Kevin O’Leary claims ‘vote rigging’ in Conservative leadership campaign + MORE Mar 16th

TORONTO – Federal Conservative leadership hopeful Kevin O’Leary’s campaign is making allegations of what it calls “fraud” and “widespread vote rigging” in the race.
The celebrity businessman’s campaign issued a statement Thursday accusing “campaign activists” of using untraceable prepaid credit cards to sign up fake members.
The statement says that would violate federal election and campaign financing laws, adding that O’Leary’s campaign has complained to the party.
His campaign speculates some of those who have been signed up might not even know they’re members.
The statement didn’t say whose campaign is involved in the allegations.
A Conservative party spokesman says the party is looking into O’Leary’s accusations and says any memberships obtained contrary to party rules will be eliminated and those people will be ineligible to vote.
“Our rules are clear, any person looking to join our party must do so by paying the membership fee out of their own pocket, and we will ensure that principle is followed,” Cory Hahn said in an emailed statement…

TORONTO – Federal Conservative leadership hopeful Kevin O’Leary’s campaign is making allegations of what it calls “fraud” and “widespread vote rigging” in the race.
The celebrity businessman’s campaign issued a statement Thursday accusing “campaign activists” of using untraceable prepaid credit cards to sign up fake members.
The statement says that would violate federal election and campaign financing laws, adding that O’Leary’s campaign has complained to the party.
His campaign speculates some of those who have been signed up might not even know they’re members.
The statement didn’t say whose campaign is involved in the allegations.
A Conservative party spokesman says the party is looking into O’Leary’s accusations and says any memberships obtained contrary to party rules will be eliminated and those people will be ineligible to vote.
“Our rules are clear, any person looking to join our party must do so by paying the membership fee out of their own pocket, and we will ensure that principle is followed,” Cory Hahn said in an emailed statement…

Credit bureaus will scrub some unpaid tax debts, court judgments from reports, but those that remain will still sting

With mortgage insurance premiums rising, homebuyers whose down payments are just shy of 20 per cent may be considering whether to tap extra sources of credit in order to avoid the higher costs.
But mortgage brokers say recent government rule changes lessen the case for doing so because people may end up paying a higher interest rate on their mortgage in addition to the additional debt they will have to repay.
“What we’re seeing in the market now is people that have insured mortgages are getting much better interest rates than someone with 20 per cent down,” says Steve Pipkey, co-founder of Vancouver-based Spin Mortgage.
Ottawa announced new restrictions last fall to portfolio insurance, a type of bulk insurance that lenders would use to insure mortgages with down payments of 20 per cent or more.
That has made it more difficult for lenders to insure mortgages with lower loan-to-value ratios and resulted in more competitive rates for borrowers with smaller down payments, brokers say…

One of Canada’s top consumers watchdogs says it was planning on reviewing sales practices at Canadian banks since January, when it saw a surge in complaints from customers about being signed up for credit cards that they hadn’t asked for.