Court gives indebted Grits a break

[Brown envelope]

One said the party should look to Barack Obama's massive fundraising success during his year-long presidential bid as an example of the kind of approach the Liberals should take.

You mean untraceable foreign credit card numbers donating large amounts of money? Sounds right up the gLiberal's alley.

[styky]

Can't afford to put party on ice: Dion
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion says the party can't afford to sit idly by while awaiting the selection of his successor.

Speaking after the party caucus gathered in Ottawa, Dion said the party's mindset must change so it's not simply mobilizing when an election is on the horizon, but continuously building the party.

"We can't put things on ice for months," Dion said in French. "Constantly you have to try and build the party and that's what I want to do for my successor."

The federal Liberals spent hours behind closed doors Thursday dissecting their party's election failures and strategizing about the future.

The Liberals experienced one of their worst electoral showings in the Oct. 14 vote, falling to 77 House of Commons seats from 95 when the election was called.

The caucus meeting comes amid news the party is dealing with yet another financial blow from the federal election.

Financial losses
The party lost up to $250,000 in election rebates because 36 candidates failed to secure 10 per cent of the vote in their ridings, according to the Canadian Press.

Drop in voter support has also cost the Liberals $1.6 million from their government subsidy next year and just over $1 million from parliamentary funding for House of Commons officer budgets, research and caucus support on Parliament Hill.

Of the candidates who failed to meet the minimum 10-per-cent threshold to qualify for campaign expense reimbursements, 11 were in B.C., 14 in Alberta, five in Saskatchewan and four in Manitoba. One candidate was in Quebec and another was in Nova Scotia.

Dion acknowledged the party's gloomy financial situation, and said the party needs to be as effective as the Conservatives "if we want to be on the same footing."

Fewer leadership contenders
A poor pocketbook could impact how the party selects in next leader. Dion called for party executive to find the "best process at the least cost" when it meets Friday.

Before heading into Thursday's meeting, Liberal MP Judy Sgro told CBC News that the fewer candidates vying for the Liberal helm the better.

"Frankly, I'd like to see the main contenders go in a room, flip a coin and come out and say this is who our leader is," said Sgro, who represents Ontario's York West riding.

During the leadership race two years ago, 11 candidates sought the party's top job.

Some MPs are urging less experienced members of Parliament to refrain from tossing their hats in the ring.

"You know, the lightweights that just want to probably run for the first time and sit in the front row benches, sorry, that doesn't cut it with me anymore," said Jim Karygiannis, the MP for Ontario's Scarborough-Agincourt riding.

So far, the only two Liberals to announce they will run for leadership are former Ontario premier Bob Rae and New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc, but a number of others are rumoured to be poised to join the race.

Next session
Dion also warned Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the Liberals won't support "clearly unacceptable" bills by the Conservative minority government in order to avoid another election.

"Don't count on us to keep this Parliament functional," said Dion.

He said the previous parliamentary session was "extremely deficient" in the months leading up to the election.

CBC's Margo McDiarmid said many MPs across party lines are "kind of sick of [the] confrontational atmosphere that existed before the election" and hope to work together to get things done.

But many Liberals "don't want to sit on their hands anymore" when Parliament resumes on Nov. 18, McDiarmid added, referring to the party's numerous abstentions from votes to avoid an election call.

"We'll look at each vote on its merit, and if we don't think there is a merit, well, we'll vote as a team all together," said Dion.

Dion also commented on the victory of Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the Nov. 4 U.S. election, saying it "fills us with hope" for the entire planet.

He said Obama's win provides a "new opportunity" for North America to do its "fair share in the struggle against climate change," noting that Harper seemed more interested in working with the president-elect on the topic than with U.S. President George W. Bush.

Newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday that Canada will seek a North American climate change agreement with the incoming Obama administration.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/ ... aucus.html

[Smaug]

Of the candidates who failed to meet the minimum 10-per-cent threshold to qualify for campaign expense reimbursements, 11 were in B.C., 14 in Alberta, five in Saskatchewan and four in Manitoba.

