Probe sought into leadership debts

Liberals, NDP breaking law: Poilievre

The Conservatives are calling on Elections Canada to investigate the failure of Liberal and NDP candidates to pay off outstanding debts they incurred in their party leadership contests.

Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre on Monday said he believes the agency can investigate to see if candidates are not paying back their loans to skate around the limits on political contributions. That puts him sharply at odds with Elections Canada, whose top officials say the existing law is flawed and can’t be used to police errant loans.

Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté said this summer that loopholes in the Elections Act prevented him from recommending a prosecution based on unpaid loans. But Poilievre pointed to the section of the law that makes it illegal to wilfully exceed the limit on political donations, currently set at $1,200. Loans that cannot be paid off are considered “deemed” contributions and, in several cases involving past leadership races, greatly exceeded the legal limit.

“If someone deliberately uses loans to circumvent donation limits, that is an offence under the existing act,” Poilievre said. “Elections Canada has the power to conduct an investigation in order to ascertain if anyone has done so,” Poilievre said.

The agency told him that merely exceeding the limit through a deemed contribution is not enough to sustain a prosecution unless an investigation finds an intent to dodge the cap, Poilievre said.

He stopped short of demanding an investigation, saying he can’t direct who Elections Canada should investigate, but he called on Liberal and NDP candidates to make good on their debts.

“They should pay the money back; otherwise, they’re failing to respect the donation limits that are set out in the existing legislation, if they fail to do so by the deadline.”

Paul Calandra, the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary, was more emphatic, directly calling on the agency to launch an investigation.

“Elections Canada can and should investigate whether NDP candidates used these loans to circumvent donation limits,” Calandra said in a prepared statement read in the House of Commons. He said Elections Canada has taken “much more drastic actions over much smaller amounts” and said it must fairly apply the law to all parties. An Elections Canada spokesman said Côté would not comment.

Candidates who sought the NDP leadership last year had until Thursday to pay off their loan, or apply for an extension from Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand.

MP Niki Ashton and former Jack Layton aide Brian Topp both reported unpaid campaign debts or loans from their losing bids. They have vowed to pay off the amounts in full. Elections Canada would not say whether either Ashton or Topp had applied for extensions.

But as Liberal leadership hopefuls from 2006 showed, it can be extremely difficult to raise money for a losing leadership campaign after the fact, even if granted more time, and particularly when every donor is limited to a single $1,200 contribution.

Despite seven years of fundraising attempts, four Liberal candidates admitted they were unable to pay off their loans from the race to replace leader Paul Martin. Côté declined to launch a prosecution and Mayrand said the law needed to be rewritten to close the loophole.

Three Liberal candidates in this year’s leadership race also wrapped up their campaigns with steep debts.

According to financial reports they were required to file six months after the vote, MP Marc Garneau and fellow candidates Deborah Coyne and Karen McCrimmon ended up in the red after the race that elected Justin Trudeau leader. The reports from four other candidates are not yet public. Garneau says he is confident he can pay off his $95,000 debt through fundraising before the 18-month deadline, in October 2014.

In a brief interview Monday, Poilievre wouldn’t say whether new political loan rules would be included in an overhaul to the Elections Act, which the government promised last year to address concerns about misleading campaign robocalls.

Poilievre also did not say when the bill would be tabled, only that it would be in place in time for the next general election in 2015.