Elections B.C. rules on Kelowna MLA’s campaign contribution concern

KELOWNA – Elections B.C. has cleared Kelowna-West Liberal MLA Ben Steward of any violation of the Election Act.

Stewart wrote to chief electoral officer Anton Boegman in August about a political contribution made to the Liberal Party of B.C. that was paid back to the contributor by the party.

“The review found no evidence that the political contribution and reimbursement were made in contravention of the Election Act,” a release issued by Elections B.C. today, Oct. 1, states.

At the time, Stewart resigned from caucus.

B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson said in a media release he is happy to welcome Stewart back to caucus and "we thank him for taking the appropriate actions to ensure full cooperation with Elections B.C.”

“I’m looking forward to returning to the legislature this fall with the rest of my B.C. Liberal colleagues and I thank Elections B.C. for their thorough and timely review of this issue,” Stewart said in the release.

The matter is now considered closed by Elections B.C. and no further comment will be made by the organization.

— This story was updated at 2:34 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, with new information from the B.C. Liberal party and Ben Stewart.


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Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics

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