Guarding the loophole

So much for the theory that it shouldn't be a problem to fix the multiple-riding-donation loophole in the Canada Elections Act. But while it's not entirely clear what may be motivating the Cons to take a stand against enforcement of the law, it may be worth highlighting one of the obvious possibilities: namely, that they don't want Canadians to be reminded that Stephen Harper broke the law by exceeding donation limits just a couple of years ago. (And if the Dear Leader did something, then it can't really be wrong.)

That said, let's take a look at the Cons' current excuse for doing nothing. From the Globe's story:

The Harper government rejected opposition calls yesterday to give Elections Canada new tools to detect multiple donations to a political party's riding associations that could cumulatively exceed the legal limit by more than $60,000.

"For God's sake, this loophole has to be plugged," New Democrat MP Pat Martin said. "We can't go into an election campaign with this kind of imbalance. It could be happening all over the place."

The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that Elections Canada cannot track or cross-check donations to riding associations of less than $200. As a result, a donor could send dozens of contributions to riding associations that, put together, widely exceed the legal limit of $1,100 a year.

With 308 ridings across the country, a series of $199.99 cheques to each one would total $61,596.92, and could go undetected.

Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan issued a statement yesterday reminding Canadians that exceeding the $1,100 limit is illegal.

"This is no more a loophole than the fact that someone can break the law by fraudulently misstating their income on their income tax," he said. "In both cases the law is broken and individuals are subject to serious consequences for doing so."

Of course, another common thread in both cases is that some method is needed to catch those individuals who do choose to break the law. And in typical right-wing fashion, the Cons seem to think that mentioning the existence of potentially high sentences will somehow deter would-be offenders in the face of a public announcement that they won't be caught in the first place. Indeed, I'm slightly surprised that the Cons haven't come out swinging by calling for higher penalties to show their "seriousness" in dealing with an offence which they refuse to see prosecuted.

Fortunately, the Cons alone can't determine whether or not it's possible for Elections Canada to do its job in enforcing the rules. Whether or not the opposition parties can team up to plug the existing loophole, it still seems possible that an individual exploiting the loophole would leave some suspicious patterns in riding association filings which Elections Canada would find in any event. And in that regard, one has to wonder whether the Cons' trial balloons about provoking an election can be linked to their refusal to close the donations loophole as part of an effort to make use of wrongfully-collected money before anybody can track it down.