Five Conservative MPs Under Investigation
for Interference in Wheat Board Elections
The
RCMP confirmed this month that it is investigating a complaint filed by the
National Farmers’ Union against five Conservative MPs for violating the rules
governing elections to the Canadian Wheat Board’s board of directors. The CWB board is comprised of 10 elected
farmers, who serve four-year-terms, and five government appointees. Elections are held every two years in five of
the voting districts.
The
five government MPs – four in
One
of the MPs being investigated, David Anderson, is also the Parliamentary
Secretary for the CWB. The letters were
mailed out in late November (the elections ended the first week of December) on
House of Commons letterhead and were funded by each MP’s constituency
budget. The Speaker of the House of
Commons has already ruled that mailing out these letters was not an abuse of
parliamentary privilege, although opposition MPs pointed out it was akin to MPs
mailing letters to their constituents instructing them how to vote in civic or
community organization elections. The
letter sent by David Anderson, for example, states “I am very pleased to have a
strong proponent for marketing choice running right here in District 4. Sam Magnus … has a proven record in mediation
and was seen as instrumental in brokering the merger between the Canadian
Alliance and the Progressive Conservative parties. … Together, we can bring marketing choice to
The
NFU has asked the RCMP to investigate whether the five MPs got access to the
CWB voter lists, which are provided only to the candidates in each district for
use during the election period and then must be returned or destroyed.
Some
of the MPs, including David Anderson, have claimed that they didn’t use the
official voter list but rather used lists they had pulled together in their own
constituencies over the years. However,
as Saskatchewan farm columnist Paul Beingessner (himself a pro-collective
marketing candidate in District 8) pointed out, this claim borders on the
absurd:
“Thus, the mystery.
Where did Dave get a list of names that so exactly matches the names on the
confidential voters list? Well, says Dave, I have a lot of lists. I've been
collecting lists for twenty years.
“And what remarkable lists they must be. Lists
of farmers. Lists of their wives. Lists of farm companies. Lists even of
numbered companies, just as they appear on the voters list. (Companies
can have permit books, and hence are entitled to a ballot in director
elections.)
“Nor are Dave's lists in any way stale. With a prescience
bordering on clairvoyance, David Anderson has lists of names that are found
nowhere else but on the voters list. Names of companies, for example, that have
only existed for a few months. Names of farmers that are used nowhere else but
in permit books. Dave has remarkable
lists, but he doesn't have the voters list.” (Of Lying and List Making, Dec. 1,
2008)