Why Janke is, once again, completely wrong

We've already seen that the Conservative Party leadership doesn't understand how to read election laws. Even the ones they wrote. Heck, they’ve already been caught violating election law at least once now. So it's no surprise that Conservative bloggers can’t understand the law either. Or just care not too.

If you haven’t been paying attention, the Conservatives have been caught red-handed – again. Elections Canada, whose commissioner was put forward to Parliament for approval by Stephen Harper by the way, has called foul on an alleged Conservative scheme to violate national advertising limits and enrich Conservative riding associations with taxpayer money they’re not legally entitled too.

In essence, the Conservative campaign hit its ad spending limit, so it used uncompetitive Conservative campaigns that hadn’t hit their spending limit to launder advertising money, transferring money into the ridings and invoicing them the exact same amount for the purchase of television advertising that Elections Canada has deemed as purely national in scope. The Cons also tried to claim this spending as a local expense to increase their taxpayer refund; Elections Canada called foul and the Cons are now suing them in court.

It’s appears to be a pretty egregious and transparent attempt to circumvent election law, and funnel tax dollars into Conservative campaigns. Numerous Conservative officials at the riding level have come forward to allege this was exactly what it looks like: a laundering scheme to circumvent spending limits, with a reward of taxpayer dollars to ridings that played along. It stinks, and it’s only a matter of time before it blows-up.

So, while the Con trolls have been running around pretending there’s nothing to see here, they’ve also been trying to find some way of diverting attention from the story. Salvo one was veil gate, which is also an attempt by Harper to discredit the Elections Canada head he himself picked after chasing-out the last one, Jean-Pierre Kingsley. He can’t discredit the guy he picked as a Liberal appointee, so he’s trying to discredit him in other ways so, when the ad scandal hits bigger, Elections Canada will be viewed as less credible. It’s transparent, and it’s pathetic.

Salvo two appears to be this muddled and confused attempt at diversion from Conservative super-sleuth Steve Janke.

If I had a dollar for every time Janke did a big investigative post professing some big Liberal wrongdoing, only to have to apologize in a day or two for being completely wrong, well, I may not be rich, but I could certainly go out for a very nice lunch. Perhaps a nice steak at The Keg, with a glass of cabernet. Domestic though, not imported.

Janke (we’ll assume he’s cooked this up on his own) has been pouring over Elections Canada returns, specifically for Stephane Dion’s 2004 election campaign in St. Laurent-Cartierville, and he thinks he’s found something damming.

He points to $12,200 transferred from Dion’s riding association to his campaign, which was immediately transferred back to the association for the purchase of advertising material, other than tv/radio, and then transferred on to LPC(Q). He posts screenshots of all this to make it look fancy. Then, interestingly without claiming any rules were broken, he calls it scandalous, I guess hoping a few screenshots will some how make it so.

But let’s look at what Janke has “uncovered”. First, a transfer from the riding association to the Dion campaign of $12,200. Nothing untoward there, its common practice for the riding to transfer money to the local campaign before/at the start of the election. Inevitably this is the proceeds of fundraising activities carried-out by the party since the last election to support the next campaign. That’s what riding associations do.

Next, Janke shows the same amount is transferred back to the riding association (and on to LPC(Q)) to purchase advertising. As Janke notes, this wasn’t tv/radio advertising, but was entered in the ‘other’ column. This likely means, and indeed the figure noted bares this out, that it was to pay for the riding services package bought by all riding associations from the national party. This is for lawn signs, brochures, technical support (a voter tracking database) and the like. A purely local expense.

Why was the exact amount transferred to the campaign from the riding that was needed to pay for the riding services package? Maybe that’s all the campaign needed at the time. The riding services package is a major expense and is often incurred before the campaign has its own fundraising underway, so perhaps the campaign asked the riding to pay for that through its fundraised funds.

Janke also notes a transfer by the LPC(Q) to the riding association of $12,200 as proof of further shady happenings. What he doesn’t mention, although its partially visible in his screenshot, is a second transfer a few weeks later of $32, 549.17, for a total transfer from LPC(Q) to the riding of $44, 749.17.

Why the transfer? Well, here’s something Janke missed in his super sleuthing. On the associations January 1, 2004 statement of assets and liabilities, it lists the following:


Yes, a $44k debt owed to the riding association. So, allow me to speculate the likely scenario here, based on all the facts. Prior to the 2004 campaign the LPC(Q) owes the riding association $44k and change, likely for local fundraisers. Prior to the campaign finance reform legislation, it was practice for fundraising expenses to be cycled through the party for tax receipt purposes.

With the election campaign coming-up the LPC(Q) transfers the money the riding association is owed for its fund raising to the riding in two installments: $32k plus $12k magically equals the $44k debt repaid.

The first $12k to pay for the riding services package, which went right back to the party as that’s who its bought from, the other $32k the rest of the debt owed. Ok, there is a $5 difference for some reason. Where’s the missing $5, maybe that’s the scandal!

As for it being listed in the discount column, when an item is gifted or transfered it's considered a non-monetary transfer. It still needs to be accounted for though, and counts against the riding spending limit, so its accounted for in the discount column. Likely scenario: the riding association chose to gift the riding services package to the campaign.

This all really doesn’t matter though, as Janke is blowing smoke. As I’ve shown these are perfectly benign and legitimate transactions, and is nothing at all like the money laundering scheme that the Conservatives have admitted they orchestrated.

For example, this wasn’t to purchase national advertising and circumvent spending limits, like the Conservatives did. This was to buy lawn signs and other materials for use in the riding, a purely local expense. And, as the riding services package was listed as a non-monetary expense that means it wasn’t even claimed by the campaign as a refundable expense. And the money transferred to the association was money it was owed for its own fundraising activities, not funds to launder and pay for national advertising.

So, let’s review this scoop here, shall we? Dion’s riding association transfers fundraising proceeds to the Dion campaign, which Dion uses to buy the riding services package (local advertising materials, lawn signs) from the party. What’s the scandal here, pray tell? Elections Canada signed-off and approved these returns years ago.

On the other hand, the Conservatives orchestrated a scheme in some 70ish ridings to, and they admit this, bypass national spending caps and improperly enrich riding associations with taxpayer dollars. Elections Canada recognized this as not allowable, and the matter is now before the courts.

Apples and oranges. Despite all Janke’s charts and graphs, nothing but an attempt to blow smoke. And a failed one at that. I'm sure the apology will come any day now.

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