Tuesday, January 10, 2012

It keeps getting worse: PC's accepted $15K in illegal donations...

Hot on the heels of news that at least 10 Alberta Progressive Conservatives riding associations are being investigated for accepting or soliciting illegal donations comes news that the PC's accepted $15,000 in illegal donations from the University of Lethbridge. 

"The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta collected more than $15,000 in illegal donations from the University of Lethbridge between 2004 and 2007, the Wildrose Caucus revealed today. 
According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (see chart below), the PC party collected $15,075 in contributions from the U of L for Premier’s Dinners, golf tournaments, “Meet the Minister” dinners, and party policy conferences.
Under the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act, political parties are prohibited from soliciting and accepting contributions from groups such as municipalities, post-secondary schools, and other public institutions."

I doubt that this is even close to being the end of it either.

After 40 years of the PC's holding majority power in Alberta this type of nonsense and entitlement thinking runs rampant through all levels of our government and bureaucracy; the only way to stop it is to replace those who after 40 years continue to believe that they are entitled to rule, make up the rules, and that they themselves are above those rules.

Alberta, it is time for a change.  Lets put an end to PC cronyism, entitlement, and systemic intimidation before it is too late.

UPDATE: The University of Lethbridge response can be found here.

Of note are the following lines:

1. In the fall 2005, the University of Lethbridge was notified of changes to the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act.

2.    As soon as the University of Lethbridge was notified of changes to the Act, University Administration, the Board of Governors and the Board Finance and Audit Committee took immediate steps to ensure the University was in compliance with the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act.

Small problem. It was unlawful for any school, including the U of Lethbridge, to donate money to political parties LONG before fall 2005 and whether they were aware or not of this fact does not change at all the truth that illegal donations that were made and were accepted by the PCAA


This Editorial, published before the U of Lethbridge story was known, in The Calgary Herald nails the real problem.


"We needn't qualify this by using "alleged" illegal contributions because elected officials in Alberta municipalities have publicly admitted it's been going on for years. Four decades of Progressive Conservative rule is so inculcated in Alberta that elected representatives in some small municipalities thought it was standard operating procedure for them to financially support their local MLA"

Here is something that might surprise you:

"The problem is we'll never know. Under Alberta's legislation, the results of the investigation will not be made public."

Surprise! They make the rules and conveniently enough those rules will end up shielding the PC party so that we will never know.

We need a change now.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just the tip of the corruption iceberg I suspect.

Anonymous said...

Tell me you are actually surprised by any of this. The PC old boys have been using power for their own benefit for years. It is systemic.

Ardvark said...

This is the political culture created after 40 years of majority Progressive Conservative rule.

It is time for a change, it is long overdue.

Liz J said...

Think Wildrose.

Blame Crash said...

The more vulnerable these crooks become, the more we'll learn how blatantly corrupt the Alberta PC's truly are.
These scoundrels are nothing but Libranos in disguise.

Calgary Junkie said...

Excellent ! Lots of negative narratives developing around this gang.

Redford can't be trusted to keep her word. The Party can't be trusted to follow their own laws.

Redford is in a weak position. She doesn't have a strong mandate from the Party as a whole. Only one PC MLA endorsed her for leader. The caucus pretty well had her forced on them, after an unusual vote by PC "members", to say the least.

Thus we see Don Braid today saying: "But the PC caucus wouldn't keep that promise [of a fixed election date] for the new leader".

Ardvark said...

I think I am going to drop the 'time for a change' line. While it is true it is time for a change, I think that 'change is needed' would be much more accurate.

Anonymous said...

Oink oink
I wanna be
A fat tory

Why are conservatives like you only complaining about this now? Where were you when Klein got $22,000 in Multicorp shares as a "gift"? Where were you when Klein appointed his defence lawyer in the Multicorp affair as Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Alberta?

This crap has been going on forever.

Ardvark said...

Well Anon @5:11 that is a fair question and here is an honest answer.

I started blogging in Jan 2006, Ralph pretty much packed it in in April '06, so there really was not much of an overlap where I could have commented, and my main focus at that time was federal politics and not provincial.

With the federal gov't now in good hands for the next 4 yrs, believe me that I have been and will be applying much more focus locally than I have in the past.

Anonymous said...

You knew about Klein's corrupt behavior but I bet you still voted for him. Blogging is a red herring.

I've lived in Alberta for my entire life(47 years!!) and the intermingling of government and party in Alberta has existed since the 70's. When conservatives liked Lougheed and Klein they looked the other way, even benefited from the corruption. Now that you don't like Premier Redford you complain. In the last Alberta election the constituency returning officers were selected by the PC Party for crying out loud.

Many of the PC MLAs were former municipal politicians. They sent municipal money to the PC Party then they either became MLAs or got appointed to a well-compensated tribunal.

It is really sad that we do not have competitive elections in Alberta. We all know monopolies are bad and the lazy fat PC Party proves it.