Liberals ask Elections Canada to investigate NDP mail-outs in Quebec byelection
The Liberals have asked Elections Canada to investigate NDP mailouts during the Bourassa byelection; NDP maintain party was within the rules.
By Alex Boutilier Ottawa Bureau
Mon., March 10, 2014timer2 min. read
OTTAWA—The federal Liberals are asking Canada's elections watchdog to investigate a taxpayer-funded flyer campaign from the New Democrats in Montreal's Bourassa riding.
Westmount—Ville Marie MP Marc Garneau has asked Elections Canada to review a series of leaflets mailed from Quebec NDP MPs to voters in Bourassa.
If the leaflets were mailed during the Bourassa byelection in November, Garneau contends in a letter to Elections Canada, they would count as illegal donations under the Elections Act.
"Given the seriousness of this matter, I request that you investigate how many of these letters were sent, and if they were in fact delivered after the writ had been dropped," Garneau wrote in the letter, distributed to reporters on Monday.
"As new byelections will have to be called soon in currently vacant federal seats, I feel it is essential for Elections Canada to fully investigate this matter to ensure that there is no question of taxpayer-funded resources being used to support candidates in any future elections."
Garneau is careful not to directly accuse the NDP of Elections Act violations, instead citing reports in Le Devoir newspaper from November. It's not clear what prompted Garneau's request to Elections Canada almost four months after those articles were published.
The New Democrats insist that no leaflets were sent during the writ period of Oct. 20 to Nov. 25, 2013.
"These mailings were sent before the writ was issued, according to the rules and regulations pertaining to this type of communication between MPs and Canadians," Greta Levy, a spokeswoman for the NDP, said in an email to the Star on Monday.
Levy said the party had "several" mailing campaigns to Bourassa leading up to the byelection, and could not comment on the content of the campaigns.
Former provincial politician Emmanuel Dubourg handily won the seat for the Liberals, taking 48.1 per cent of the vote to NDP candidate Stéphane Moraille's 31.4 per cent.
The final margin was larger than anticipated, and the New Democrats made a significant push to try to wrest the seat — vacated by Denis Coderre to run for the Montreal mayoralty — from the Liberals.