Technical difficulties

The Libs appear to have properly concluded that they can't simply start up a new riding association in Mississauga-Streetsville to walk away from debts owed to Wajid Khan's dealership. But there's new reason to wonder whether the national party, along with another riding which managed to elect an MP, has been asleep at the switch over the past year:

The Ontario Liberal president also confirmed another Toronto riding - Beaches-East York - has been deregistered by Elections Canada. He said it was for a technical breach of the rules that does not compare with the Mississauga case.

"I believe it's a matter that's just being worked out with the financial agent, and I believe it's something that's going to be resolved in short order," said Crawley.

Yes, that would be the same riding where the Libs' critic for the Status of Women narrowly managed to hang onto her seat against a strong challenge from Marilyn Churley in 2006. Which means that there's no reason why the riding association should have been anything but active over the past year-plus...and makes even a "technical breach" seem rather problematic.

Update: CTV reports that the problems with riding associations aren't limited to the Libs alone, though unless there's some glaring omission from the story it looks like Minna is the only sitting MP whose current riding association was de-registered:

Twenty-seven riding associations have been deregistered by Elections Canada, including three Liberal associations, two NDP associations, a few fringe party associations and a host of Green Party associations. Failure to file financial reports is cited as the reason for delisting in a number of cases, including Liberal MP Maria Minna's Toronto association.