Thank you.
We've attached exhibits as well. They are the Liberal ads from the Telegraph-Journal and the L'Acadie newspapers on Saturday, January 21, 2006, which would appear to be the ads in question. The content of the ads, except for the names of the candidates, is entirely national.
The Liberal candidates who participated in this regional media buy are Dominic LeBlanc, Brian Murphy, Paul Zed, and Andy Scott--who are all sitting members of Parliament, as of right now--plus a number of candidates: Eldon Hunter, Marcelle Mersereau, Jean-Claude D'Amours, who's an MP Charles Hubbard, member of Parliament, Stan Smith, and Andy Savoy.
The situation here was that the national party transferred money to these candidates, who then ran a national ad, merely listed their names, and claimed it as a local expense. That is exactly the type of purported violation that Elections Canada has ruled the Conservative Party committed. In other words, they're saying that if the national party pays money, and the local candidates use it to run a national ad, it's a national ad, and it should be considered to be part of the national advertising cap as I mentioned earlier.
You can make a fairly strong argument for that, except that it does not comply.... It is not against the rules as set by Elections Canada. In fact, they would be in total compliance with this.
So again I simply ask the question, Chair, that if in fact it is okay for one political party to engage in regional media buys like this and to engage in the transfer of funds from national parties to local candidates, why then is it not okay for other parties to engage in the same actions? It must be.
Surely as night follows day, Mr. Chair, you must have the ability--