FROM FRONT

Campaign local, no
tricks, MLA says

San reports conducted anti-recall work in
Kitimat. That included organization of a
motorized rally that drove around town.

Murray says she’s unaware of a $900 air-
line ticket the Sun alleges was undisclosed.
She said McPhee’s plane fare was ac-
counted for, but isn’t sure about Bridge’s,

“I don’t remember about Sam’s travel,”
she said. “‘He was also here doing some
NDP work. 1 can’t comment about that be-
cause ] really honestly do not know,’’

Bridge said his plane fare and expenses
were paid by the party and his salary was
split between the party and the Skeena Tax-
payers Association.

Bridge told the Sun his cover story was he
was doing membership work, but in reality
he worked on the Giesbrecht recall defence.

Bridge also said a cabinet official in Vic-
toria, John Pollard, offered further help and

‘two other workers flew up to Terrace. One
was NDP MLA Jan Pullinger’s special as-
sistant Glen Macinnes and another govern-
ment employee. It’s not clear how their
iravel costs were paid.

Another NDP organizer — Russ Neely
from the party’s Burnaby headquarters —
also told the newspaper he was here for a
few days before the recall campaign started
to provide advice, The timing of the visit
will likely exempt his involvement from
any campaign disclosure requirements.

Murray says all workers who were being
paid are disclosed in the financial dis-
closures, while any whe weren’t paid are
volunteers.

“T have a lot of contacts, a lot of
friends,’ Gicsbrecht said. ‘If some people
show up and want to volunteer, what was I
supposed to say? ‘No, get lost’?"”

Contact with Victoria

Giesbrecht and Murray say it’s only natu-
ral that they would be in close contact with
officials in Victoria,

“The other side made it clear this was an
attack on the government and not on me
personally,’ Giesbrecht said. ‘‘Why
wouldn’t the party want to know what was
happening? Why wouldn’t I fill them in on
what was going on? And if they offered ad-
vice why wouldn’t I take it into account? I
would be insane not to,”’

‘Murray said there were frequent discus-
sions with government and party officials.

“There was contact on an ongoing basis.
Obviously there would be,’’ she said.

Auditor’s probe. to be. ...
wide open, detailed |

CHIEF ELECTORAL officer Bob Patter-
son has appointed a forensic auditor to in-
vestigate the financial side of recall
campaigns, including ithe defence of Skeena
MLA Helmut Giesbrecht.

Deputy chief clectoral officer Linda
Johnson said the investigation is in
response ta questions raised because of the
articles in the Thursday Vancouver Sun.

. “Qur phone started ringing and the public
and the media were asking questions.”’

Johnson added the Recall and Initiative
Act, the legislation that govems MLA
recall, gives the Chief Electoral Officer
power to conduct audits and investigations.

“We also have a_ responsibility for
making sure there is clarity in the process
and people don’t go around with doubts in
their mind about whether things have been
done appropriately.’

Jobuson said the office is going into the

“This group was about taking down the
government. To think we would have been
working in isolation is totally tudicrous. Of
course we would have contact with the out-
side world,’’ she said.

“We talked about issues, advice and
strategies, That's to be expected.”

A centra] issue, however, is whether that
advice should have been somehow
quantified and counted as financial contri-
butions to the campaign.

Under control
Another theme to the Sun coverage was

: that contact with party officials and partici-

pation by outside workers meant focal
campaigns were in fact controlled by Vic-
toria — rendering hypocritical their, criti-
cism of recallers as being controlled by
‘outside special interests,’’

But Giesbrecht said while advice was of-
fered and strategies shared, local people
were always fully in charge of the
campaign and the vast majority of work
was conducted by local volunteers.

‘Locals were in control from beginning
to end,’ Giesbrecht said. ‘This was run by
us, Which is what every campaign is.”

The whistleblower

The allegations are anchored to the claims
of Sam Bridge, a long-time NDP worker.

Bridge claims his three and a half weeks
of work here included ensuring planted
supporters were present at the Skeena Mall
for a walk-about by Giesbrecht with a
Macleans reporter.

Giesbrecht confirms the incident and said
that type of political work is not unusual.
He said supporters are often invited to at-
tend, primarily to ensure the candidate
doesn’t arrive somewhere with media ob-
servers and not find anyone to talk to.

‘Why would we leave everything to
chance?’? he demanded. ‘‘Some people
have to get a grip.’*

Bridge also says he funnelled potling data

daily to officials in Victoria, And he told .

the Sun he helped draft letters to the editor
for submission to local newspapers,

Giesbrecht and Murry, however, contend .

Bridge lacks credibility because he failed to
geta government job alter the campaign. |

“It’s sour grapes,”” Giesbrecht said, “He
thought he was entitled to a patronage ap-

pointment somewhere. He didn’t get a job,

And this is his way of getting back.”’

process ‘‘completely open minded, we're
not pre-judging anything.”
Johnson met with the auditor — Ron
Parks of the firm Lindquist, Avey, Mac-
donald Baskerville — to discuss the pro-
cess the audit will take,
She added deciding on process will mean
running it past a lawyer to make sure his
methods are consistent with the powers the
Chief Electoral Officer has under law.
“Under the legislation we can extend to
him our authority to inspect records of the
financial agents of members and
proponents, in relation to the campaign,’’
Johnson said.
That could include interviewing those
financial agents in question.

**That’s where a forensic audit is dif-—
ferent, it doesn’t just look at the books, it”

looks at what’s behind the transactions,’’
she added.

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The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 23, 1998 - A15

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