Over the past few days, there has been a bit of uproar over a Conservative Party webpage that decries attempts by the Liberals to “rig the next election in his favour,” in light of everything that we are seeing in the US. The page has since been taken down, but most people have forgotten that this pre-dated the last election in 2019, when the Conservatives objected to the last round of Elections Act changes, because of the pre-writ limits that imposed, while claiming the government could keep spending and advertising and that only the opposition was hobbled. That’s not actually correct because governments can’t be doing partisan activities (such as wearing a Conservative Party t-shirt to a government announcement, like Pierre Poilievre would do when he was briefly a minister of the Crown), and using government or even House of Commons resources for partisan activities is prohibited.

Nevertheless, it is a reminder that we are not immune to these kinds of accusations in this country, even if they are in a slightly different form or context from the Gong show that is the US post-election, and the utter mendacity of those who claim that it was “stolen.” Meanwhile, here’s CTV reporter Glen McGregor on what election law breaches have been like in Canada over the past decade, and lo, they have been from the Conservatives.

I covered two of the best-known cases in recent years: “robocalls” in 2011 election and the “in-and-out” affair of 2006. You probably heard a lot about the former and maybe nothing of the latter. Both were important for different reasons. 2/

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) January 10, 2021

Elections Canada caught on to the scheme on the day the calls were made, election day, and began investigating almost immediately. The long and complex investigation found the calls originated with someone working for the Conservative candidate in Guelph. 4/

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) January 10, 2021

The in-and-out was a successful attempt coordinated by officials at CPC headquarters to evade spending limits on its national campaign in 2006. It involved wire transfers into local campaign accounts that were immediately withdrawn in the form of payments back to the CPC. 6/

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) January 10, 2021

The in-and-out scheme allowed the CPC national campaign to illegally spend more than $1 million on broadcast advertising and exceed its spending limit in a closely-contested election. And it worked. The ads ran and the CPC won the election. 8/

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) January 10, 2021

At the time, Elections Canada drew criticism for accepting the plea rather than prosecuting the officials from CPC HQ that orchestrated the scheme. Their rationale was that the $52,000 was the maximum penalty under the law and nothing would be gained from a court case. /10

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) January 10, 2021

I think others were blasé about in-and-out, in part, because it was it hard to explain to readers/viewers and was largely an accountancy trick. Tim and I failed in communicating the significance to our readers. 12/

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) January 10, 2021

It had burner phones purchased with vanilla credit cards, internet trickery to hide IP addresses, and a mysterious villain using the ludicrous name “Pierre Poutine.” Other media jumped on these details and chased the story. It dominated political coverage that year. 14/

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) January 10, 2021

There have been other election cases involving other parties, including Liberals who violated leadership campaign spending rules. These were candidates who spent more on their leadership bids than they were able fundraise. So, these were ultimately unsuccessful, too. 16/

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) January 10, 2021

Good reads:

• After saying otherwise on Friday, Anita Anand now says they have enough Pfizer and Moderna doses to get us all vaccinated, and hasn’t exercised an option for more.
• François-Philippe Champagne says that Canada is joining Australia, the UK and the US in condemning the latest crackdown in Hong Kong.
• Here’s a look at some of the issues that surround listing groups like the Proud Boys as terrorist organizations.
• Canada’s mission in Iraq is due to end in March, but could begin a new phase to reflect the changing circumstances in the region.
• Despite attempts at bolstering diversity, the latest round of Order of Canada nominations are white men.
• As Donald Trump had his Twitter account permanently suspended and a number of white nationalists are being banned, here is more about de-platforming.

Odds and ends:

My latest Loonie Politics video talks about the challenges facing each of the major parties in the first part of 2021.

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