Wilson says all information was disclosed

Member of Parliament (MP) Blair Wilson is challenging the green light committee of the Liberal Party to reveal the truth about his nomination.

The MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, is asking the committee to say exactly why it rejected him as a candidate for the next election.

"I made full disclosure of all relevant personal information to the committee before the 2004 and 2006 elections," said Wilson. "The information they now claim I did not disclose was irrelevant and inconsequential to my candidacy. There's something more going on here and the committee owes it to the voters to say what that is."

The committee reviews and approves all the party's potential election candidates.

A Liberal Party of Canada representative said earlier this week that a finding by Elections Canada that most of the anonymous allegations of financial irregularities against Wilson for actions during his 2006 election campaign were unfounded or insufficiently substantiated did not mean he would be accepted as the party's candidate for the next election.

The representative said Wilson was rejected as a candidate because he allegedly failed to disclose information to the party on three occasions.

"That's simply not true," said Wilson. "I provided all the relevant information that I was required to disclose. The information that the committee says I did not disclose was not within the scope of what I was expected to tell them."

He said the information the committee claims he failed to disclose and which caused it to reject him as a candidate included:A small claims action for $500 against a family-run company.

Legal action against a company in which he previously had an interest and was included in the action as a nominal defendant with no liability.

A 2005 legal action brought against Mahoney's restaurant (owned at the time by Wilson) by someone who slipped and fell on a peanut at the restaurant. In 10 years of successful operations, it was the only claim that Mahoney's insurance company had to resolve, and it did so.

"These were issues that either had no real bearing on my suitability as a candidate or had very little to do with me at all. I disclosed all the personal information that was required of me," said Wilson. "The committee seems to believe I should have disclosed that my father-in-law was suing me for alleged loans owed to his late wife's estate. There never were any loans for $2 million, the court documents make that quite clear, and that's why the action was discontinued."

Martin MacLachlan a member of the green light committee and a member of the executive of the Liberal Party of Canada for B.C. said he could not discuss the specific details of Wilson's case or any candidate's for that matter. But he did provide some insight into the committee and how they treated Wilson's case once the allegations against him surfaced last year.

"The green light committee does an assessment of the background of people who wish to be candidates in the Liberal Party of Canada in an election," he said. "We have an extensive questionnaire that is intended to give us a complete picture as to the prospective candidates' background. The questionnaire asks all kinds of questions which we expect to be answered fully and frankly so we can assess whether the person is fit to be a candidate. These questionnaires are confidential. We don't want any surprises during the election, and I'm sure none of the candidates do either."

He said the committee then makes a recommendation to the campaign co-chairs for British Columbia and they make the ultimate determination whether that person is fit to be a candidate.

"When the allegations were made by The Province last year, we were asked by the co-chairs again to review the matter and see why these matters talked about in the press had been disclosed and whether we had an opportunity to assess this candidate," MacLachlan said. "That examination was done and a report was prepared, and that went to the campaign co-chairs. Mr. Wilson and his council have a copy of that report, but again throughout all of this we have thoroughly preserved the confidentiality of the information, so I can't speak much more specifically to Mr. Wilson's case."