Patrick Brown: Liberal MP seeks probe on whether CPC ‘benefitted’ from alleged wrongdoing
Global News
A Liberal MP has urged Canada's elections watchdog to probe whether alleged wrongdoing by Patrick Brown drove money or other benefits to the Conservative Party as a whole.
Alleged wrongdoing by now ex-Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown may have “benefited” the party and warrants investigation, one Liberal MP is urging the federal elections watchdog.
In a letter to the interim Commissioner of Canada Elections on Thursday, Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden requested the office probe whether the federal party may have reaped any benefits from alleged financial crimes by the Brown campaign when the party disqualified him on Tuesday.
“There are serious questions, given the nature of the Conservative Party leadership rules and the party’s membership fees, as to whether the party itself may have benefitted from the alleged illegal actions of the leadership contestant,” van Koeverden wrote in the letter, dated July 7.
He suggested such an alleged “benefit” could be in the form of a “monetary windfall” for the party from membership fees sold by the Brown campaign or leadership dues paid to the party, as well as any “donations in kind” in the form of labour or services that “furthered the political interests of the Conservative Party.”
“Given these potential illegal benefits accruing to the Conservative Party, any investigation must not be limited to an individual leadership contestant but must follow the money if there was potential benefit to the Party as a whole,” he wrote.
The office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections is separate from Elections Canada.
Elections Canada is the agency that organizes and runs Canada’s federal elections, while the Commissioner of Canada Elections is the official whose job it is to specifically ensure compliance with the Canada Elections Act, which is the legislation governing conduct and finances during elections.