ONTARIO PC PARTY BREAKING RULES TO HELP JOHN TORY?

Press Release

January 27, 2008

The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario is contributing to the chaos surrounding their "Membership Lists" that are being used as "official and final" lists in Delegate Selection Meetings. "It's not fair to blame Blair McCreadie, President of the PC Party of Ontario, of total incompetence for this complete disaster of a process. But it's hard to escape the conclusion that the party is accepting certain memberships after the cutoff and certifying them as eligible voters" said Nick Kouvalis.

List verification is a simple process. "For example: If the 15th of January is the cut-off date to be an eliglble voter in an upcoming Delegate Selection Meeting scheduled for the 31st of January - then a list should be downloaded and sent to the local officials no later than the 16th of January with only the eligible names on it. If there are additions after the 16th (which there should not be) then the Party officials both centrally and locally should require each person on the "late list" to sign a statement that claims they were in fact a member on or before the cut-off date of the 15th of January - this signed statement can then be verified after the Delegate Selection Meeting is completed but before the actual convention. It's fair, it's simple, and easily verifiable - so why isn't it being done?" asked Nick Kouvalis.

In fact, in London West, the local association made a ruling requiring a signed statement from all the "new" names that appeared on the "official and final" list since that list was provided only 3 hours before the meeting by party officials. Surprisingly, twenty (20) people got up out of their chairs and left the meeting. This naturally raised serious concerns about the validity and integrity of the Delegate Selection Process on that evening.

Yesterday in Windsor West it happened again. A list of names we had never seen before was used as the "official list" for eligible voters. "John Tory's eligible voters outnumbered us and they took the entire slate of Delegates. But this was a pyrrhic victory. We now have proof and it's irrefutable. We have names, dates, transaction numbers, email confirmations from the headquarters of acceptance of membership. Some members in Windsor West who signed up after the deadline, came to the meeting, were allowed to vote and then came forward to notify us", said Nick Kouvalis.

Information received from our local organizers in London, Ontario indicates that there are now major irregularities with the "official list" for the upcoming London North Centre Meeting scheduled for Tuesday. "The list size has doubled after the cut-off for eligible voters has come and gone. We are very concerned about the pattern that is developing as our campaign is showing a strong number of delegates in support of a leadership review." said Kouvalis.

"The inability of the Party to maintain fair and transparent membership list(s) speaks directly to why the voters of Ontario rejected the John Tory brand last October", said Kouvalis "and are likely to do so again as long as John Tory remains the leader of the party."

For further information:

Nick Kouvalis
DraftALeader.com
nick@draftaleader.com
519-791-9663

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Backgrounder

BUSTED

"The credibility of this DSM process has been suspect since its launch and is now proven to be compromised."

Windsor-West held its AGM and DSM yesterday. John Tory supporters elected a full slate of both adult and youth delegates along with an unopposed slate for the riding executive and directors. New riding president, Cyril Bagin, staffer to Essex MP Jeff Watson and a Windsor-Tecumseh resident, was magnanimous in victory, taking photos of the delegates while they were voting, ably assisted by OPCYA President, Andrew Brander. After a vigorous protest regarding the impropriety of these actions, the picture taking was curtailed.

Over the last several weeks we have been receiving reports from riding presidents, membership secretaries and our field organizers about numerous people appearing on official party lists provided to the party's observers for the conduct of meetings. Local lists generated in TrackRight after the membership cutoff date were very different from lists provided by the party headquarters. Despite numerous protests, we were told that these discrepancies were simply due to online members being added to the system after the membership deadline. We were assured that only eligible members were being added and that in the absence of ‘demonstrated proof’, nothing could or would be done. Further assurances were provided that the entire Delegate Selection process was being conducted with integrity and impartiality.

Furthermore, at the London-West DSM on the 15th of January a member who had clearly registered after the deadline approached YES organizers and informed them that his name was on the party list of approved voters, even though he had not joined until the 8th of January. Prior to the meeting the London-West PC Riding Executive, thus faced with concerns about the integrity of the Party provided list, passed a motion requiring any voter who was not on the local list to sign an affidavit verifying that he/she was indeed a member in good standing prior to the deadline of January 5th. When the Chair of the DSM upheld this motion, approximately twenty (20) people promptly left the room.

Today, we can report we have the ‘demonstrated proof’ required by the Party before undertaking any action or investigation of the membership and list processes. At Windsor-West's AGM and DSM we can prove that five (5) people who clearly registered AFTER the membership cutoff date were allowed to register and to vote at the meeting. We have in our possession online applications complete with date, time and transaction numbers which demonstrate, without question, that these people were accordingly ineligible to vote at the meeting.

The credibility of this DSM process has been suspect since its launch and is now proven to be compromised. We will be filing a comprehensive protest with the Credentials committee and will keep you informed as to its progress.

Questions that will be asked:

1. Who has access to the database either at party headquarters or through external access?

2. Are the people with access paid employees/contractors of the OntarioPC Party, volunteers, staff of the Office of the Leader of the Opposition or all of the above? Specifically, who has the administration access to create, delete, modify or in any way manipulate membership records in the TrackRight system or any other system that may be used to generate official lists?

3. Who has access and what is the process for importing online memberships to the system?

4. What is the process for generating the official party list?

5. Is there an independent verification of this official party list process?

6. What format is this list being provided in?

In addition to the problems with lists, the Windsor-West AGM and DSM also had an issue with identification of youth. At registration the YES team challenged a youth member who had no identification other than a printout of an online membership. When challenged, the youth in question immediately left the room stating: "It doesn't matter, I didn't want to be here anyways, I'm a Liberal". This person never returned to register. After this challenge, any further challenges of youth delegates were disallowed by the party’s official observer, with the approval of party President, Blair McCreadie. We were informed that in past practice, all that was required of youth members was that they be vouched for by a parent or other member. We were told this was acceptable because many youth cannot provide any sort of identification. We absolutely disagree with this position, especially in light of our experience in Windsor-West and other similar incidents reported to us across the province.

YES campaign organizers are already fighting an uphill battle in this campaign. We face the full resources of the party and have no official recognition or access to riding lists or any other assistance. John Tory is free to travel the Province, attend AGM and DSM meetings and speak to the meetings members, all the while assisted by party staff, staff from the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, some MPPs and their staff.

It is understood that Delegate Selection processes of every party can and usually are contentious, fought with passion and vigour. It is also understood that these campaigns are supposed to be conducted in accordance with principles fundamental to our Canadian democractic traditions. We have no wish to sully the reputation of the PC Party in raising these issues, but are being left with no option. We cannot remain silent while there is an appearance of the process being manipulated. At some point, excuses like disorganization, innocent errors, and general incompetence no longer hold any value.

The PC Party of Ontario has a long and storied history. Many long time members of the party have confided in us their distaste of how this leadership review is being conducted. Unfortunately, due to the fear of retribution, they are reluctant to come forward. Slowly but surely, this is beginning to change. Now, however, with the proof of irregularities as described above, we would hope that others who value the integrity and reputation of this proud party will also stand up and come forward.