NDP member of parliament Bill Siksay raised questions in the House of Commons today about whether cabinet minister Gary Lunn's campaign used third party advertisers to break campaign spending limit laws.

“Was this an attempt to do an end run around the spending limits just like the in-and-out scheme of 2006?” asked Siksay, the MP for Burnaby-Douglas, according to the draft of Hansard.

Lunn spent close to the legal limit during the 2008 election campaign in Saanich-Gulf Islands and five third party advertisers spent another $15,000 to endorse him, the Tyee reported last week.

Four of the groups shared a financial agent and were registered out of the office of Bruce Hallsor, a lawyer who was at the time vice president of the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding association for the Conservatives. One of the groups, Citizens Against Higher Taxes, said they bought signs from Lunn's campaign co-manager, Byng Giraud.

“The member involved has always respected the campaign finance laws in this country in the past and always will in the future,” said James Moore, the MP for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam and the minister of Canadian heritage and official languages.

He also accused the NDP of “making up” the allegations.

Siksay said the details are all freely available on forms filed with Elections Canada.

“I want Mr. Lunn to explain exactly what was going on here,” Siksay said in a phone interview. “It sure doesn't seem right . . . It rightly raises suspicions about what was going on.”

He added, “It seems to be an attempt to manipulate the election law in terms of the amount of money that can be spent on a campaign.”

Lunn did not return calls to his ministry and constituency offices.

Following is the transcript from the unedited version of Hansard:

Mr. Bill Siksay (Burnaby—Douglas, NDP): Mr. Speaker, suspicions have been raised about five previously unheard of third party organizations that bought advertising endorsing the Minister of Sport in the 2008 campaign.

Four of these groups shared a financial agent and an office address--an address at the office of the 2006 B.C. Conservative election co-chair, who is a current member of the minister's riding executive. One group bought signs from the co-campaign manager of the minister's 2008 campaign.

Can the minister explain why these organizations seem to have such direct ties to his campaign team?

Hon. James Moore (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, CPC): Mr. Speaker, in the last campaign and in every election campaign, this Conservative government always follows the rules and the regulations absolutely. Any allegations by the NDP are, of course, made up.

Mr. Bill Siksay (Burnaby—Douglas, NDP): Mr. Speaker, we know from Elections Canada returns that the Minister of Sport's campaign was closing in on the local legal limit. We also know that these previously unheard of organizations, with links to the minister and his political organization, ran ad campaigns endorsing the minister totalling over $12,000, a figure that if the minister's local campaign would have spent would have put him over the legal limit.

Was this an attempt to do an end run around the spending limits just like the in-and-out scheme of 2006?

Hon. James Moore (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the member involved has always respected the campaign finance laws in this country in the past and always will in the future.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.