By 1075 Beach Radio Vernon/Tom Mark

Turmoil for North Okanagan Shuswap NDP

Jun 13, 2018 | 11:25 AM

VERNON — The executive of the North Okanagan Shuswap NDP Riding Association is planning to resign this weekend.

Riding association President Alice Brown says it’s because of a dispute with the national office over more than 7300 dollars it transferred to the Official Agent of the 2015 campaign.

That’s a rebate for part of the debt from the campaign, but the riding association says it should go to the 2019 campaign.

“It’s our seed money. And so we count on that money to run the election that’s coming up next year. To have all that money allocated back for debt put us at a real disadvantage to running our next election.”

Brown says the riding association executive wasn’t allowed to be part of the last campaign and disagreed with how money was spent at the time.

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She says the explanation from the national office was that a debt has to be repaid.

“If we weren’t willing to pay it that they would just keep the money and pay it themselves. And it’s true that campaign debt is to be paid. But it’s also true from Elections Canada that the person responsible for that debt is the financial agent not the executive.”

Brown says it was up to the person who was the financial agent at the time to figure out a way to handle the debt.

She says there are various ways it could have been handled from a non-monetary contribution by the candidate, Jacqui Gingras to fundraising.

The decision was made to ask the national office to pay for it.

Brown says she’s not sure what that money, $7339.09,  will be used for.

She says if the federal office changed its mind, the executive could be willing to stay on to put together a team to organize the campaign for 2019 and work with that team to make sure things run smoothly.

She says their decision is not based so much on the amount of money as the principle of the matter.

Brown says between them, the executive has more than 100 years of experience in campaign knowledge.

Brown, herself, has been a member for over 30 years and has run as a candidate in several elections.

We’ve reached out to the federal office for comment on the story but they haven’t responded yet.