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“The reason why I’m here is things like this eat you up inside,” he said. “I’ve got a family back in Peterborough. I’ve got a lot of friends there. I’ve got a family in business. And it has my name on the sign.”

Del Mastro said he was in the process of reviewing records and couldn’t say what exactly the $21,000 cheque paid for.

“They (Holinshed) undertook a small amount of work during the campaign,” he said.

The small claims court file includes a copy of a cheque

“That’s reflected in the campaign expenditure (report). They did also undertake some work at various times for the association. Those would be on separate statements.”

Neither the Del Mastro campaign-expense disclosures nor the annual report for the Conservative electoral district show a payment of $21,000 to Holinshed.

Reached by the Ottawa Citizen at his home in Peterborough on Wednesday, McCarthy said he was not under investigation, to his knowledge.

“I don’t know anything about this,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He recalled some dealings with Holinshed but said they had nothing to do with the election.

“There was an inappropriate disbursement made to him for something that didn’t have anything to do with the election period and then he paid it back,” he said.

“I don’t want to talk to you about this. There is no issue.” He then hung up.

For the past three months, Del Mastro has been the Conservative party’s spokesman on Elections Canada’s investigation of misleading calls in the 2011 election. He answers most questions about the issue in the House of Commons and has represented the party on TV panel discussions about robocalls.