{"id":20163,"date":"2011-05-24T08:46:09","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T12:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=20163"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:13:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:13:10","slug":"why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The editors of Spacing asked our long-time contributor Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler to write a personal column on the motives and reasons why he and Toronto resident Max Reed petitioned the City of Toronto to audit the campaign finances of Mayor Rob Ford.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Max Reed and I successfully petitioned for an audit<\/a> of Mayor Rob Ford\u2019s election campaign finances. Repeatedly we were asked about our motives, and for good reason. It\u2019s no secret that Rob Ford and I disagree on both the style and substance of his mayoralty to date so the motives may appear to be entirely political. Knowing the reality of word limits, in response to the media questioning our motives, I often responded with a line like<\/a>, \u201cWe want a level playing field for all candidates.\u201d So I\u2019d like to now expand on what I mean by that and why there is a lot more on the line than whether Ford will be prosecuted for what we allege were violations of provincial and municipal election laws.<\/p>\n

As a starting point, among the general intentions of the Municipal Elections Act<\/a> (MEA) is to facilitate fair elections that empower citizens to choose their leaders without undue influence by those with the deepest pockets. While it is far from perfect, the MEA largely accomplishes this by placing limits on how much an individual can donate, allowing Toronto to ban donations from corporations and unions, and, though candidates can donate as much as they like to their own campaign, placing a spending limit so no one can pull a Bloomberg<\/a>. The province even sealed off backdoor contributions through loans by forcing them to be arranged only with recognized financial or lending institutions, and has taken care to ensure in-kind donations are subject to all the same rules as cash contributions.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, the most important issue we identified in our compliance audit request relates to the financial relationship between Doug Ford Holdings (DFH) and the Rob Ford Campaign (RFC).<\/p>\n

What we alleged<\/a>, and Ford\u2019s lawyer agreed with in his oral submissions to the Compliance Audit Committee, is that DFH paid more than $77,000 of bills for the RFC in the first few months of the campaign without being reimbursed until March, 2011. How to characterize this arrangement is where we diverge with Ford\u2019s lawyer, who essentially claimed DFH was a supplier to the RFC that contracted with various vendors to provide things like an event venue, printing services, etc. Reed and I contend that this $77,000 was a loan. In either case, it is our contention that the RFC did not pay fair market value for the loan (no interest was charged) or, if you believe the supplier story, for DFH\u2019s role as a supplier (no administrative costs were charged, no profit margin was built in and HST wasn\u2019t included), which caused us to allege that the RFC received in-kind corporate contributions from DFH.<\/p>\n

This may seem like we\u2019re hung up on technicalities and small numbers but it\u2019s anything but that. If the RFC\u2019s relationship with DFH is deemed legitimate, it will mean a new and anti-democratic election finance model is born. Candidates could search out a rich benefactor \u2013 be it a business, union or wealthy individual \u2013 to front them the 1 to 2 million dollars it takes to run for mayor in Toronto by acting as a lender or \u201csupplier,\u201d ensuring that the candidate has all the financing they need to be successful right from the get go.<\/p>\n

The importance of early money can\u2019t be overestimated. It limits the need for campaigns to expend energy and scarce resources courting Torontonians for donations and makes it appear as though they have momentum by hosting extravagant events, securing prime campaign offices and conducting extraordinary advertising campaigns.<\/p>\n

