Deborah Coyne’s surprise decision to leave the Liberal Party to become an adviser to Green leader Elizabeth May creates a further complication involving unpaid debts from her Liberal leadership campaign.
Coyne wrapped up her no-hope bid for the top Liberal job in 2013 owing $61,000 in unpaid loans. She had personally advanced $75,000 to her campaign but was required to repay the loan from donations from supporters; otherwise she would be found to have exceeded her own donation cap. (The rule is intended to keep an even playing field between candidates, regardless of their own personal wealth.)
She was one of several Liberals who finished the campaign in the red but she vowed to repay her debt through fundraising events that would have been aided by candidacy as the Liberal nominee in the riding of Ottawa West–Nepean. Alas, Coyne lost the nomination to former candidate Anita Vandenbeld.
At last report, in October, Coyne’s campaign still owed her about $43,000, according to a party source. She may have whittled that amount down since then — the numbers are not available from Elections Canada.
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But now that she’s joined with the Greens, it is difficult to imagine how Coyne could possibly raise more money on behalf of a failed campaign for the leadership of a rival party.
So, once again, a Liberal leadership race ends with candidates mired in debt, as it did in the 2006 race to replace Paul Martin as leader.
Another long-shot contender who challenged Justin Trudeau for the leadership, Ottawa lawyer David Bertschi, was so far in debt that the party rescinded his approval to seek the nomination in the riding of Ottawa–Orleans.
He is currently suing three party executives for libel related to the decision.
