Elections Canada talking with Greens about possible election-law violation

OTTAWA (CP) - Elections Canada is in talks with the federal Green Party over possible violations of federal election law by its leader, Jim Harris, The Canadian Press has learned.

The discussions are based on a letter of complaint filed by Matthew Pollesel, the party's former assistant national organizer.

Pollesel alleges that the former grassroots party has been hijacked to gain access to federal election subsidies provided under the new elections-financing law.

The law was introduced by former prime minister Jean Chretien to reduce the dependence of politicians on donations from corporations and unions, and gives parties a subsidy of $1.75 per year for each vote won in the last election.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/fedelxn_green_credibility

Notice that even though the government was going to fall, the leader of the Greens (Harris) was out of the country at the launch of their campaign...the vice chair kicked it off.

That didn't look good...probably a grift in hindsight...too many divergent types involved to be legit... lot of husband and wife teams running simply to cover the electoral map...too many shallow non-environmental policies...and their environmental stuff is pure boilerplate.

In fact, I am getting suspicious of most of the Green provincial movements as well--the one in SK ran an entire provincial election and didn't once, it seemed, updated their home page (a year and a half old) to reflect that there was even a provincial campaign.

The Greens don't seem serious and do seem to have grabbed an 'easy' brand-name. But in fairness, if Harris's schedule on their home page is correct, he IS actively campaigning.