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OTTAWA — Conservatives reacted with rage Wednesday after opposition MPs on the Commons ethics committee agreed to 78 potential witnesses for its inquiry into the Tory election ad controversy – but excluded every witness the Tories proposed.
The demonstration of anger from Conservative MP Scott Reid at the end of the first round of hearings was unusual even for Parliament, as the Liberal chairman banged his gavel to adjourn until the inquiry begins in earnest next month.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” the normally soft-spoken Mr. Reid shouted at chair Paul Szabo after Mr. Reid had been cut off in mid-sentence.
“You're a disgrace to this Parliament, Paul Szabo, just a disgrace.”
Mr. Reid and other Conservative MPs had expressed frustration at Mr. Szabo throughout the day as he clung to strict applications of House of Commons rules.
The Conservatives continued their criticism of the opposition majority in the hall outside the committee room, with Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre dubbing his opponents the “Liberals, separatists and socialists.”
But opposition MPs retorted that the Conservatives blocked attempts to begin a committee inquiry into the campaign spending scandal for the last 10 months.
In two hours of debate, the opposition parties pointed out the witnesses the Conservatives wanted to call were from other parties and that none of them had anything to do with the Conservative campaign.
The Tories responded that they wanted to demonstrate the other parties conduct similar financial transactions during elections.
The first two days of the inquiry into $1.3-million worth of Conservative campaign advertising, now under investigation for possible election law violations, was dominated by the spectacle of Conservative MPs pursuing Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand with allegations of bias.
As the meeting Wednesday wound down, Mr. Poilievre went so far as to suggest Elections Canada's bias in favour of the Liberals is so ingrained that the agency ignored a judicial inquiry that found $1.3-million of government sponsorship program money was illegally diverted to the party's Quebec wing to pay campaign organizers.
“Elections Canada never thought to investigate that,” Mr. Poilievre said.
The sponsorship findings came out several years after the Canada Elections Act time limit for laying any charges had expired.
Conservative MP Gary Goodyear called the opposition moves “trickery” and accused Mr. Szabo of taking his marching orders from Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. Mr. Goodyear chaired the procedure and House affairs committee as his party successfully filibustered attempts to launch an inquiry into the scheme for seven months.
Mr. Mayrand spent six hours over two days as a witness, fending off Tory accusations that he singled their party out unfairly by refusing to accept expense returns from 67 Tory candidates for the 2006 election advertising.
When Mr. Szabo asked whether he wanted to sum up his testimony, Mr. Mayrand said only: “I would simply reiterate to the committee that I am here to serve Parliament, impartially, fairly and for all parties and candidates.”
The advertising expenses are also now subject to a Federal Court civil trial as the Conservatives attempt to force Mr. Mayrand to reimburse the money as part of normal election rebates. The case involves so-called “in and out” transfers of cash from Tory headquarters to selected candidates.
The candidates, some of whom received up to $50,000, had to first agree they would transfer the money back to the party in payment for TV advertising that had been produced for the party's national campaign and allegedly broadcast locally to boost candidate election efforts.
But the bulk of the money went to ridings the Tories had little hope of winning. Those ridings also had low levels of donations and expenditures, leaving more room for advertising costs than nearby ridings that were hotly contested.
Mr. Mayrand released Elections Canada compilations of campaign expenses and transfers that disclosed the Conservative party transferred more money to candidates for expenses in the 2006 election than the three opposition parties combined – a total of $3.7-million.
Liberal MP Marlene Jennings said the amounts suggest the Conservatives attempted to use the advertising transfers as a way to spend excess money from its national coffers.
Mr. Mayrand told the committee the expenses may eventually be attributed to the party's national campaign, which would bring the Conservatives more than $1-million over their $18.3-million spending limit.
The Conservatives on Wednesday accused Mr. Mayrand of hiding behind the Federal Court case and the investigation after he declined to answer several questions on grounds he did not want to prejudice the outcome of either the litigation or the investigation.
Mr. Mayrand is a former federal superintendent of financial institutions who was named chief electoral officer last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
