Conservative Party of Canada

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

April 1, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Dimitri Soudas fired as Conservative Party executive director

Dimitri Soudas has been forced out as the Conservative Party of Canada’s executive director after trying to interfere with his fiancée’s Conservative nomination battle.

Soudas, who was Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s director of communications in 2011, has been the party’s executive director since December. He worked for Harper for nine years, starting when Harper was the leader of the official opposition. Soudas left after the party won a majority government in May 2011, and took a job with the Canadian Olympic Committee. He left that job just days before the party announced they’d hired him in the top staff job.

The party’s national council was briefed on the move during a conference call at 9 p.m. ET Sunday.

Soudas’s fiancée, Eve Adams, is fighting local chiropractor Natalia Lishchyna for the Conservative nomination in Oakville-North Burlington, a newly created riding that technically won’t exist until the next election. Adams is the MP for Mississauga-Brampton South, a riding that’s being split in 2015.

The Canadian Press has reported that tempers flared when Adams showed up at a riding board meeting March 19, and was asked to leave after an unpleasant exchange. Two separate Conservative sources said one board member threatened to call the police when she stayed on.

Soudas couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

A spokesman for the party confirmed that Soudas “stepped down as executive director” of the party, but wouldn’t comment further. A source told the CBC’s Hannah Thibedeau that Soudas was told to resign or he would be fired.

Conservative Party President John Walsh sent an email to the national council, obtained by CBC News, that named Simon Thompson as the interim executive director.

Thompson is currently the party’s chief information officer. He started last September. Prior to that, he worked for Deloitte in Ottawa. (Source: CBC News)

Saturday, September 28, 2013

September 28, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

Dean del Mastro; Conservative Party of Canada; Canada; election fraud; spending; irregularities; Editorial Cartoon

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, September 28, 2013

Dean Del Mastro quits Tory caucus after Election Act charges

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro has quit the party’s caucus after he and a campaign staffer were charged with intentionally breaking campaign rules during the 2008 federal election, he said in a statement Thursday.

Elections Canada alleges Del Mastro, who represents the Ontario riding of Peterborough in the House of Commons, intentionally overspent his 2008 campaign limit and tried to cover it up by reporting a $21,000 expense as $1,575.

It also alleges he contributed too much money to his campaign – $21,000, nearly $19,000 over the individual candidate contribution limit.

Del Mastro said he still intends to support the government’s economic agenda, but has told caucus leadership that he is stepping out until the matter is resolved.

“Today I learned that Elections Canada laid charges against me pertaining to the 2008 General Election. As I have consistently stated in the past, I entirely reject these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to defend myself in court,” Del Mastro said in the statement.

Del Mastro’s first court date is set for Nov. 7 in Peterborough, said a spokeswoman for the Director of Public Prosecutions, which handles the prosecution of charges under the Elections Act.
Del Mastro and Richard McCarthy are charged with:

• Incurring election expenses in an amount more than the election expenses limit.

• Providing the chief electoral officer an electoral campaign return that omitted to report a contribution of $21,000, omitted to report an election expense of $21,000 and instead reported an election expense of $1,575, and in so doing provided information that each knew or ought reasonably to have known was false or misleading.

• Providing to the chief electoral officer an electoral campaign return that omitted to report a contribution of $21,000, omitted to report an election expense of $21,000 and instead reported an election expense of $1,575, and in so doing knowingly provided a document that did not substantially set out the information required.

Del Mastro faces a separate charge of wilfully exceeding the contribution limit for a candidate in his own election campaign. (Source: CBC News)