Tories wins ‘in-and-out’ campaign ad case

OTTAWA – The Conservative party has won an important court victory over the legality of $1.3 million in so-called "in-and-out" advertising purchases from the 2006 election campaign.

The Federal Court of Canada on Monday ordered Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand to allow the campaigns of two Tory candidates to claim expenses for their share of pooled radio and television ads that ran during the election.

The two campaigns were essentially test cases for a larger group of purchases made by 67 Conservative candidates, co-ordinated by the party’s national campaign.

Elections Canada had contended that the Conservatives effectively skated around the party’s $18.3 million spending limit by channeling the cost of the ads through its candidates’ campaigns, which have their own spending limits.

There was no evidence, the electoral agency argued, that the expenses were legitimately incurred by the candidates.

In a ruling released Monday, Justice Luc Martineau disagreed, saying the two candidates did incur the expenses. He ordered Mayrand to approve the claims.

Martineau said, however, that the decision does not necessarily bear on an investigation of the ad buying program currently being conducted by the Commissioner of Canada Elections, William Corbett.

"There is a fundamental distinction between legality and legitimacy," Martineau wrote.

"As far as the overall legitimacy of the (regional-media buy) program is concerned, this is a debatable issue, which is better left for public commentary and debate by all interested persons outside the courts."

Had the judge upheld Mayrand’s decision not allowed the expense claims, the Conservative national campaign may have been forced to include the costs on their books, pushing it over its legal expense limit.

Before the decision, Opposition parties had warned that if the Tories’ purchases of ads were legal, it would render the election spending cap on parties meaningless.

By conducting the same kind of transfers, they too spend more, they argued.