OTTAWA - Two Conservative senators are facing charges under the Elections Canada Act over a controversy dating back to the 2006 election.They lost the court case! So why are they doing this and why now? Other parties did the same thing, why is EC not going after them? What about Liberal leadership debts? Why has EC has granted them extension after extension when they shouldn't have? Meantime, it's our money EC is spending on this vendetta. EC has appealed and that appeal is still before the court. Can't they at least wait until the appeal process has ended?
Senators Doug Finley and Irving Gerstein, along with two former party officials, are facing administrative charges laid earlier this week by Elections Canada.
The charges are not criminal and would likely only result in fines of up to $1,000 if they are convicted.
Elections Canada and the Conservatives have long fought over whether election ads, bought by the Conservatives for local candidates in the 2006 campaign, violated the law. Elections Canada maintains that although the ads were paid for by local candidates, the ads were really national ads and should be charged against the Conservative Party's national spending limit.
If that were done the Conservatives would have spent more in 2006 than the law allows.
The party won a court case against Elections Canada in January 2010 when Justice Luc Martineau called the Conservative elections expenses legal.
Seems like double standards here by EC. Liberals get free ride, Conservatives have the hammer coming down on them. It almost appears that the so called "non-partisan" Elections Canada is indeed partisan. Here is good reason to grant PM Harper and the Conservatives a majority, to clean house in every faction of the snivel service including Elections Canada. Just by continuing on this witch hunt, Elections will have shred completely any credibility they've had.
EC, you lost, give it up!
BTW. Is there any way one could find out how much taxpayer money EC has spent on this? Are they under the Access to Information Act?