Half of the liberals running in Alberta did not get their deposits back.


The liberals are in serious trouble in the west, and will have a hard time remaining in existence if that situation continues.

[styky]

Grits propose barring indebted leadership contenders
Quebec Liberal proposal would bar Kennedy, Hall-Findlay, but help Ignatieff, Rae
Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, November 07, 2008
OTTAWA - The Quebec wing of the Liberal party is suggesting that anyone who has an outstanding debt from the 2006 leadership convention should be barred from running to replace Stephane Dion, reports say.

That proposal would keep Toronto MPs Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay from seeking the top job - both still owe just under $200,000 from the last race, The Canadian Press reported Friday.

The party's national executive will consider the proposal this weekend when it meets to decide on the details for the leadership convention.

Liberal insiders suggest the proposal comes from supporters of Michael Ignatieff, who dominate the Quebec wing's board. While Ignatieff's camp say he's paid off his debt from the 2006 leadership race, according to the last financial report he filed with Elections Canada he still owes $60,000.

An Ignatieff spokeswoman said he had nothing to do with the proposals.

Former Ontario premier Bob Rae, who is considered a front-runner in the race to replace Dion along with Ignatieff, has paid off his debts from 2006.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/natio ... a48cd4999b

[styky]

Dion's office starts cutting staff
Toronto Star, Canada -
OTTAWA–In what's described as the cost of defeat, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion laid off 11 people in his office yesterday as the party starts to feel the ... <a href=http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=ca&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1270639515>linked thru Google</a>

[styky]

Libs reduce delegate fee, but expect low turnout at convention
In economic downturn, things are 'economically challenging' for Liberals heading to convention.
By Abbas Rana
The Liberals, who are being out-fundraised by the Conservatives by almost four to one, have dropped the $995 registration fee to their Vancouver convention this spring for delegates coming from Nunavut and Labrador and have slightly reduced fees in other provinces across the country in an effort to attract more Grit delegates and after Elections Canada ruled travel subsidies "could constitute an inducement to contribute."

The Liberals are trying to attract delegates and want them to contribute money. If delegates paid the $995 registration fee they couldn't contribute any more to the party because the individual limit is $1,100 annually.

"Inducement, in this case, is like asking someone, 'If you come vote for me, I'll buy you a beer.' This is an extreme analogy but I'm using this to explain my point," one Liberal insider told The Hill Times.

Historically, the parties cover delegates' travel subsidies, depending on where delegates live, and could play an important role in the convention's turnout because travel costs are one of the key expenses.

<a href=http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=2009/february/9/libs_reduce_fee/&c=2>continued</a>

[Brown envelope]

I guess gLiberals are still entitled to their entitlements....

Radwanski cleared after five-year ‘nightmare'

DANIEL LEBLANC

Globe and Mail Update

February 13, 2009 at 11:01 AM EST

OTTAWA — After being exonerated on all charges of fraud and breach of trust today, George Radwanski said he would have done a few things differently as privacy commissioner, but suggested the criminal case against him was an RCMP vendetta.

Mr. Radwanski hugged his lawyer and a family member as he was found not guilty in an Ottawa courtroom Friday morning.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Mr. Radwanski said he paid a large price for his lack of administrative experience, as well as for his long fight as privacy commissioner with RCMP plans to install surveillance cameras in Kelowna, B.C.

“It's been a five-and-a-half year nightmare, so it's wonderful to have my life back,” Mr. Radwanski said.

“There is no question I antagonized a lot of people by the way I went about my job, in terms of how aggressively I pursued the issues I was fighting for. I ticked a lot of people off, not the least the RCMP. ... It turns out that you can only antagonize so many powerful players without there being all sorts of pushback.”

Mr. Radwanski said the Ontario Court of Justice was the “first fair tribunal” to look into his case, after the Auditor-General and a parliamentary committee started criticizing his tenure in 2003.

