Dean Skoreyko @bcbluecon Elections Canada has two different sets of laws - one for Liberals and one for Conservatives
Volpe gives back donations to children
OTTAWA - Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe is returning $27,000 in campaign donations from five children.
OTTAWA - Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe is returning $27,000 in campaign donations from five children.
But he denies he contravened a ban on corporate donations by accepting 20 contributions worth $108,000 from former and current Apotex pharmaceutical company executives, their wives and children -- two of them 11-year-old twins.
"After a review it was determined that five contributions from persons under the age 18 will be returned, totalling $27,000," Mr. Volpe said in a statement yesterday.
"All the donations for our campaign have been in compliance with the law. We wanted to clear the air and public perception."
Mr. Volpe's announcement came after several days in which he and Steve MacKinnon, the national Liberal party director, rejected allegations by NDP MP Pat Martin that the donations from a group of 20 Apotex-related adults and children violate the leadership financing rules of the Elections Act.
Mr. MacKinnon welcomed Mr. Volpe's decision to refund the five donations, each at the maximum of $5,400, saying it's "in the best interests of his own candidacy and obviously that of the Liberal party."
Candidates are obligated under the act to disclose the names and addresses of contributors and the amounts given.
The disclosure included Apotex CEO Barry Sherman, his wife and four children; former Apotex vice-president Allen Shechtman, his wife and three children; Apotex president Jack Kay, his wife and two children; Apotex vice-president Michael Florence; and Apotex International president Craig Baxter and three others with the same last name.
Mr. MacKinnon emphasized the minimum age for Liberal party membership and for voting in the leadership election is 14.
"Affluent families often have children who possess that kind of resource" to contribute large sums to political parties, he told reporters.
Corey Hobbs, a spokesman for Mr. Volpe, said the MP would not divulge the names of the young people whose donations were being returned.
Mr. Martin said he was not satisfied with the refunds.
"I'd be disappointed if our Elections Act rules are so feckless that all you have to do when caught contravening them is give the money back," he said in an interview.
"This is a very serious contravention of the rules in our view. It doesn't answer the larger question: Was there a conspiracy, as it were, to circumvent the donation limits of the act by either Apotex or the Volpe campaign?
"Corporations aren't allowed to give anything."
The act bans corporate, union and other institutional donations, allowing contributions only from individuals and setting a ceiling of $5,400 per leadership contest. The January, 2004, rules on leadership campaigns are being tested for the first time by a major political party in the Liberal race.
Mr. Volpe threatened Mr. Martin this week with a lawsuit after he accused the MP of fraud, a word Mr. Martin later withdrew although he's asked the Elections Commissioner to investigate the contributions to Mr. Volpe and to all Liberal candidates since the law was passed.
"The spending limits are set so that nobody can buy an election because they have more money, and you're not allowed to circumvent those spending limits by laundering money through your children's bank account or anybody else's bank account," Mr. Martin said.
Treasury Board President John Baird, who said he was open to changing the law if it was necessary, expressed incredulity about children spending money on politicians.
"I've run in four consecutive elections, and I can't recall ever getting a campaign contribution from a child," he said.
The issue came up at two Commons committee hearings where Mr. MacKinnon was testifying on other matters. At one, NDP MP Yvon Godin said he was upset by donations from children, suggesting there was nothing to stop someone using a one-year-old from making a contribution.
"This is pretty ridiculous," he said. "People are laughing at us."
Mr. Martin pledged to propose an amendment to the Elections Act that would limit loans to leadership candidates from banks. While Mr. Volpe has no loans, many of the other candidates have only loans and some of them are from corporate executives.
"Huge leadership loans from executives really violate the intent of the law," he said.
He cited a $100,000 loan to candidate Bob Rae, a former NDP premier of Ontario, from his brother John Rae, a Power Corp. executive, as an example.
"These huge leadership loans from executives of corporations have the same effect as donations from the corporation itself."
© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
Volpe gives back donations to children
