Tories vote against Elections Canada confidence motion

OTTAWA -- Embroiled in a confrontation with Elections Canada over ad spending in their 2005-06 campaign, the federal Conservatives refused Tuesday to support a motion voicing confidence in the agency and Canada's commissioner of elections.

While the motion was endorsed by 152 opposition MPs, 117 Conservative MPs voted against it.

Conservatives said they have confidence in the elections law but spent much of the day criticizing Elections Canada and the way it has handled its investigation into financial transfers that took place in dozens of ridings across the country. The Conservatives accuse the elections commissioner of singling them out and maintain that other parties make the same kind of transfers between their national and local campaigns.

During Tuesday's nearly day-long debate, the Conservatives also suggested that Elections Canada broke its own rules by executing a search warrant before exhausting all chances to get the Conservatives to hand over documents voluntarily and suggested that the Liberals were tipped off that the raid was about to happen.

Opposition parties criticized the government for rejecting the motion.

"I find it unbelievable that a governing party in Canada would refuse to support a motion expressing confidence in the institution that keeps our country's elections fair. I just find it unbelievable," said deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears to have problems with independent institutions.

"It think it is rather sad and it gives a strange image of Canada when its government says publicly that it does not have confidence in an independent body called Elections Canada which supervises elections around the world."

During question period, however, the Conservatives pointed to disputes the other parties have had with Elections Canada, including election spending practices similar to those under dispute. Mr. Harper noted that Mr. Ignatieff benefited from a court ruling returning hundreds of thousands of dollars to contestants in the Liberal leadership last year.

Mr. Harper also attacked the Bloc over its own election financing, highlighting transfers the Bloc made during previous election campaigns.

"The Bloc certainly transferred funds to its associations and its riding candidates," he said, pointing out that the Bloc transferred $1.5-million to local candidates and billed them $900,000 in 2004.

"The only source of funds for the Bloc Quebecois are federal government subsidies."

Mr. Duceppe rejected the allegation, saying the Bloc has always obeyed the law and transfers between campaigns was in accordance with elections rules.

"It's like walking into a credit union with a passbook and walking in with a revolver. In both cases, you're going to walk out with money. But one way that is permitted and the other is not."

Mr. Duceppe said the Conservatives are trying to buy time and get through the next election before elections officials are able to finish their investigation.

The Conservative party is under investigation by Canada's commissioner of elections for possible violations of Canada's elections law.

In an affidavit to get a warrant to search Conservative Party headquarters, an investigator for the elections commissioner said officials believe the Conservatives transferred money in and out of local ridings in the final days of the election in a bid to get around national campaign spending limits.