“Look, there are some things that obviously, in hindsight, I wish I would have done differently. I knew in my heart that I never acted dishonestly or knowingly improperly in any way,” he said.

Mr. Radwanski was charged in 2006 in relation to thousands of dollars in hospitality lunches that he had with his communications director, a $15,000 travel advance he kept outstanding for more than a year, and $16,000 in vacation leave.

As part of the same trial, Mr. Radwanski's former chief of staff, Arthur Lamarche, was found guilty of breach of trust.

Mr. Radwanski left his government position in 2003 after a controversy generated by parliamentary hearings into his spending habits.

In his written decision, Mr. Justice Paul Bélanger of the Ontario Court of Justice said Mr. Radwanski was “less than meticulous” in keeping track of administrative matters and “clearly negligent in accounting for his expenses.”

However, the judge added he saw no evidence of falsehood or falsification involving the former privacy. He said government regulations allowed for some of the contested transactions and that Mr. Radwanski clearly relied on staff to carry out his administrative duties.

Judge Bélanger said that in this context, he had “serious misgivings” but could only find the former privacy commissioner not guilty.

Mr. Radwanski told his trial last year he was so focused on business during frequent hospitality lunches that he wasn't even aware of the pleasant surroundings and fine food.

“I could have been eating sawdust,” Mr. Radwanski testified during a cross-examination.

He told Judge Bélanger he went to the upscale restaurants only because they were locales of choice for other top bureaucrats and offered privacy.

Mr. Radwanski made the comments as he defended his expensive tastes during almost three hours of questioning about thousands of dollars worth of expense claims he filed for meals with his communications director, Donna Vallières.

Crown attorney Robert Wadden peppered Mr. Radwanski with questions about the expenses and a $15,000 travel advance at the centre of fraud and breach-of-trust charges against him and his former chief of staff, Mr. Lamarche.

Mr. Wadden read out examples of lunches in some of Ottawa's best restaurants, where the tab for Mr. Radwanski and Ms. Vallières often exceeded $100 and usually included wine. When Mr. Wadden cited a $120 lunch bill at one restaurant, and one for $208 on Dec. 23, 2002, at another, Mr. Radwanski replied a third person must have been along those days.

The Crown prosecutor reminded Mr. Radwanski he had earlier testified that he and Ms. Vallières regularly shared hospitality lunches out of the office to be alone for “brainstorming” strategy sessions. Mr. Wadden questioned whether busy restaurants at noon were the best place to discuss confidential privacy affairs and political battles with other departments.

Mr. Radwanski replied that he frequented the kind of restaurants other bureaucrats at his level selected, and they were often the best places to discuss business because of the atmosphere and background noise.

“These were places government people felt safe doing business; these were places I felt safe doing business,” he said.

When Mr. Wadden pressed the point – that Mr. Radwanski and Ms. Vallières were likely to be overheard during discussions Mr. Radwanski earlier testified were too sensitive to hold in their office – Mr. Radwanski displayed impatience.

He said strongly at one point: “I repeat, no, we went to places that were designed for business lunches.”

“You would agree these were enjoyable meals,” Mr. Wadden suggested.

Mr. Radwanski rejected the suggestion, making the sawdust comparison and adding: “I wasn't interested in the meal I was having; I was interested in what we were trying to resolve.”

Earlier, defending his decision to take out a $15,000 travel advance in May of 2002 to pay off an American Express monthly travel account because his expenses exceeded his reimbursements from the government, Mr. Radwanski said he did the best he could at his job and had no intention of violating hospitality rules or government travel policies.

“The public good was all that was on my mind; there was a huge job to do,” he said in response to questions from his lawyer, Michael Crystal.

Mr. Radwanski said he decided to resign in 2003, more than four years before the end of his seven-year term, because of the controversy a Commons committee inquiry into his expenses had stirred up, as well as an inquiry by federal Auditor-General Sheila Fraser.

