In-and-Out: The 66 who said Yes

This PDF file tells the tale of former Conservative candidate David Marler, who testified to the House of Commons' Ethics Committee this summer as it met to investigate the Harper Conservatives' 2006 election "in-and-out" financing scheme.¹

'In-and-out' is another term for 'creative accounting', as in creating - or claiming - something on paper or electronically which doesn't actually exist.

Marler's written account includes the list of the 66 candidates who allegedly participated in the in-and-out scheme.

That scheme, hatched by Conservative head honchos - surely micro-manager Stephen Harper would have been aware of it -, oversaw the transfer of expenses incurred by the national Conservative campaign onto those (willing) local campaigns whose allowable Elections Canada expense limits had room to spare.

Transferring expenses from a national campaign to a local campaign is electoral fraud. All expenses claimed by local campaigns must have been incurred by those campaigns, not that of the national party.

Sixty-six candidates allegedly participated in the Conservatives' in-and-out scheme, including sitting MPs. See Appendix 1 in the PDF file to view the list. (I've saved a copy of the whole thing should it mysteriously be removed from the Web.)

In the meantime and to spare you the trouble, here are the names of the sitting MPs whose campaigns allegedly took part in the scheme:

• Richard Harris (Cariboo-Prince George)
• Ron Cannan (Kelowna-Lake Country)
• Jim Abbott (Kootenay-Columbia)
• Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla)
• Colin Mayes (Okanagan-Shuswap)
• Jay Hill (Prince George-Peace River)
• David Anderson (Cypress Hills-Grasslands)
• Patricia Davidson (Sarnia-Lambton)
• Maxime Bernier (Sarnia-Lambton)
• Sylvie Boucher (Beauport-Limoilou)
• Daniel Petit (Charlesbourg-Haute-Saint-Charles)
• Steven Blaney (Lévis-Bellechasse)
• Jacques Gourde (Lotbinière-Chutes-de-laChaudière)
• Luc Harvey (Louis-Hébert)
• Josée Verner (Louis-Saint-Laurent)
• Christian Paradis (Mégantic-L'Érable)
• Lawrence Cannon (Pontiac)

So, Mr. Harper, how 'bout some of that much touted Ethics and Accountability, Law and Order and "If you do the crime, you do the time"?

Hats off to Dana at The Galloping Beaver for the tip.

¹ View the Committee minutes for July 15, July 16, August 11, August 12, August 13 and August 14. See also the liveblogging entries for those dates by Macleans' intrepid reporter Kady O'Malley.

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