Kevin O’Leary is a loser. I’m a winner … He’s a bad candidate. Instead of trying to win people over by putting out a platform, he’s throwing mud to try to save his campaign. — Maxime Bernier,
Three leadership campaigns involved
OTTAWA AND TORONTO • The Conservative Party of Canada moved to expel nearly 1,400 members Friday after at least three leadership campaigns complained of possible fraud in the registration process.
Leadership front- runner Kevin O’Leary thrust the issue into the public sphere Thursday with a bombastic statement alleging “vote rigging” and “phoney memberships.” But at least two other campaigns brought similar concerns to party headquarters earlier this week, the National Post has learned.
The alleged scheme, rumours of which had swirling in Conservative Party circles for weeks, involved organizers signing up members in bulk without their knowledge and then paying for those memberships with prepaid credit cards, in direct contravention of leadership rules.
O’Leary did not accuse any one campaign of wrongdoing. However, multiple sources say the rumours were connected to the campaign of Maxime Bernier, thought by many to be O’Leary’s chief rival for the leadership.
On Friday, Bernier lashed out at his rival. “Kevin O’Leary is a loser,” he said in a statement. “I’m a winner … He’s a bad candidate. Instead of trying to win people over by putting out a platform, he’s throwing mud to try to save his campaign.”
Former cabinet minister Tony Clement, a Bernier surrogate, said the campaign is “highly confident” that everyone involved is adhering to party rules.
“It’s not unusual for losing campaigns to have people on the ground, who are not going to meet their targets, complain about the other guys,” he said.
The complaints, however, were not limited to the O’Leary camp. At least two other campaigns brought concerns about illegal bulk membership sales to Conservative headquarters this week.
Andrew Scheer’s campaign manager Hamish Marshall said he communicated with the party on Monday and Tuesday about rumours he had been hearing.
“We just got calls from people who were helping volunteering with our campaign saying people they knew were being signed up without their awareness. And so we brought it to the attention of the party, we brought them some names and said, ‘ You should look into it,’ ” he said.
Chris Alexander, another former cabinet minister, said his campaign had unearthed “detailed evidence of incorrect, I would even say illegal practice,” in about 10 ridings in the GTA and Ottawa, which he brought to the party’s attention early afternoon on Wednesday.
In addition to hearing about people being signed up as party members without their knowledge, Alexander said he became aware of software being used that masked IP addresses, allowing multiple members to be signed up from the same computer. He wouldn’t say to which campaign the allegations were tied.
On Friday afternoon, Conservative Party announced that “an expedited review” had found that 1,351 such memberships had been registered illicitly and would be tossed from the rolls.
The disqualified memberships had all been purchased anonymously using one of two IP addresses through the Conservative Party website party, spokesman Cory Hann said in a statement. The memberships were not linked to any one campaign, and all were purchased with prepaid credit cards.
“Our rules are clear, memberships must be purchased by an individual out of their own personal funds and we’ll continue to strictly enforce that rule,” Hann said.
The allegations, which have been not been proven, are said to centre on organizers in the Tamil and Sikh communities in the Greater Toronto Area.
A source familiar with the leadership race described a process whereby organizers would offer prepaid cards to members of the community, tell them to sign up using the card, and obtain a photocopy of their identification at the same time.
The plan, according to the source, was to visit the people again when they had received their mail- in ballots, collect them and fill them out centrally, attaching the photocopied IDs that are required to verify a voter’s identity.
Asked for details about the allegations he had received, Alexander described a similar process.
Mike Coates, a senior strategist on O’Leary’s team, acknowledged his campaign wasn’t the only one with knowledge of the allegations. “We’re not the only ones. We’re the only ones with the balls to go public,” he said. “This stuff ’s gotta be stamped out.”
Others, however, includi ng Alexander, berated O’Leary for going public.
The Conservative Party tightened its membership rules ahead of this leadership race. In the past, candidates were able to sign up members in bulk, using cash. Now, would- be members must register individually, using a personal cheque or credit card for the $15 fee.
The move was seen by party insiders as a way to limit organizers’ ability to leverage ethnic communities in the ways being alleged this week.
The deadline for candidates to sign up new members is March 28. Ranked ballots will be sent to party members starting in late April. They can be mailed in or brought to voting stations on election day, May 27. The party’s new leader will be announced at a convention in Toronto t hat evening.