There were 52 third parties registered with Elections Canada to spend money during the campaign period leading to yesterday's election. Four of them are based at the office of a Victoria lawyer who worked on Conservative Gary Lunn's campaign.
The groups are Common Sense Advocacy of Victoria, the Dean Park Advocacy Association, the Economic Advisory Council of Saanich and the Saanich Peninsula Citizens Council. Their respective contacts are Donna Evans, Ralph Bodine, Patricia Trottier and Dana Dickinson.
Interestingly, all four share the same address, 800-1070 Douglas Street in downtown Victoria, the office of the law firm Crease Harman and Company. They also share the same phone number. The receptionist said she'd never heard of Evans, Bodine, Trottier or Dickinson.
But Crease Harman is also the firm where Bruce Hallsor works. Hallsor is a former Canadian Alliance Party candidate, proportional representation advocate and Gary Lunn supporter.
“They all wanted to register groups as third party advertisers, so I did that for them,” said Hallsor. “It's the right of every citizen who wants to express their opinion in an election to do so up to the spending limit.”
Dickinson's group did some advertising in 2006, he said, but the other three were new for this election. The groups did things like buy lawn signs and ads in the local daily newspaper, he said. All were supporting Lunn, he acknowledged. “That's right. That's how I know them.”
Other groups registered to oppose Lunn, he said.
There's a difference between the types of bodies registered at Hallsor's office and groups like the Dogwood Initiative or Conservation Voters of B.C. that have been around for several years and exist to promote an issue, not a single candidate, said Kit Spence, the campaign manager for Liberal Briony Penn against Lunn.
“These are clearly shills for the Conservative Party and Gary Lunn,” said Spence. “I happen to live in Dean Park and I know that organization never existed up until election time.”
The rules governing third party advertisers exist to allow groups with a cause to promote it during an election, he said. They are allowed to spend $3,666 in any one riding, or $183,300 country wide. “I don't think they were designed to allow candidates to create organizations that exist only for the period of an election and only to support one candidate.”
Even if the groups were outside the spirit of the law, Spence said, they were probably within its bounds. “It's within the rules, but marginally,” he said.
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
Wow
Lunn and company really rolled out all the stops.
Must be nice to have endless cash and public resources to grease the skids with.
I guess the 10 million dollars for parks gary "found" last month went some way to grease the skids as well.
Guess we are becoming more conservative, wether we like it or not.
GREAT ARTICLE!
GREAT ARTICLE!
Lunn not the only one
Wendy Yuan, Liberal candidate in Vancouver-Kingsway, also had a disproportionate number of third party advertisers. This came to light as accusations of race-based politics surfaced (also covered in The Tyee)
By the numbers: http://mikewatkins.ca/2008/10/14/wendy-yuan-3rd-party-advertising/
Links to advertshttp://mikewatkins.ca/2008/10/13/vancouver-kingsway-race-card-played/
Correct link:
Apologies:
http://mikewatkins.ca/2008/10/13/vancouver-kingsway-race-card-played/
lunn,new groups
I still want to know why over 3600 people voted for the non NDP candidate.?
Who sent out the Monday night call to vote for Julian West?
Voters can complain, but not Dogwood
The Dogwood Initiative was playing the same game. Lunn's people just prevailed at the business of the politics of threats, smears and fears.
Would it be too much to ask that the next election in Saanich-Gulf Islands be conducted cleanly? Yes, it would be, as long as Penn and her ambitious crowd of idolators are determined to win at any price. These people are NOT the slightest bit concerned about Lunn or the Conservatives environmental record. They are simply in it for themselves, and their environmental schtick is the pretext, not the real purpose.
TM
Yet another indication of the need to explore electoral reform...
www.bcandbeyond.wordpress.com
Votes for Julian.
I would guess that the call either came from the Lunn camp in order to try to split the vote or from some of the Julian supporters still angry at Brad Zubyk for raising the "scandal" (or whatever it was" after it was too late to replace Julian. The rest is all about money and when more money gives you the edge, democracy is a myth.
"Dirty Gary"
This story illustrates that the nickname "Dirty Gary" fits on several counts...
Budd Campbell, that's
Budd Campbell, that's laughable.
In the meantime, its clear that the so-called Accountability Act and related amendment to the Election Act has done nothing to stop corporate support of parties and candidates, merely pushed it deeper underground where it is harder to trace.
Follow the money. People connected with Gwyn Morgan and/or his old firm EnCana plug a single candidate and are among an elite group - of the 52 third parties, virtually all of the individuals are in BC. And of all the individuals, half supported Gary Lunn, and the other half supported failed candidate Wendy Yuan.
Lunn's case is far more interesting, given the connections to EnCana, offshore exploration, pipelines, tankers - all things which Lunn has responsibility for or significant influence over.
Yuan simply wanted to get elected.
Lunn's buddies stand to profit from his election.
The amazing thing is out of over 1000 candidates only 2 exploited this avenue.
I guess Mr. Lunn will add another chapter to the Conservative Handbook, inserted right after *in and out*. Free to anyone with a CIMS id.
Lunn's an idiot all right
But the Liberals and Penn have dirt all over them too - in the end, it doesn't much matter, the character of the north end of the Saanich Peninsula has also changed a lot in the last half-dozen years. It's now filling up with early retirees from Alberta and they don't like either the NDP or the enviros.
If Penn had really wanted to beat Lunn she knew what to do - drop out of the race and support the NDP candidate who was in second place the last time. She should have advised the press of West's predicament in time for the NDP to bring in another candidate and then removed her equally soiled reputation from the race...
No one looks good on this file - including the green guy.