Though obviously partisan, George Smitherman campaign manager and former Toronto District School Board chair, Bruce Davis agrees and used this metaphor in a May 6 tweet<\/a>: \u201cEarly money is like yeast,\u201d it makes dough rise. Davis, who was a major player at City Hall during the Lastman administration and founded Urban Intelligence, one of the first full-service municipal lobbying practices in Canada, notes in that same tweet, \u201cThe Ford campaign’s method of start-up financing will change elections in Ontario forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, for another testimonial on the importance of early money, read Jonathan Goldsbie\u2019s recent Spacing interview with Shelley Carroll<\/a>, who lamented her inability to secure early money as the reason she didn\u2019t run for mayor in 2010.
\nIf the Ford funding model is upheld, the only condition on receiving a benefactor\u2019s money would be that the candidate has to pay back any funds received before the campaign officially ends (June of the year after Election Day). And as we\u2019ve seen already, if you win the mayor\u2019s seat it\u2019s easy to raise a ton of money<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the twist: our elections are already tilted in favour of wealthy candidates. There is no limit on how much a candidate can donate to their own campaign so long as they stay within the spending limits. If Ford had spent his own money (he could even have sold part of his stake in his company if he needed liquid assets) instead of creating an arrangement between DFH and the RFC, he would have been clearly within the rules and our election finance laws wouldn\u2019t be in peril.<\/p>\n

Though I would like to see limits on how much a candidate can contribute to their own campaign, at least in the current system we know where the money is coming from so there are no private interests hiding in the shadows when we cast our ballots. That is why I believe it is worth fighting to preserve at least the status quo, and then pursue improvements to election finance laws.<\/p>\n

Photo by Shaun Merrit<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The editors of Spacing asked our long-time contributor Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler to write a personal column on the motives and reasons why he and Toronto resident Max Reed petitioned the City of Toronto to audit the campaign finances of Mayor Rob Ford. Earlier this month, Max Reed and I successfully petitioned for an audit of MayorContinue reading “Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[94,6316,2915,17626,5715,14978,457,17621,17625,17627,1371,5216,13370,1463,17624,426,636,22085,227,17623,1276,17622,19,391],"class_list":["post-20163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2010-election","tag-adam-chaleff-freudenthaler","tag-advertising-campaigns","tag-anti-democratic-election-finance-model","tag-bloomberg","tag-bruce-davis","tag-canada","tag-compliance-audit-committee","tag-doug-ford-holdings","tag-election-finance-laws","tag-energy","tag-jonathan-goldsbie","tag-lastman-administration","tag-lawyer","tag-max-reed","tag-mayor","tag-ontario","tag-politics","tag-rob-ford","tag-shaun-merrit","tag-shelley-carroll","tag-smitherman-campaign-manager-and-former-toronto-district-school-board","tag-toronto","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The editors of Spacing asked our long-time contributor Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler to write a personal column on the motives and reasons why he and Toronto resident Max Reed petitioned the City of Toronto to audit the campaign finances of Mayor Rob Ford. Earlier this month, Max Reed and I successfully petitioned for an audit of MayorContinue reading "Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-24T12:46:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T18:13:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4069\/4662198802_8615cf0d2d_z.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/\",\"name\":\"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4069\/4662198802_8615cf0d2d_z.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-24T12:46:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T18:13:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4069\/4662198802_8615cf0d2d_z.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4069\/4662198802_8615cf0d2d_z.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72\",\"name\":\"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73c02741f456d391a6979ebe8b8a600f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73c02741f456d391a6979ebe8b8a600f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/wire\/?author=37\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/adam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"The editors of Spacing asked our long-time contributor Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler to write a personal column on the motives and reasons why he and Toronto resident Max Reed petitioned the City of Toronto to audit the campaign finances of Mayor Rob Ford. Earlier this month, Max Reed and I successfully petitioned for an audit of MayorContinue reading \"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2011-05-24T12:46:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T18:13:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4069\/4662198802_8615cf0d2d_z.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/","name":"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4069\/4662198802_8615cf0d2d_z.jpg","datePublished":"2011-05-24T12:46:09+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T18:13:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4069\/4662198802_8615cf0d2d_z.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4069\/4662198802_8615cf0d2d_z.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/05\/24\/why-i-sought-an-audit-of-rob-ford\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why I Sought an Audit of Rob Ford"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72","name":"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73c02741f456d391a6979ebe8b8a600f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73c02741f456d391a6979ebe8b8a600f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/spacing.ca\/wire\/?author=37"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/adam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4037"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20163"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36845,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20163\/revisions\/36845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}