Mississauga Lakeshore and all nominations have followed strict standards established by the Liberal Party’s National Candidate Selection rules. Nomination campaigns must also fully comply with all Elections Canada rules and regulations.”
An online policy shows that in his decisions, the commissioner can consider things such as how serious or prevalent an offence was, the “level of sophistication of the alleged offender” and “the prudent and optimal use of public resources.”