This is going to take some explaining but it looks like the Conservatives are making another sinister attempt to bankrupt the opposition parties.

Some time last year the Conservative Party discovered an error in the way Elections Canada reimbursed the party that has led, according to them, to an overpayment of nearly $600,000 for the 2004 and 2006 elections. The error stems from the way Non Profit Organizations are reimbursed for the amounts they pay in GST/HST and Quebec Sales Tax (QST) combined with the 50% reimbursement they receive in ridings where they attain at least 10% of the vote.

Essentially when the Conservative Party filed their election expenses in order to receive the riding reimbursement it included the amount they’d paid in GST/HST and QST. Therefore they’re claiming that they were improperly reimbursed an amount equal to 50% of the tax money they were already reimbursed.

For example, here is how the system currently works.
A riding spends $100 including the GST.
The party is reimbursed $5 for the GST.
The party is then reimbursed $50 (based on campaign expenditures of $100) because they garnered 10% of the vote.
Total reimbursement: $55

This is how the Conservatives are–perhaps quite legitimately–claiming it should work.
A riding spends $100 including the GST.
The party is reimbursed $5 for the GST.
The party is then reimbursed $47.50 (based on campaign expenditures of $100 minus the GST reimbursement) because they garnered 10% of the vote.
Total reimbursement: $52.50

Are you with me so far? Here’s where it gets interesting. When the Conservatives brought this to the attention of Elections Canada and attempted to refund the money they were apparently told that they couldn’t because it would be unfair to the other parties. So now the Conservative Party has filed a lawsuit against Elections Canada in order to force them to take the money.

So what’s the problem. Well this. The Conservative Party of Canada has only been in existence for 3 elections so if they’re successful in their lawsuit they’d only have to repay the amount they were overpaid in 3 elections. The other parties have been in existence for considerably longer and would therefore have to repay the amount they were overpaid in every election extending all the way back to the introduction of the GST and QST in 1991.

This could easily amount to millions of dollars for the Liberal Party and in excess of a million dollars for both the Bloc and NDP(see update II). While the cash flush Conservatives can easily afford to repay this money, an unexpected financial burden of millions of dollars would considerably cripple the ability of the opposition parties to finance an election campaign until they were able to recoup the losses.

Update: A writer for Candadian Press has come to the same conclusion I did.

Of course, if successful, the cash-flush Conservatives would also ensure that their poorer Liberal opponents have to refund similar - if not larger - sums.

Update II: A lengthier version of the CP story notes that this would not apply to the NDP.

A spokesman for the New Democrats said the party has never applied for the GST rebate.

“(The Conservatives) obviously made a decision to apply for it and now they don’t want it,” said NDP spokesman Brad Lavigne.

There isn’t enough information for me to comment on the validity of this white South African refugee’s claim of persecution but I wonder if the white whingers will respond to his queue jumping in the same way they do when the refugee is brown.

Huntley first came to Canada on a six-month work permit in 2004 to work as a carnival attendant. He returned home to South Africa and came back to work in Canada in 2005 for a year and stayed illegally for an additional year until he made a refugee claim in April 2008.

I’d be surprised if they do.

Update: Dawg’s Blawg has lots to say about “the Yacht People”.