N.S. Liberals seek probe of online labour campaign backing NDP
Last Updated: Sunday, May 31, 2009 | 5:42 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Nova Scotia's Liberals have asked the province's chief electoral officer to look into whether labour groups violated the Elections Act by launching an online campaign endorsing the New Democrats.
In a weekend letter to chief electoral officer Christine McCulloch, Liberal party president Derek Wells asked whether the campaign constitutes an election expense, and if so, was it authorized by the NDP.
"The chief electoral officer needs to answer the question around whether it's legal, to begin with," Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said Sunday during a campaign stop in Halifax.
"As I've been travelling the province, many union members are quite disappointed and disgusted that their dollars are being used to support a political party."
The Nova Scotia wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, on its website, urges its members to support the NDP and its leader, Darrell Dexter, in the provincial election.
"CUPE members working with the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress are pulling out all the stops to ensure an NDP victory in the June 9 provincial election," a posting on the website reads.
"Through phone calls, direct mail and presentations to local unions, we hope to make history by electing the first-ever NDP government east of Ontario."
A call to Elections Nova Scotia wasn't returned Sunday.
Union denies wrong-doing
Danny Cavanagh, CUPE's regional president, said Sunday the union hasn't done anything wrong by launching its Better Choice Nova Scotia 2009 campaign.
"We're absolutely not doing anything in violation of the Elections Act," he said in an interview. "The Elections Act says we have the right to contact our members, and that's what we're doing."
Cavanagh said the union has launched similar campaigns in support of the NDP in the past, including federal elections.
An official for the New Democrats said the party has nothing to do with the labour campaign.
Matt Hebb, the party's campaign director, said it sounds like McNeil is trying to meddle in the internal affairs of organizations.
"I don't think that it's up to politicians to be telling any organization how they ought to conduct their internal operations," Hebb said in an interview. "As I read the act, there's absolutely nothing in the act that imposes rules on how organization are to communicate with their members."
McNeil said organizations that negotiate directly with the government should not endorse any party, and he questioned what NDP Leader Darrell Dexter would have to give the organizations in exchange for their endorsement.
"It brings into question, quite frankly, what is the pay day?" he said.
"Why are they so vocally supporting a New Democratic government, and what is it that Mr. Dexter is going to owe to them at the end of this day?"
Cavanagh said the NDP hasn't offered the union anything in return for its support.
"There is no deal with the NDP," he said.
