Leadership camps worry fraud will go unpunished
• Some Conservative party leadership campaigns are worrying perpetrators of alleged fraud and vote-rigging won’t face consequences.
How rule- breaking will be punished is the talk of the party after 1,351 memberships, worth more than $17,000, were ruled invalid following an investigation last week.
The two perceived leadership front- runners, Maxime Bernier and Kevin O’Leary, have exchanged verbal blows, with O’Leary publicizing fraud allegations last Thursday that sources confirm centre on the Bernier camp, and Bernier’s people leaking an affidavit on the weekend that implicates O’Leary in similar fraud.
Allegations about both camps centre on rule-breaking in ethnic communities in the Greater Toronto Area. Bernier organizers allegedly signed up party members without their knowledge, using prepaid credit cards. An O’Leary organizer allegedly offered to pay for people’s memberships.
After O’Leary brought rumours to public attention last Thursday, party officials concluded an investigation and revoked 1,351 memberships that had been purchased online, with prepaid cards, using two specific IP addresses. The party has not connected the memberships to a specific campaign.
Kellie Leitch and others who say they’re innocent of registration fraud are concerned whoever may have benefited from fake memberships will go unpunished.
In a letter obtained by the National Post, authored by agent Bob Dechert and sent to the party Monday, the Leitch campaign called the fraud “a material breach in the integrity of the leadership selection process.”
The letter was co-signed by the Steven Blaney campaign. Other campaigns were asked for signatures but declined.
The letter asks the party to disqualify any candidate found to have directly or indirectly participated in, or acquiesced to, fraudulent bulk purchase of memberships — saying such actions “irredeemably” taint candidates’ campaigns.
Lisa Raitt’s campaign said Monday saying she, too, asked the party for an investigation and “the expulsion of any candidate found to have broken the leadership rules,” or a “significant fine” for any campaign that authorized the activity.
Kory Teneycke, a former director of communications to prime minister Stephen Harper and an adviser to the Bernier campaign, said calls for disqualification are just “a particular leadership candidate trying to seek headlines.”
“We have a variety of measures we use to review memberships. We’re confident in the ability of the protective measures we regularly use,” party spokesman Cory Hann said.
If candidates break rules, the party can force compliance, levy fines, issue warnings, refer matters to police or disqualify candidates.
“We need to know who are the people who tried to get those memberships,” PierreLuc Jean, with Blaney’s campaign, said. “Where’s the money coming from?”
With campaigns scrambling to boost their numbers, the disclosure of fraudulent tactics could dissuade further cheating — ultimately a positive thing, a party insider said.