That's probably a reflection of the NDP's accounting skills. Nonetheless, this candidate was able to claim as a legitimate election expense over $8,300 and have that amount fully reimbursed by the national party fewer than 20 days later—in and out, in and out, the very transaction process the members opposite are saying is illegal, are saying is in violation.
How can it be? Elections Canada determined, in the case of this candidate, that clearly this candidate was not in violation because there was no fault; there were no findings that indicated there was a problem with this candidate's election return.
I don't know this to be true, but I would suppose that this candidate has already received his full election reimbursement, while our candidates, who have done exactly the same type of thing, are still waiting for theirs. Well, good for this candidate, but the argument I would advance to members of this committee, and I would certainly advance if I had an opportunity to intervene in the court case itself, is how can this candidate then be fault free and some of our candidates who engaged in the same process, the same protocol, were found to be at fault?
You simply can't have it both ways. There is no consistency with the argument advanced by Elections Canada.
I would like to have the opportunity, and I would like to think members of this committee would like to have the opportunity, to ask those very basic questions to officials at Elections Canada. Maybe they have a very good reason for doing what they have done. I can't see it, but I would like to have the opportunity to ask those questions.
Unfortunately, because of the obstructionist tactics of this committee—at least the opposition members of this committee—they're not allowing us to do so. All they would have to do to allow that examination or cross-examination of Elections Canada officials, all that would have to happen for that examination to take place, is for members opposite of this committee to agree to the motion I presented. I'm sure we could have the head of Elections Canada and all his officials in here, at the latest, by next Tuesday.
As you can quite clearly see, there are a lot of examples I have here that I'd love to question Monsieur Mayrand and his officials about, just to ask some very simple questions. How does this differentiate? How do the actions of NDP candidate Martin differ from the actions of our candidates? Please tell me. Educate me. Help me to understand why you found fault with us and some of our candidates when you found absolutely no fault with candidates from other political parties. I don't know. I'd like to get the answers to that. I would like to think that members of this committee would have answers to that.
Here's another one. I see Monsieur Godin is showing great interest in my testimony, so I want to continue along with some of the examples from the New Democratic Party.