The fact that it took the Liberal Party of Canada almost two months to decide to turf Blair Wilson as a candidate shows the stark contrast between the Liberals and Conservatives on the question of trust and accountability, Tory candidate John Weston said late last month.
Liberal party officials on Friday (Dec. 21) announced that they had rescinded the candidacy of Wilson, the member of Parliament for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, because he had not been honest with them when first applying to become a candidate in 2004. Wilson told Van-couver Sun he still intends to run, perhaps as a Liberal. He said he intends to launch legal action next month regarding his status as a candidate.
"I definitely want to run again," he said, adding that he's still a party member.
Elizabeth Whiting, the party's director of communications, told The Question that the decision was not a result of Elections Canada's ongoing review of Wilson's 2006 campaign finances but of his "failure to disclose some information on his nomination form, which didn't allow us to assess his fitness to serve as a candidate for the Liberal party of Canada."
Whiting said everyone applying to be a candidate must fill out a form that helps party officials assess their fitness as candidates. Asked whether some information that Wilson should have included on the form, but didn't, was revealed in a two-part exposé about Wilson in The Province newspaper in late October, Whiting said, "Yes."
Weston, who narrowly lost to Wilson in the 2006 federal election, said, "It took two months for Stéphane Dion to remove an ethically-challenged candidate. Contrast this with Stephen Harper's clean, accountable government, which has featured two scandal-free years of getting things done for people in this riding and for all Canadians.
Wilson resigned from the Liberal party caucus in early November as a result of the allegations of campaign spending irregularities but has maintained he did nothing wrong and remains the area's MP.