But after the dust settled and he repaid the outstanding travel advance, $16,000 in cash he had taken out in lieu of vacation leave, taxes and other claims by the government, nothing remained of a $93,355 settlement the Privy Council Office had agreed he would get as severance.

After nearly three years of hospitality lunches, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of travel, in the end Mr. Radwanski could not even obtain approval for a credit line to purchase a condominium he planned to acquire in Ottawa.

“I ended up literally with nothing and I haven't been employed since,” he said. “I lost everything.”

Mr. Radwanski repeatedly said there was nothing wrong with borrowing $15,000 from Mr. Lamarche at the end of March, 2003, so he could pay off his $15,000 travel advance before the end of the fiscal year. The move allowed him to take out another advance of the same amount in April to repay Mr. Lamarche.

Mr. Radwanski stuck to his view that the loan from Mr. Lamarche, and the second advance to repay Mr. Lamarche, was a single business transaction aimed only at continuing the outstanding travel advance into the new fiscal year while “closing the books” on it at the end of the 2002 fiscal year.

“I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was doing what needed to be done,” he said.

During the trial last year, Mr. Radwanski's lawyer, Michael Crystal, painted the former privacy commissioner as a hardworking defender of Canadians' rights in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Despite his faults and bad judgment, the former privacy commissioner turned a “sleepy office deep within the bureaucracy” into a champion of human rights, Mr. Crystal said.

“No one - no one - has ever taken issue with Mr. Radwanski's work,” Mr. Crystal said during final arguments.

With a report from The Canadian Press

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... itics/home

[styky]

Steve Janke: Support underwhelming as Liberals prepare fundraising bash
Posted: March 13, 2009, 4:35 PM by NP Editor
Full Comment, Steve Janke, Canadian politics

Liberal Helpings is the name for a Liberal Party fundraising effort in which people will host private parties to sign up members and raise funds. All the parties will be on March 27, so that Michael Ignatieff can do some sort of conference call or taped greeting.

Here's an update. It doesn't look good for the Liberals.

Liberal Party National Director Rocco Rossi is taking up the big day:
March 27th is fast approaching and we would like you to join us at one of over 90 Liberal Helpings events in more than 70 ridings held across Canada. In fact, why not add to the ranks and host your own?

I went to the website and worked my way through the list. There are only 30 parties listed, meaning two-thirds of the 90 parties are closed affairs. Nothing wrong with that, of course. But plotting the listed parties on a map shows something quite interesting:

<a href=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/03/13/steve-janke-support-underwhelming-as-liberals-prepare-fundraising-bash.aspx>continued</a>

[Brown envelope]

gLiberal supporters are pork barreling scum, and the longer the party is out of power the more their support will drop.

[styky]

Cross link

http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... p?t=115863

[styky]

Liberal expense claims questioned by Elections Canada
Published Wednesday June 17th, 2009
Joan Bryden, THE CANADIAN PRESS
http://www.canadaeast.com/news/article/702705

OTTAWA - Elections Canada is scrutinizing almost $800,000 worth of expenses filed by Liberal candidates in last fall's election campaign, The Canadian Press has learned.

The elections watchdog has asked the Liberal party to produce detailed invoices and documentation to prove that a mandatory riding services package was actually worth the $2,500 each candidate was required to pay for it .

Until Elections Canada is satisfied that the packages aren't really a thinly-veiled donation to party headquarters, the candidates won't receive their election expenses rebates, worth a total of about $3.5 million to the cash-hungry party.

"Until that's resolved, then it's holding the process up somewhat," Liberal party national director Rocco Rossi confirmed in an interview Wednesday.

Rossi called the hold-up a "no more than a nuisance" and insisted it had no bearing on Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's decision to come to a deal with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to avert a summer election.

He said Elections Canada is simply being more rigorous than it used to be in demanding proof of expenditures, as a result of the so-called in-and-out scandal.

