Harper to attend $25-per ticket event, PMO says it’s not partisan fundraiser

PARLIAMENT HILL—The Prime Minister’s Office is denying that a $25-per-ticket luncheon at the Hay River, N.W.T., golf club Tuesday, sponsored by the Western Arctic Conservative Association, is a Conservative fundraiser that Stephen Harper’s is attending as part of his government tour of Canada’s Arctic this week. The Hay River Golf Club event—one of apparently two partisan events Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) is attending as private appearances on his six-day visit to Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Northern Quebec—was billed as an “invitation-only” event last week, Hay River Hub reporter Sarah Ladik told The Hill Times on Monday. Another person directly involved with the event said it was sold out with about 200 tickets were purchased, and the cost to the Conservative association to rent a luncheon room for the event was only “a few hundred dollars,” although a manager of the Frozen Grape Kitchen Shop, which is catering, declined to say how much the Conservatives are paying for the light meal. The Frozen Grape’s Facebook site features a hot dog and fries special for $9 and a “loaded poutine” for $11, leaving room for a boost to the Western Arctic Conservative Association coffers if there is any surplus. The issue of party fundraising by former Conservative Senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, claiming to be on Senate business while making party tours before and during the 2011 federal election, has risen as a controversial aspect of the recent controversy over expense claims filed by the two Senators, both of whom have since resigned from the Conservative caucus. The Senate has invited Auditor General Michael Ferguson in to review Senate spending, including Senator expenses, while MPs also passed a motion last June to begin planning a review of Commons spending and administration by Mr. Ferguson, although the scope of the review remains unclear. A Canadian Press report quoted Mr. Harper on Sunday as delivering a highly partisan attack against the NDP and the Liberals on his first public appearance of the tour. The public itinerary for Mr. Harper lists only public events with Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq (Nunavut), who is also responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister Bernard Valcourt (Madawaska-Restigouche, N.B.), Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) along with Yukon Conservative MP Ryan Leef and local political and business leaders. But CBC reports over the weekend also cited two political fundraising events on the itinerary, without giving details. “They are not fundraising events. There is no appeal for donations. The events are cost-recovered,” said PMO communications director Andrew MacDougall, who responded initially by email in response to questions from The Hill Times. “Party will have to speak to it.” With no immediate response from the party, and after The Hill Times had pointed out once again the nature of the Hay River event, Mr. MacDougall said: “The Prime Minister is making government announcements at all stops on the northern tour. He made a government announcement just now in Whitehorse. How do you think he was supposed to get there to make it?” A Conservative Party spokesperson also said the event was planned and priced only for cost recovery, but did not respond immediately to questions about what would happen if the electoral district association did end up bringing in more money from tickets than the cost of the event. "These events are cost-recovery, the EDAs do not make money from them," said party communications director Fred DeLorey, in an email to The Hill Times. While declining to comment on the cost of catering to the Western Arctic Conservative Association, the manager of the Frozen Grape Kitchen Shop, which has three job openings posted on Facebook, referred The Hill Times to Sandy Lee, the unsuccessful Conservative candidate in Western Arctic electoral district in the 2011 federal election. Ms. Lee after the election became Ms. Aglukkaq’s director of regional affairs in the Northwester Territories. There was no answer on Monday to a phone call placed to an Ottawa government number that is now listed under her name in the government telephone directory. Coincidentally, a stint of campaigning Sen. Duffy did on Ms. Lee’s behalf in the 2011 election became part of the controversy involving his expense claims to the Senate while he was campaigning for at least 12 Conservative candidates in the Atlantic region, in Toronto, where he campaigned for Mr. Oliver among others, and in other regions. Sen. Duffy, after campaigning briefly with Mr. Harper in Toronto in early April, 2011, flew on to Yellowknife to campaign for Ms. Lee but charged only $209 for travel expenses, covering two taxi rides to Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport and a $54 Park and Fly fee at Ottawa’s MacDonald Cartier International Airport. tnaumetz@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Harper to attend $25-per ticket event, PMO says it’s not partisan fundraiser

'The Prime Minister is making government announcements at all stops on the northern tour,' says PMO communications director Andrew MacDougall.

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Harper to attend $25-per ticket event, PMO says it’s not partisan fundraiser

'The Prime Minister is making government announcements at all stops on the northern tour,' says PMO communications director Andrew MacDougall.

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