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Five questions about the Conservative Party’s “secret fund”

The Senate expense scandal took another twist, on Thursday, when CBC News' Greg Weston revealed details about a secret million dollar Conservative Party fund that Nigel Wright had exclusive signing authority on.

CBC News has learned that Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, had control of a secret fund in the Prime Minister’s Office when he cut the now infamous $90,000 "personal cheque" to disgraced Senator Mike Duffy.

Its existence has apparently been a closely guarded secret for the past seven years, even within the Prime Minister's Office. Only a few Conservative insiders know how the PMO cash stash has been spent.

Like all political party financing, there is little external oversight. The fund is completely off-limits to the auditor general and even Elections Canada, which monitors party donations but not expenses outside of an election period.

The story raises several questions.

1) Was it a secret or not?

The CBC News article uses the word "secret" 14 times.

As explained in a Postmedia News article, however, the other parties have similar funds.

All major federal political parties have a fund of some sort to help pay for the leaders’ party expenses, such as travel and accommodation associated with attending party fundraisers and other events not directly associated with their parliamentary duties.

A fund is maintained so that the party pays any party expenses — not taxpayers. No party funds were used for the payment,” added Conservative party spokesman Fred DeLorey.

So, while it is common, Weston suggests the difference with the Conservative fund is that so few people know what it's used for.

"What makes this secret fund different is just that. It's secret. And all the people we talked to said that's a first," he said on CBC's 'The National.'

"This in a government that promised openness and accountability."

[ Related: An audit of the Senate: What took them so long? ]

Maclean's Paul Wells had this great retort, on Twitter, to Delorey's assertion that the fund was not secret.

2) Is there any connection between this 'secret' fund and Nigel Wright's $90,000 gift to Senator Mike Duffy?

Delorey told CBC that the money from the PMO/Conservative fund was not used to pay Duffy.

[ Related: Senate scandal helping Thomas Mulcair get his groove back ]

But, as explained by NDP Ethics Critic Charlie Angus, the optics are bad.

"When you put two and two together and the man who's in charge of the secret fund in the prime minister's office [is] writing a secret cheque to a politician and none of this was ever supposed to come out...it raises many red flags," Angus told CBC.

3) What else was the fund used for?

We don't know what the fund was exactly used for; we probably never will.

That didn't stop the Twittersphere from coming up with some cheeky guesses:

4) Who in the prime minister's office is leaking details of this fund and why?

The National Post's Andrew Coyne raised this very intriguing question on CBC's 'The National.'

"The timing is obviously interesting," Coyne said.

"Somebody had an interest in spreading this story which is also interesting...why are people leaking details that only a certain number of people would have known."

5) Will Stephen Harper respond to this story?

Both the PMO and the Conservative Party have responded to CBC story but NDP leader Thomas Mulcair wants the prime minister to answer questions about it in the House of Commons on Friday.

Harper is rarely in the House on Fridays.

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