NDP complains to Elections Manitoba about out-of-province conservative group’s campaign ‘interference’

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This article was published 09/06/2023 (870 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The provincial NDP has filed complaints to Elections Manitoba after billboards and other advertisements from a Saskatchewan conservative group began popping up across the city in the runup to the fall election.

In a letter to commissioner of elections Bill Bowles, NDP provincial secretary Tim Johnson asked for an investigation under the Elections Financing Act into the billboard ads and thousands of text messages sent by the Canada Growth Council because it easily exceeds the $2,500 threshold for a third-party advertiser to register with Elections Manitoba.

The billboards show a photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, along with Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew. The tag line reads: “Can’t afford these two? Imagine adding Kinew…”

“Elections should be free, open and fair in our province,” Johnson said in the letter. “But a right wing, out of province group, funded by secret donors — person and possibly corporation, both inside Canada and possibly abroad — is spending thousands of dollars to illegally interfere in Manitoba’s elections in the legislatively defined pre-election period.

“This is wrong and must be stopped.”

Adrien Sala, the NDP MLA for St. James, said he hopes Elections Manitoba investigates the matter.

“Manitobans have a right to expect our elections will be free and fair, but right now we have a shadowy group working to undermine our election,” Sala said Friday.

He said it is also a concern that the website the Canada Growth Council is using was previously owned and operated by the Conservative Party of Canada, and the current co-chair of the provincial Tory election campaign is Candace Bergen, the longtime Portage-Lisgar Conservative MP and interim leader of the federal party.

“It is a genuine concern,” Sala said. “We should not be allowing this… but it speaks to how desperate they have become.”

An Election Manitoba spokesman said they cannot comment on the matter.

A message sent to the Canada Growth Council was not answered.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont, who first brought up concerns about the Canada Growth Council last month in the legislature, said while his party hasn’t filed a complaint with Elections Manitoba, it wants Manitobans to be aware about what is going on.

“It’s by an organization which is not even paying attention to (telephone) spam laws,” Lamont said.

“Right away, this strikes us as a Conservative dirty-tricks campaign allowing someone else to spend money on this to do the Conservatives’ dirty work. They are people from out of the province trying to influence the outcome of a Manitoba election. If Conservatives want to complain about election interference they can start here.

“This doesn’t help our election.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca