OTTAWA LAGS IN REGULATING PARTY TACTICS

OTTAWA -- Canada's politicians, who for decades have rained thousands of
laws, rules and regulations on the public, have only recently considered
the idea that their own enormously powerful parties should be subject to
outside scrutiny.

The lack of oversight has allowed organizers to freely engage in numerous
crude tactics that take place in leadership campaigns, local riding
nomination contests, and the battle for control of constituency associations.

They include bogus campus clubs, busloads of instant party members
recruited from ethnic groups, youths lured by free beer and pizza,
manipulation of rules, and bulk purchase of memberships using fat wads of cash.

Politicians and their senior organizers are often wilfully blind to some of
the more questionable tactics, taking a see-no-evil approach that is
focused only on the bottom line -- victory.

Whether fair or unfair, it is the cash-for-memberships practice that has
drawn critical attention following news of political links to a B.C.
investigation into drugs and organized crime. Some critics, such as B.C.
Conservative MP John Reynolds, have asked whether Prime Minister Paul
Martin's 2003 leadership campaign perhaps unwittingly accepted dirty money.

While Martin says police have indicated his party and its activities aren't
under scrutiny, analysts say the controversy raises questions about
parties' vulnerability.

"I think any time you have large amounts of unregulated money, you're
vulnerable to corruption," said political scientist Bill Cross of Mount
Allison University in New Brunswick.

Bill Cunningham, president of the federal party in B.C., said all signed
membership forms include a statement saying that the new member paid the fee.

But he acknowledged there is no way to police someone who signs up members
en masse using money raised from third parties.

"Bulk recruiting has been a political reality for all parties," he
acknowledged.

"We've got rules that say each member has to be the source of their own
membership fee. I don't know what else at this point we can or should be
doing to validate the source of that $5 or $10 membership fee."

The money raised for membership-buying is never recorded in party
documents, since that would require a subsequent accounting of where the
money went. Instead, the money for memberships is recorded as a
contribution to the party at Elections Canada headquarters. It is
officially assumed that all that money came from each member.

Cross said concerns about mass recruitment are "partially why we've seen
the reforms that are just coming into effect now and will bring some
regulation to the financing of leadership campaigns."

Cross was referring to Bill C-24, the political financing bill that took
effect last week. The bill imposes severe restrictions on corporate
contributions and includes a provision that bans bulk financing, though
political insiders and analysts question whether that particular rule is
enforceable.

(The office of Elections Canada refused requests over four days last week
to provide an expert to discuss the issue of bulk purchases.)

Cross and Ted McWhinney, the former B.C. Liberal MP and political
scientist, both believe parties are operating in violation of the Charter
of Rights and are vulnerable to a court challenge.

McWhinney, while saying there was no bulk-buying in his Vancouver Quadra
riding, said the "instant Liberal" phenomenon used to take over ridings and
win leaderships is one example indicating parties are poorly regulated.

"They're vulnerable to fraud, manipulation, and perversion of the
constitutional processes," McWhinney said.

University of Victoria political scientist Norman Ruff said there are
"loopholes (in Canada's party financing rules) that an aggressive party
organization can literally drive a truckload of money through."

Martin, meeting last week with reporters, was asked specifically if he
would acknowledge that bulk membership purchases took place in B.C. --
where the party's membership soared from 4,000 to 40,000 during the
2002-2003 period when the leadership war was waged. He didn't address that
part of the question, instead reiterating his previous statement that
there's no indication from police that the Liberal party is suspected of
wrongdoing.

The new memberships in B.C. bought during the leadership race, which cost
$5 for youth and seniors and $10 for everyone else, are estimated at more
than $315,000 in cash.

The recruits attributed to Martin, conservatively estimated at more than
25,000 people, would have cost about $220,000, according to figures
provided by party insiders.

While no outside analysts or party insiders profess to know what percentage
of new members actually pay their own way, all agree that bulk purchase
happens and that it's virtually impossible to police.

Veteran campaign organizers say they don't know how the prohibitions in
C-24 will be enforced to prevent organizers from convincing politically
naive individuals, such as recent immigrants or youth, from agreeing to
join a party as long as the cost is paid by someone else.

Veteran Tory organizer John Laschinger, who co-wrote a book on internal
party workings, said he considers the Liberal prohibition against bulk
buying naive. "I guess all the (Liberal) party was doing was encouraging
candidates to lie," said Laschinger, who managed Peter MacKay's victorious
2003 Tory leadership victory and John Crosbie's failed 1983 bid.

Laschinger said he naturally always preferred it if new members paid their
own way, but such an outcome was sometimes unrealistic.

McWhinney said the B.C. controversy could open a debate that could lead to
a court challenge and the imposition of a new system to govern parties.

"We need a law on party structures and we need criminal penalties," he
said. (c) Copyright 2004 Times Colonist (Victoria)