Tories broke regulations on election finances, Liberals say
GLORIA GALLOWAY
From Friday’s Globe and Mail
August 24, 2007 at 4:02 AM EDT

OTTAWA — The Liberals accused the federal Conservatives yesterday of exceeding election spending limits by more than a million dollars in the final days of the 2006 campaign by passing off national advertising costs as money spent by local candidates.

Elections Canada is now locked in a court battle with 37 of the candidates who want the government – which returns 60 per cent of the election expenses of candidates who get at least 10 per cent of the votes in their riding – to reimburse them for the costs.

Barbara McIsaac, a lawyer for the chief electoral officer, says in a court document that they are not entitled to the money because what the Conservatives call a “regional media buy” was “not an expense of the candidates who claimed it but an expense of the party.”

Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc demanded at a news conference that the Conservatives open their books to both the public and Elections Canada,
“The Conservative Party appears to have perhaps exceeded the national campaign spending limits by perhaps over a million dollars,” Mr. LeBlanc said.