OTTAWA—A Conservative candidate in Ontario lobbied for a firm that is selling Canada a fleet of controversial fighter jets whose disputed cost helped spark the election, the Toronto Star has learned.

Raymond Sturgeon, who is trying to unseat the New Democrats in the northern Ontario riding of Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, had a long and distinguished career in the Canadian Forces both as a soldier and civilian, before taking up his most recent position.

He is currently employed by CFN Consultants, an Ottawa-based firm that is considered to be the home of the country’s premiere defence lobbyists. Up until last December, Sturgeon was listed as a paid representatives of more than half a dozen companies seeking to sell equipment, weapons and aircraft to the Department of National Defence.

Those companies include Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Colt Canada Corp., Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., General Dynamics and Rheinmetall Canada, according to federal government records.

Lockheed Martin has a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to produce the F-35 Lightning stealth fighter jet, which the Conservative government hopes to sign a contract for in 2014 and begin receiving two years later.

The dispute is over the cost. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government and the Department of National Defence say the total cost to purchase a fleet of 65 jets will be about $16 billion. But the Liberals say delays and cost overruns mean those the government’s cost projections are no longer valid.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says he will scrap plans to buy the F-35 fleet if his party forms the government.

The Liberals got a boost in the final weeks of the last parliamentary session from Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, whose cost analysis of the fighter jet program came up with a price tag of $29.3 billion.

“Perhaps coincidentally, (the government’s) figure reflects statements made by Lockheed Martin in 2001,” Page wrote in his report.

Sturgeon’s registration as a lobbyist for Lockheed Martin expired on Dec. 15, records show. On the same day, he also de-registered as the paid representative of Colt Canada, a Kitchener-based weapons producer. Sturgeon was involved in “procurement of small arms” for the government and “resolving issues” around the Automatic Firearm Country Control List.

As of October 2010, that list included 33 countries to which Canada can buy and sell automatic weapons. Most are NATO countries, but the list also includes Botswana and Saudi Arabia. Albania and Croatia were the most recent additions to that list.

There is no record of Sturgeon having met with any government officials, but there are shiny new pictures on his Facebook page of the candidate sharing an intimate moment with Harper in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Sturgeon, who won the Tory nomination in January, did not respond to a Star interview request on Friday. In a press release upon being nominated, he took aim at the NDP MP for the riding, Carol Hughes and her vote against a Tory motion to abolish the federal long-gun registry.

“(Her vote) is a clear demonstration that she is more concerned with the views of big city voters and her Toronto boss, Jack Layton. I want to change that.”

The Conservatives finished a distant third place in the riding in the 2008 election.

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The Liberal-led opposition defeated the Conservatives last week in a non-confidence motion, sparking the election. MPs ruled that the Tories were in contempt of Parliament for hiding the costs of the fighter jet program, its corporate tax cut regime and its criminal justice legislation.

It was Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s party that initially cracked down on the cozy relationship between federal politicians and lobbyists. When first elected, the Tories legislated a five-year ban on lobbying by former politicians and political staffers.

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