Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Kingsley, on behalf of the Conservative Party, I also want to add my congratulations to you on your new position, and also an official thank you for all the hard work you've done on behalf of Canadians in the electoral system for the past 17 years.
I often have said that your position is probably one of the most thankless jobs that a person could have in Canada, because from time to time you're always going to be getting complaints and criticisms from individuals, from political parties. It always seems to me that in jobs like yours, where you do yeoman service on behalf of ordinary Canadians, as well as political parties, you always hear the complaints but never the thank you. So I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Conservative Party of Canada to say thank you for all of the work. I think you've conducted yourself over the 17 years in a manner that befits the position. You've conducted yourself and your affairs in a manner of impartiality and professionalism that is absolutely required for that position. So good on you, Dr. Kingsley, and good luck to you.
I do have a question, though, and we've spoken of this before. I understand that this will be your personal opinion now that you're a private citizen, so I'm not looking for anything that would be the official position, obviously, of Elections Canada, but it's something that's been a little confusing to me.
We spoke just before the meeting. We have a situation in our party where we have what should be considered a convention, a campaign training school that's coming up in the next couple of weeks. My question would be this. If a registered EDA--electoral district association--were to pay the registration fees on behalf of a couple of delegates, would that be considered, in your opinion, a contribution or a transfer of money from the EDA to the party? This would be out of their own resources. This would be a transfer or flow-through money from a person who pays $300 to the EDA, and then the EDA pays $300 on their behalf for the registration fees. This would be out of the EDA's own resources, and they pay the registration fees for a couple of delegates to this convention.