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All Liberal candidates are required to fill out a detailed application that requires disclosure of any litigation that might become an issue during a campaign. Bertschi says he decided to terminate the litigation, over what he says were false allegations published by the site, before he filed his candidate application. He said the lawsuit was known to the party’s Green Light committee and that he was advised it wasn’t a problem for his candidacy.

Lee Beauregard, president of the Liberal riding association in the riding, said he was aware of the letter sent by the party but was unable to say whether Bertschi could still contest the nomination.

“I’m leery to get into that right now but, yes, I did receive a letter from the party,” he said. “There’s discussions going back and forth on it and I don’t know where those discussions are.”

Leadership debts have dogged the Liberals since the 2006 contest to replace Paul Martin, won by MP Stéphane Dion. That race left several candidates unable to pay off their bills, in violation of the Elections Act. Elections Canada eventually admitted that, because of problems with the wording of the law, there was nothing it could do to recoup the unpaid amounts.

Eager to avoid an embarrassing repeat of the 2006 debacle, the Liberals set a strict $75,000 debt limit on the 2013 leadership candidates.

Montreal MP Marc Garneau and Karen McCrimmon, who has since won the party’s nomination in Kanata-Carleton, have both paid off their campaign debts. But Deborah Coyne, who recently lost her nomination bid in Ottawa West-Nepean, and George Takach, who is seeking the nomination in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, are still working to pay their debts down.

For the federal Liberals, Bertschi’s candidacy has been problematic. Liberal strategists believe Leslie has a much better chance of knocking off Conservative incumbent Royal Galipeau, but the party doesn’t want to be seen as interfering in the nomination process on his behalf.

Bertschi claims he sold more memberships than Leslie – the key to winning the nomination – though this claim has not been verified by the party.

A date for the nomination meeting to select the Liberal candidate has not been set.

gmcgregor@ottawacitizen.com

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