What Is One Thing That Gary Lunn's Third Party Advertisers Have In Common?

AllInNoOut
BigConVille


Besides being the creme de la creme of Saanich I mean?

Well, based on the very fine work of Andrew MacLeod in The Tyee, it would appear that they all registered with Elections Canada using the contact information of a very fine Victoria lawyer named Bruce Hallsor:

Hallsor is a long-time associate of Conservative incumbent Gary Lunn and worked on his campaign in a hard-fought victory against Liberal challenger Briony Penn. In 2006, Hallsor was a co-chair of the Conservative campaigns in B.C. The groups using Hallsor's contact information were all supporting Lunn, he said. "That's how I know them." They did things like buy lawn signs and ads in the local daily newspaper, he said.


All of which begs the question - why?

Why would groups of Mr. Lunn's supporters decide to register as third party advertisers with very impressive tartan-turf names like "Citizens Against Higher Taxes", "Common Sense Advocacy of Victoria" and "The Economic Advisory Council of Saanich" want to do such a thing?

Well, that is not entirely clear.

After all, none of the five has any profile or web presence whatsoever.

One thing is clear, however they do not appear to be averse to spending money for Mr. Lunn:

Donna Evans of Common Sense Advocacy was a little more talkative (about why she was involved with one of the groups). "I really don't have anything to tell you about it," she said. "It's just a little group of friends that I know."

The group, pooling their money, bought an ad in a newspaper for around $3,000 to support Gary Lunn, said the Victoria real estate agent. "I had some concern we might be losing a responsible MP." Support for Lunn had to get out directly, she said. "The media tends to report things in a biased way."

Why not just give to his campaign? "Because I don't generally contribute to campaigns, that's all," she said. "I actually thought I would have more impact by pointing out some of the benefits Gary had done for our community... This way I could direct what I wanted to spend it on. We raised the money. Why couldn't we have a say in spending it?"

Hmmmmmmm.....

Can you say 527?

Not that we would dare to suggest that Mr. Lunn's friends were playing by Rovian rules or anything.

After all, Mr. Lunn hates Robo-Calling.

And third-party advertisers.

At least then they are not his.

OK?

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