Liberal leadership candidates won’t face courts to pay back delinquent loans

OTTAWA – Canada’s elections commissioner says he won’t take former Liberal leadership candidates to court over their outstanding debts.

Instead, Yves Cote is asking the candidates to please pay the money back at their earliest convenience.

The Harper Conservatives have been demanding that Elections Canada impose penalties on Liberals who’ve failed to pay back loans taken out during their 2006 leadership contest.

As of Tuesday — that is, nearly seven years after the leadership race in which Liberals picked Stephane Dion to lead them — four candidates still owed money: Dion, Ken Dryden, Hedy Fry and Joe Volpe.

Cote says the law as it’s currently written is unenforceable, so no action will be taken against the delinquent candidates.

The candidates were given several extensions of the original 18-month deadline to repay their loans.