Some People Never Learn...

Some of you will know that I successfully sued the City of Niagara Falls in 2005, forcing City Hall to conduct a compliance audit of defeated mayoral candidate Wayne Thomson's 2003 campaign finances. You can read the full audit report here. Despite the auditor's finding that Thomson had seemingly violated the Ontario Municipal Elections Act in a number of ways, the majority of council decided not to pursue any legal action against him. At the time, I suggested they would be setting a terrible precedent for future candidates. Unfortunately, I was right. Given he had no shot at winning back the Mayor's job, Thomson decided to run for city council in 2006 as an alderman. He won and collected an impressive number of donations in the process. However, one of those donations turned out to be from an American based out of Pittsburgh. Guess what? It's illegal for Americans to make campaign contributions to a candidate running in an Ontario municipal election. Some people never learn... I expect the money will be returned promptly. If not, expect another compliance audit.