OTTAWA - A New Democrat MP is calling for an audit of all government appointments made since the Federal Accountability Act was passed in December in light of a police investigation into claims of a potentially criminal patronage offer.
Ottawa MP Paul Dewar says the investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police reveals gaping holes remain in governance issues despite the Conservatives' vaunted ethics legislation -- which has been passed by Parliament but parts of which are not yet in force.
The OPP revealed Monday it is investigating a sworn affidavit that claims an Ottawa mayoral candidate was offered an appointment to the National Parole Board if he would quit the 2006 municipal race.
Candidate Terry Kilrea claims the offer was made by eventual winner Larry O'Brien, who, Kilrea alleges, told him the $110,000-a-year appointment would be facilitated by senior Conservative John Reynolds.
Reynolds and O'Brien both deny the allegations.
Dewar argues that if the minority government had set up a public appointments commission as envisaged by the FAA, such allegations would become a thing of the past.
"I think what we need to do now is have an audit of all of the appointments that have been made since the Accountability Act was passed,'' Dewar said outside the Commons.
"Really, that's what has to happen so we can shine some light on what's been happening in the backrooms, in the back doors of government.''
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has been questioned about a series of partisan appointments recently.
Reynolds makes no secret of the fact that he frequently forwards the names of individuals for appointments, although the 2006 Conservative campaign co-chair said he does so without any personal recommendation.
While stating he made no intervention on Kilrea's behalf, Reynolds told The Canadian Press last week that he wouldn't hesitate to do so.
"But the bottom line is if I was asked to do it by Larry (O'Brien) I would have done it -- not with any recommendation but I would have told him how to do it. And if (Kilrea) wants to be on the Parole Board to this day, he should put an application in. They're looking for people.''
Government house leader Peter Van Loan told the Commons on Tuesday that Kilrea was never offered a Parole Board job, nor will he be.
"The fact is, no such position was offered by the government,'' said Van Loan. "No such appointment was given by the government and no such appointment will be given by the government.''
Kilrea's affidavit claimed he was informed by O'Brien last summer that the Conservatives were backing him in the fall mayoral race, and that the two right-of-centre candidates would split the vote.
He claims he was told by O'Brien that Reynolds had put his name "in the queue'' for a Parole Board appointment and he was to contact then-Treasury Board president John Baird, another local MP.
Kilrea's affidavit states that Baird told Kilrea he knew nothing about any such appointment.
Baird has repeatedly stated he had no preferred candidate in the municipal campaign. "I don't have a horse in this race,'' he said last October under direct questioning at a parliamentary committee.
"I did not support any of the mayoral candidates,'' Baird repeated on Monday.
But in the tight circle of Ottawa conservative politics, there are many overlaps.
O'Brien's first campaign manager, Joe Varner, was also Kilrea's manager in the 2003 mayoral campaign. Varner is married to MPP Lisa MacLeod, Baird's former constituency assistant.
MacLeod's father, Daniel MacLeod of New Glasgow, N.S., was recently appointed to the National Capital Commission in Ottawa.
And it was Baird's intervention -- at the request of candidate O'Brien -- into a local transit plan funded in part with a federal grant that proved to be the turning point in the municipal election race. Baird's office actually leaked the transit contract to the media late in the campaign.
Baird said Monday he found nothing strange in getting a mid-campaign call from Kilrea asking about a federal appointment.
"I didn't think 10 seconds about it,'' said Baird.
Dewar believes the affair deserves closer examination. "What we have is something that smells rather bad,'' said the MP.
