Marky Mark's Walkin' In The Wild West End Money.

HeKnew

NothingVille


Well, well, well...

It turns out that Mr. Mark Marissen, the doomed-to-fail candidate from last fall's Vancouver mayoral race, received a big whack of cash, in the form of a loan, from one prominent local CEO.

Bob Mackin, writing in 'Business In Vancouver', explains:

The fourth-place finisher in last fall’s race for the Vancouver mayoralty received an illegal $50,000 loan and is now struggling to return the money.

Mark Marissen was the leader of Progress Vancouver and had received the loan from Jason McLean in February 2022 “to finance the day-to-day administration of Progress Vancouver's elector organization office intended to operate on a continuing basis outside campaign periods,” according to an Elections BC prohibited campaign loan form...

{snip}

...Jason McLean is CEO of the privately held McLean Group, which owns real estate, construction, film production, IT and communications, and flight charter companies. He is a former chair of the then-named Vancouver Board of Trade, and a former Vancouver Police Board member who worked as an aide in the office of Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien. He declined to comment...

But here's the thing...

The provincial government made such massive 'Wild West' contributions to civic elections illegal in 2021.

So.

How does Mr. Marissen explain his actions?

Well, apparently, he has invoked the Sgt. Schultz 'I knew nothing!' defense:

...Marissen admitted Progress Vancouver was unaware of the NDP government’s amendments to campaign financing laws via the March 2021 Local Elections Statutes Amendment Act “as it pertains to the effect of deeming all loans to an elector organization to be loans for election expenses and subject to the prescribed limit on loans from non-financial institutions.”...

But wait, there's more:

...Marissen also said the party received wrong advice from an unnamed lawyer in January 2022, who said there was no jurisdictional limit, dollar limit or limit based on individual versus corporate status to fund the day-to-day operations of a party office outside of campaign or election periods...

Gosh, lawyer blaming.

Not to cast any aspersions whatsoever but, in addition to being a noted outdoorsman, isn't the fine fellow who made the defacto donation....errrr....loan also a lawyer?

And, finally, just in case you were wondering, the good Mr. Marissen has not yet re-paid said loan:

... “It (Progress Vancouver) hoped to be able to return Mr. McLean's loan through campaign contributions, but has not been successful to date in doing so. Progress Vancouver continues to solicit permitted donations and intends to repay Mr. McLean.”...

All of which just goes to show that both the rich and the politically connected in Lotusland are most definitely not like you and me.

Or some such Fitzgeraldian thing.

OK?

____

Flouting of the new anti-wild west election rules aside, why would a member of an uber-fine local family fork over $50K to a faux progressive candidate who didn't have a hoot-in-heckfire's chance of winning anyway?...More on that to come...

.