Deal made to end part of financing fight between Tories, Elections Canada

A deal has been reached to end one round of a long-running campaign financing fight between the Conservative Party and Elections Canada, sources tell The Canadian Press.

The party is set to agree to what one Conservative source called “administrative imperfection” for the way it handled advertising spending during the 2006 federal election.

As a result, charges against four senior Conservative officials for breaking the Elections Act are being dropped.

Conservative Senators Irving Gerstein and Doug Finley and party officers Mike Donison and Susan Kehoe were charged earlier this year with wilfully violating the party’s spending limit in the 2006 federal campaign that brought Prime Minister Stephen Harper to power.

The charges had carried penalties of up to a year in prison and fines as high as $25,000.

The party has agreed to pay $52,000 as part of the deal, said one source.

The two sides are expected in an Ottawa court this afternoon.

The Tories have consistently maintained they did nothing wrong in shuffling money between national and local campaigns in the 2006 election.

But Elections Canada had said the scheme allowed the national party to exceed its spending limit by permitting local candidates to claim rebates on expenses they hadn’t actually incurred.

It’s alleged the so-called “in-and-out” financing scheme permitted the party to exceed its $18.3-million limit by more than $1 million.

The charges came as the party and Elections Canada continued to fight the issue in civil court.

The Supreme Court agreed last month to hear arguments in that case.

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