The fact there is any debate taking place within Tory headquarters about whether to pay back the illegal donations it received over the past years is shocking. There should be no debate.
If they accepted money from a donor that legally could not donate, knowingly or not, they should return it. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
Yes, we can accept the argument that the party did not know that some of the donations it received may have come from municipalities, schools and other banned organizations.
It is not always possible to track all donations straight to the source all the time, and sometimes it’s necessary to take an individual’s word that the source is legitimate. However, once the party learned that the money it received came from a prohibited source, it should have at once announced publicly that it had done so and immediately made moves to return the money to the donor.
But no. It appears as if the party intends to fight tooth and nail to keep that to which it is not entitled.
A prime example of this is the leaked telephone call involving Tory party executive Kelley Charlebois arguing to hold on to $40,000 in donations to use in the 2016 election. The crux of that argument seems to be that holding onto the money is less damaging to the party brand should that money prove useful in winning the next election.
That is a rather insulting idea, and one that Albertans should find repugnant.
Those organizations that are banned from donating to political parties are banned because they receive their funding from tax dollars.
If they allocate some of the funds they receive to political donations, they are giving tax dollars to political parties, in the hopes of earning some benefits — essentially trying to curry individual favour with everyone else’s money.
Yet it appears the party doesn’t understand that no matter how important it is to right this wrong, no matter how innocent the mistake may have been.
The party makes this stance abundantly clear in a news release announcing it had recently repaid more than $20,000 in ill-gotten funds.
“PC Alberta continues to have serious concerns with Elections Alberta’s opinion on mandatory repayment of personal donations received in good faith,” it writes.
Serious concerns or not, it’s best to repay the money it should not have received. No questions asked.
