Jumping the gun

Kady O'Malley's latest live-blog from the Ethics Committee hearings features yet another strong indication of just how far outside the law the Cons were operating in how the scheme was put together, as some of their Conadscam expenses were allotted to ridings at a time when no candidate or official agent was yet in place to legally approve any spending:

12:37:50 PM
More one-last-things from Marcel Proulx, including one I was wondering about earlier: how was it that the list of ridings was finalized before some even had candidates? Because it was all about the ridings, Campbell says.

Not surprisingly, the problem with that explanation is that the Canada Elections Act says otherwise.

In fact, under sections 438(4) and (5), no expenses related to a candidate's campaign can validly be incurred or paid except under the authority of the candidate's official agent. And it should be glaringly obvious that nobody would be in a position to authorize expenses under those sections at a point when neither the candidate nor the official agent has yet been named for a riding.

All of which offers yet another damning piece of evidence against the Cons' ever-more-laughable argument that their Conadscam spending should be treated as candidate expenses. And judging from the committee hearings so far, the latest example doesn't figure to be the last.

Double duty

The Ottawa Citizen reports that Lib MP Marcel Proulx has been named Stephane Dion's provincial lieutenant for Quebec. But it's worth noting that not only did Proulx only win Hull-Aylmer by the skin of his teeth in the 2006 election, but one of his new competitors in the riding is longtime NDP Quebec stalwart Pierre Ducasse. And of course the Bloc and Cons also figure to remain in the mix, especially with the added motivation of making Dion's life more difficult.

It remains to be seen how the riding will play out...and prior to 2004 Hull-Aylmer was a rather safe-looking riding for the Libs. But for now, it looks like Dion has given a major coordinating role to somebody who may need to use a large amount of resources just to save his own seat - which may toss one more monkey wrench into the Libs' attempt to rebuild their Quebec organization.