Jim Treller, who was on the winning team in Rossmere against incumbent Conservative Vic Toews, says that it was unfair for Toews to be prosecuted while he and his candidate, Harry Schellenberg, were not.
He added Elections Manitoba has never heard his story of why he willingly signed the revisions presented to him by NDP party officials in April 2003 as a way out of being charged, when he hadn't made the mistake in the first place.
" There was no pressure. I was relieved!", said Treller, who pointed out that Elections Manitoba was put in the position of criminally charging agents and candidates who had no idea the party had altered the return information.
"Someone" slipped some donations-in-kind from into a campaign expense column, making that sum eligible for a 50% rebate.
"We were charging for expenses we didn't have", Treller said, but the catch-22 for him and the other agents was that the party pocketed the money, yet could not be charged under the Act-- only the agents and the candidates could.
In total, $76,000 in subsidies for seconded union workers was taken by the NDP head office under the scheme. The NDP paid the union, which by donating the exact amounts of the wages, ensured there was no actual cost to the campaign. The official returns were prepared by the central campaign committee based on the calculations of local riding officials. The party placed the completed 16 page document in front of agents to sign before filing with Elections Manitoba.
As Treller explained to the 15 media present, since the total amounts for expenses didn't change, no one would have noticed that the places the numbers had been put on the forms had been switched.
By changing the placement of the wages total on the forms, the nature of the transaction between the NDP and the union was concealed.
When the rebate cheques were issued, the party lopped off that added subsidy before remitting the balance to the local constituency, which got the exact amount that had been claimed and that they were expecting.
When the agents from the 13 campaigns were brought to a meeting in 2003, they had no idea about the investigation already underway or that the party officials had negotiated a settlement.
"The meeting went on and on and then it was "oh by the way", and revised returns were produced for the agents to sign, said Treller. Ten days later, they got a letter from Elections Manitoba about the irregularities.
Party officials at the meeting scoffed that this had been a common practice in the past, and "(Finance Minister) Greg Selinger was very upset, like he was going to have stroke or something".
(It is known Selinger demanded, and got, a letter from the NDP executives absolving him of any knowledge or guilt in the affair.)
Treller added that Schellenberg, who defeated Toews by a mere 203 votes, was also upset as "(he) is a man of integrity".
When the illegal refunds were flagged by auditor David Asselstine, the NDP pressured his bosses to remove him despite his protests, preventing him from looking further into allegations the practice went back to the 1980's. Treller confirmed that some of the 13 agents expressed concerns that they had been similarly duped in the 1995 election, and the party might have pocketed a taxpayer subsidy illegally in past elections.
In calling for a public inquiry, Treller was careful not to blame the party but rather suggested some individual was responsible for the scam, although he did state that "Ultimately, (Premier Doer) is responsible as head of the party."
Mr. Treller will be interviewed at 4.30 PM today on 92.9 Kick-FM
