1 of 2 2 of 2

NDP candidate George Chow has brought in party muscle from the north side of the city in a final campaign push to knock off a senior cabinet minister in South Vancouver.

Chow has been joined by Shane Simpson and Melanie Mark in Vancouver-Fraserview, which was held by Attorney General Suzanne Anton prior to the dissolution of the legislature.

Simpson and Mark are seeking reelection in the safe NDP seats of Vancouver-Hastings and Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, respectively.

The election takes place on Tuesday (May 9).

Chow and Anton are no strangers to one another.

They sat on Vancouver council together, albeit with different parties, from 2005 to 2011.

And in 2010, they jointly sponsored a motion to council from the subcommittee on electoral reform. (The report is on this council agenda.)

Among other recommendations, it called for expanding the definition of elected offences and related penalties "to include individuals acting as an intermediary in third-party campaign contributions".

"The current legislation states that the acceptance of a campaign contribution or the making of a campaign contribution through a third party is an offence," the report states. "Penalties apply for both the individual who makes or accepts such a contribution, but does not apply to the intermediary party."

Council approved the motion.

Fastforward seven years and the RCMP is investigating third-party campaign contributions through intermediaries to the B.C. Liberal party.

Under the Attorney General Act, Anton is the "official legal adviser" to the provincial cabinet.

On March 10, the Globe and Mail revealed that indirect political contributions had been made to the B.C. Liberals through lobbyists.

Elections B.C., which oversees the Election Act, referred the matter to the RCMP for investigation.

More than two weeks later, News 1130 interviewed Anton.

According to News 1130, the attorney general maintained on March 26 that these payments were "made innocently and without malice".

"I think that people will take it for what it is, which is, I'm sure for the most part if not for the entire part, I mean, this is a mistake by people," Anton told News 1130. "I think partly it was on the forms...and I think we're all learning from this."

Suzanne Anton (right) has been at Christy Clark's side during several Vaisakhi celebrations on the city's south side. Charlie Smith

Meanwhile, two Vancouver lawyers and the citizens' watchdog group Democracy Watch called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

And on March 29, the NDP joined in the chorus calling for a special prosecutor.

“Shady donations to Suzanne Anton’s own party have prompted an RCMP investigation, and now she’s trying to publicly downplay the significance of those illegal contributions,” the NDP's attorney general critic, Leonard Krog, said in a March 29 news release. “Christy Clark’s Liberals are effectively investigating themselves, and they’ve already announced that they’re innocent. Christy Clark and Suzanne Anton need to do the right thing for British Columbians and appoint a special prosecutor.”

It was only on March 30 that the criminal justice branch in Anton's ministry announced that a special prosecutor had been appointed.

Special prosecutors are appointed "where there is a significant potential for a perceived or real improper influence in prosecutorial decision-making", according to the attorney general's ministry.

This has "historically" occurred "in cases involving cabinet ministers, senior public or ministry officials, senior police officers, or persons in close proximity to these individuals".

On March 26, Anton's comments suggested that she didn't see anything criminally wrong in the donations being made through third parties.

But the report that she copresented to council seven years earlier acknowledged that indirect donations through a third party was an offence.

In effect, one could argue that the attorney general was commenting on the merits of a case in which "there is a significant potential for perceived or real improper influence in prosecutorial decision-making", if you apply the standard of her own ministry to this case.

And seven years earlier, while on Vancouver city council, Anton called for penalties on intermediaries who made indirect political contributions.

No wonder Chow is bringing in reinforcements from the north side of the city in his campaign to win Vancouver-Fraserview.

He's going to need as many articulate New Democrats as possible knocking on doors to get this story across to voters in the constituency.