Elections Alberta is reporting that it has issued a $9,000 fine against former United Conservative Party nomination candidate Jeff Walters for violations of two sections of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. The violations are reported to have taken place Walters’ bid for the UCP nomination in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview in 2018.
Walters dropped out of the UCP nomination contest in November 2018 and soon after was nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in the 2019 election. He told the Toronto Star that he joined the Alberta Party after a lawyer who compared the Pride flag to the Nazi swastika was allowed to remain a member of the UCP.
According to the Elections Alberta website, Walters’ offences included violations of:
- Section 34(2) of the EFCDA: Knowingly Accepted Funds, from 5 contributors, contrary to section 34(1)
- Section 46 of the EFCDA: Knowingly Made a False Financial Statement with the CEO.
Also listed as having received administrative penalties from Elections Alberta was Walters’ chief financial officer, Karen Nolin, who was issued a $9,000 fine for violating three sections of the EFCDA.
Two individual political contributors, Reid Hogan and Wyatt Hogan, were fined $2,o00 each for violations of Section 34(1) of the EFCDA for “contributing funds to a registered nomination contestant that had been given or furnished to him by another person.”
According to financial disclosures from the 2018 nomination contest, the two Hogans were reported to have donated $2,000 each to Walters’ UCP nomination campaign.
Bar-N-Ranche was also issued a fine of $2,500 for violating section Section 16(2) of the EFCDA after making a prohibited contribution of $10,000 to Walters’ UCP nomination campaign, though the donation does not appear on the disclosures submitted by his campaign.
Corporations have been prohibited from making contributions to political candidates and parties in Alberta since 2015.
Walters’ finished third with 7.4 per cent of the vote as the Alberta Party behind NDP MLA Deron Bilous, who was re-elected to a third-term with 50.6 per cent of the vote, and UCP candidate David Egan, who finished second with 36.2 per cent.
