The Liberal association in Montreal's Papineau riding filed a complaint after they surveyed new members recruited by Mr. Volpe's campaign and found a significant number said that they had not paid their own membership fees, according to riding president Luc Cousineau.Note that it's the Libs themselves who are targetting Volpe. And it's not the first time that his campaign has come under scrutiny.
In some cases, the members said they had not filled out a membership form, he said in an interview. "We noted that there were people who said that they had not paid and there were people who did not know they were members."
Mr. Volpe's campaign surprised competitors at the July deadline for recruiting members eligible to vote for leadership-convention delegates when they submitted a larger number in Quebec than any other campaign.UPDATE: Liberal Party can raise the dead.
Mr. Cousineau said Mr. Volpe's campaign submitted about 550 completed membership forms for Papineau -- three times more than any other candidate.
The membership lists also included problems with:
Sebastiano Sperduti, who has been dead for 17 years and was unlikely to have been a Liberal party member. He had a stroke the day after he arrived in Canada in 1979 and died in 1989, at 67.
Marcello Palmieri's parents, Michele and Antonia, received cards in the mail recently, telling them they were members in good standing in Ahuntsic riding. He didn't know whether his mother wanted to join, but his father died last December.
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