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Supporters disappear, campaign finances questioned: Liberals hit snags in leadership race

For the most part, the Liberal leadership race has been a problem free affair: the party is up in the polls, the debates have been drawing big crowds, collectively the candidates have signed-up an impressive 300,000 supporters and there haven't been any significant controversies.

That, however, could all be changing.

Over the past 48 hours, the party has hit a couple of snags that could put a damper on the party's recent successes.

Where have all the supporters gone?

If you're on Twitter today, you'll notice a large number of tweets, by Liberals, asking Liberal supporters to register to vote.

That's because, according to the Canadian Press, only about one-third of the 300,000 members and supporters who signed up to choose the next leader have actually registered to vote ahead of a Thursday deadline.

CP notes that Justin Trudeau's campaign — which signed up the majority of supporters — is complaining about technical glitches. One of the glitches, according to a Trudeau spokesperson, is that 100,000 supporters didn't provide email addresses.

But Kelly McParland of the National Post appropriately wonders if the Liberal Party's supporter class — which allows Canadians to sign up as supporters without any financial obligation — is the real culprit behind the low registration numbers.

Youth culture survives on email; that 100,000 would simply “forget” to provide theirs is not credible. Anyone with any real desire to remain in touch with the party would ensure the email lines were secure.

It also reinforces the suspicion that the party made a mistake in turning over its future to people whose interest in its well-being is fleeting at best. If they can’t stir themselves enough to register, how active will they be in the nitty-gritty realities of party business, such as formulating policies and campaigning for candidates?

CP notes that Trudeau's camp has asked for a one-week extension for the registration process.

According to party spokesperson Sarah Bain, the party's National Membership Secretary, will make a decision on that "by or before tomorrow."

Candidates loan money to themselves:

Democracy Watch — a not-for-profit 'citizens' group' — has launched a complaint with Elections Canada about Liberal leadership candidates loaning their own campaigns money in amounts over the $1,200 legal limit.

Democracy Watch claims that David Bertschi loaned himself $75,000, while Deborah Coyne, Martha Hall Findlay and Karen McCrimmon each loaned themselves $25,000, $25,000 and $32,000 respectively.

"When you loan money to yourself as a political candidate you are actually giving money to yourself which is illegal if it is more than $1,200, and Elections Canada must end this charade and properly enforce the federal elections law by declaring these excessive loans illegal and requiring the Liberal candidates to repay them immediately or drop out of the race if they don’t have enough money to repay," Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch said in the statement released on Monday afternoon.

"While the Liberals set an undemocratically high entry fee of $75,000, all the candidates should have done a reality and ego check and realized if they couldn't raise those funds through donations from many people they shouldn't be running to be leader of a national political party."

The candidates however, insist they're not doing anything wrong and calling the 'loans' 'seed' or 'bridge' money.

"[Mr. Bertschi would] rather take on the loan personally and then ask for (contributions) later," David Bertschi's campaign manager Leo Bourdon told Sun News.

In a series of tweets, on Tuesday, Martha Hall Findlay said she already paid herself back and accused Democracy Watch of not doing their homework.

Regardless, a campaign finance 'controversy,' is not what the Liberal Party needs at this point in time.

As explained by Sun News, there still are three candidates from the 2006 Liberal leadership race who still have yet to pay back their debts.

(Photo courtesy of Reuters)

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