WTF TORY

Under the scheme, Elections Canada maintains the Tory party funnelled money for national ads through 67 local candidates, allowing the party to exceed its spending limit and allowing candidates to claim rebates on expenses they hadn’t actually incurred.

In an agreed statement of facts, the Crown and the party essentially agreed to disagree on exactly how far over the spending limit the Tories went. The Crown said it was almost $1.4 million; the Tories said it was just over $563,000.

The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that, after speaking with Mr. Baird, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley personally approved the project even though her officials concluded it failed to meet the criteria for funding and had “a number of deficiencies.”

In the end, Ms. Finley decided to include the project in a group of only five out of 355 applications that received funding under the Enabling Accessibility Fund for mid-sized projects.

Background: Tories overrule officials to fund project of Baird’s ‘dear friend’ - Globe and Mail

Ms. Finley’s department received 355 applications by the deadline of Jan. 13, 2011. Public servants graded submissions against the program’s criteria and whittled the list down to 25 that received at least 82 out of a possible 100 points.

Rabbi Mendelsohn submitted a proposal on behalf of his Ottawa-based national organization to expand the Chabad in Markham. The project promises a new fully accessible social hall, kitchen, classrooms and gym, and programs for the disabled.

A briefing note to Ms. Finley from Human Resources officials said the internal federal assessment found “a number of weaknesses” with the proposal and gave it 53 out of 100.

From The Toronto Star:

Callers on behalf of the federal Conservative Party were instructed in the days before last year’s election to read scripts telling voters that Elections Canada had changed their voting locations, say telephone operators who worked for a Thunder Bay-based call centre.

These weren’t “robo-calls,” as automated pre-recorded voice messages as commonly known. They were live real-time calls made into ridings across Canada, the callers say.

In a new twist on new growing allegations of political “dirty tricks,” three former employees of RMG — Responsive Marketing Group Inc.’s call centre in Thunder Bay — told the Star about the scripts.

Remember when the Conservatives were all about getting rid of the long form census because it was an invasion of privacy? I’ not sure how the fuck you spin this exactly. It’s a one giant bill full of creepy-ass-creep.

God damn it.

nowaitninjas:

In other “the Tories are scumbags” news, some Conservative MPs just confessed to calling constituents in Liberal MP Irwin Cotler’s electoral riding and telling the constituents that he was resigning and that they should vote Conservative in an upcoming by-election.

The problem? Irwin Cotler is not resigning. They made it up. 

I mean, it’s gotten to the point where you expect shit like this. They’ve broken election rules, misappropriated funds, been found in contempt of Parliament, covered up for an MP who doctored a document, and now this. But it doesn’t fucking excuse it.

The MPs who did this should be either charged, kicked out of the house, or at least censured. 

(Source: misanderysoncooper)