Elections complaint against Tories dismissed

The Manitoba elections commissioner has dismissed complaints that accused the Progressive Conservative party of breaking rules by allowing its campaign manager to work as a volunteer during the 2023 provincial election.

Bill Bowles ruled Marni Larkin voluntarily provided professional services to the party, meaning the PCs were right to declare her work on the campaign as a non-monetary contribution.

Bowles launched an investigation in response to two anonymous complaints concerning the PC party’s campaign expense accounting.

“Both complaints also intimated that perhaps Ms. Larkin did receive compensation in some form and that her services were not all donated as the PC party has claimed. Neither of the complaints provided any evidence for this intimation,” Bowles said in his report, which was released this week.

Both Larkin and the party denied she had received compensation and the commission investigator found no evidence suggesting otherwise, the report said.

Bowles said the complainants erred in their understanding of Manitoba’s Election Financing Act, which was amended in 2017 to allow services provided by individuals to be classified as volunteer labour.

The legislation says only services rendered by a corporation or other legal entity are considered contributions.

“In the case of Ms. Larkin, because she is an individual, any services she provided free of charge were not a contribution, and the PC Party was therefore correct in not reporting them as such.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca