Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Does David Emerson owe the Liberal Party a refund?


Via Jason Cherniak, we find that David Emerson's former Liberal Riding Association is kinda pissed, to the tune of $96,755:

Find a way, in compliance with the Elections Act to return the money that the Liberal Riding association transferred to you to run your campaign. This totaled approximately $96,755. This amount came from donations to the Liberal Party and were intended to elect a Liberal, not a Conservative. You would not have received those funds from the Liberal riding association if you ran as a Conservative. A spreadsheet is attached providing a breakdown of the amounts.

Yes, that's cute, but I don't think those folks have a prayer of collecting. One can fairly accuse Emerson of being a thoroughly unprincipled, back-stabbing douchebag, but it's not clear that he did anything legally actionable.

Technically, he ran as a Liberal, and he was elected as a Liberal. Case closed. And unless crossing the floor constitutes a crime of some kind, I suspect Emerson is in the clear.

Nice try, though.

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