In that case, which is still being fought out in court, the Conservative party transferred cash into and out of local riding campaigns during the 2006 election, ostensibly to pay for national advertising. Elections Canada maintains the scheme was designed to allow the party to skirt its national election spending limit and Tory candidates to claim rebates on expenses they didn't actually incur.

Rossi said he welcomes Elections Canada's scrutiny.

"I'm all for transparency. Bring it on," he said.

"We've got nothing to hide. There is no in and out here. There were legitimate services provided to the riding associations that we can show the costing of."

The riding services packages included buttons, posters, brochures, photos of the leader, and templates for lawn signs, web sites and letterhead.

Elections Canada wants the party to account not only for the value of outside suppliers but also to break down the salary costs of party staffers who assembled the packages.

Rossi was somewhat less sanguine in an email sent earlier this month to all candidates' official agents, obtained by The Canadian Press. In that missive, Rossi referred to the "absurdity" of Elections Canada's request.

"As an example, we feel that this request could be compared to the Canada Revenue Agency requesting a full breakdown, including copies of invoices from suppliers plus internal labour and design costs, from a vehicle manufacturer for the sale of a vehicle to an end user rather than accepting an invoice from a dealership," he wrote.

Although the party has obtained "a legal opinion confirming the absurdity of this request," Rossi wrote that it is amassing the documentation to comply rather than risk having Elections Canada deny all the riding services package costs claimed by candidates - which would total almost $800,000.

Candidates are eligible for rebates of 60 per cent on valid campaign expenses. Under Liberal rules, they must give half their rebates to party headquarters.

Hence, if the service packages were not deemed to be a valid expense, candidates would forgo about $460,000 in total rebates and the party itself would lose out on about $230,000.

Rossi said the amounts involved are not significant enough to cause him "any anguish," even though the Liberal party is struggling to close a huge fundraising gap with the cash-hoovering Conservatives.

Rossi blamed the unresolved riding services issue for the fact that only four of 307 Liberal candidates have so far received their expenses rebates - compared to 84 Conservatives, 47 New Democrats and 23 of 75 Bloc Quebecois candidates.

Nevertheless, he pointed out that all parties would have been missing most of their rebates had they been forced into an election this week. They all would have had to borrow against their expected rebates, he said.

Elections Canada spokesman John Enright said the agency is on track for distributing rebates, which it hopes to have completed by the end of August. The rate of reimubursements for last fall's election is so far comparable to that after the 2006 campaign, he said.

As for the request for full documentation about the cost of the Liberals' riding services package, Enright said that's "not at all unusual." And he said all parties were warned before and during the campaign that all expense claims, including transactions between local and central campaigns, would have to be supported with documentation.

"This information is required to ensure that all expenses are fully detailed and also to properly establish the commercial value of the transactions."

[styky]

If this receipt question was towards the CPC the CBC would halt programing and throw an all day special investigation........yet when it's Liberal there stone cold silence.

Nope.....no bias there.

[styky]

Apparently the Liberal members a quite familiar whit the rules so I can't wait to hear their reasoning.

http://www.canada.com/British+expense+p ... story.html

[styky]

Well I've been listening to multiple news reports and I have not heard this mentioned once.

Apparently it's only important if it happens to Conservatives.

[styky]

Liberals break 100,000 member mark!
Published on 01 September 2009



This just in from LPC head office: this morning the party signed up its 100,000th member. This is no small achievement for a party that started the year with under 30,000 members.

There’s no doubt about it – as Liberals in Sudbury prepare for the official opening of National Caucus today – we’re heading into the next session of Parliament with real momentum.

We haven’t just grown the party. With our combined Q1 and Q2 fundraising results at $5.7 million we’ve already raised more funds than in all of 2008 – that doesn't even include what National Director Rocco Rossi called our “"best August (fundraising results) in a very, very long time." Our Q2 result outpaced the Conservatives.

Tonight the excitement and momentum will be on display at the National Caucus kick off rally in Sudbury. Stay tuned for more updates.

http://www.liberal.ca/en/blog/16246_lib ... ember-mark