Election Commissioner, Lorne Gibson’s staff has levied fines of $168,350, against various participants in Callaway’s “Kamikaze” campaign.
It turns out that the Unity Conservatives Party in Alberta is not in unity. For Jason Kenney, all is fair in love and war. It’s now fair to wonder where his ruthless impulse to crush will take him as premier.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Alberta Election Commissioner are investigating the “Kamikaze” campaign scandal that helps Jason Kenney won his leadership of Alberta’s Unity Conservative Party.
RCMP is investigating allegations that Jason Kenney and his team were involved in orchestrating Jeff Callaway’s campaign for the leadership of the United Conservative Party in an attempt to harm Kenney’s biggest rival, Brian Jean.
Documents obtained by The Star confirm that Kenney’s campaign controlled major aspects of Callaway’s campaign, one of his opponent’s campaign, including providing strategic plans, attack ads, speeches, and talking points intended to discredit a major rival, Jean.
A leaked document alleged that Jason Kenney’s team first approached Derek Fildebrandt in July 2017 about running a “dark-horse” campaign. Fildebrandt confirmed this account and stated that it was he who rejected the idea.
Eight Alberta United Conservative Party MLAs, five of them cabinet ministers, now admit they’ve been interviewed by the RCMP in the federal police force’s ongoing investigation into the curious goings-on during the party’s 2017 leadership race, from which Premier Jason Kenney emerged victoriously.
So far, the police have interviewed Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer, Infrastructure Minister Prasad Panda, Culture Minister Leela Aheer, Seniors and Housing Minister Josephine Pon, Associate Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jason Luan.
Cardston-Siksika MLA Joseph Schow, Sherwood Park MLA Jordan Walker, and Calgary-East MLA Peter Singh. Mr. Singh’s Calgary auto body repair shop was also searched by police, who carted off computer equipment.
Former UCP MLA Prab Gill sent a letter to the RCMP outlining allegations that the Kenney leadership campaign used fraudulent e-mail addresses to intercept PINs needed to vote in the leadership race, and that they were subsequently used by the Kenney campaign to vote for Kenney.
CBC News and CTV News have received documents that fraudulent e-mail addresses attached to party memberships were used to cast ballots in the party’s leadership race in 2017, which Jason Kenney won.
CBC News picked a sample of email addresses based on suspicious domains and determined that 60% of those were used to cast ballots in the leadership election.
The Office of the Election Commissioner announced fines totaling $70,000 had been levied on former UCP leadership contender Jeff Callaway for two dozen campaign finance infractions.
