No fraud charges laid in 2017 UCP leadership race investigation

No charges will be laid in the fraud investigation into the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race, Alberta RCMP announced Friday.

Since 2019, provincial police have been investigating allegations of voter fraud as well as fraud in connection to candidate Jeff Callaway’s so-called Kamikaze campaign.

Callaway dropped out of the race on Oct. 4, 2017, and endorsed Jason Kenney, who became UCP leader on Oct. 28 with just over 60 per cent of the votes.

In February 2019, Prab Gill, a member of Kenney's team at the time of the vote, sent a complaint to Alberta RCMP and an investigation was launched.

On Friday, police announced the investigation did not find Callaway committed a crime and while they found around 200 "suspicious votes," there was "insufficient evidence" to lay charges.

"We found no evidence in our conversations and interviews, and we had cooperation from the candidates, that there was not a willingness to take on the leadership role if Mr. Callaway had won the leadership contest, and that is very, very relevant to whether or not this would've been a fraud under the criminal code," Supt. Rick Jané told reporters in Edmonton.

"I welcome this outcome to the thorough, multi-year and costly investigation by the RCMP," Callaway wrote in a statement after the news conference.

Kenney, who served as Alberta's premier from 2019 to 2022, said: "I am pleased that the RCMP investigation into the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership election has been closed, confirming categorically what I have said all along: that there was no wrong doing [sic] on the part of me or my campaign.

"My own campaign was run in careful compliance with all of the rules."

Voter fraud investigation

The RCMP investigated allegations that people created emails to receive Personal Identification Numbers to vote on behalf of others without their consent.

Police analyzed data for the 60,000 people who voted — but not who they voted for — and found nearly 200 suspicious votes.

"We have evidence to suggest there was potential fraud in the case of those votes but it's important to clarify that those matters have not been tested in court, and there was insufficient evidence to lay a charge and our biggest obstacle was being able to satisfy ourselves that we would have sufficient evidence around the identity of the persons responsible to prove that," Jané said.

"We don't know who's responsible, but based on various factors we don't believe this was one person or persons acting in concert."

Political scientist Duane Bratt believes in the quality of the investigation, saying it boils down to what police could prove.

"There is always going to be a little bit of fraud in an election; I guess the question is to what degree," Duane Bratt said.

"I just don't think it raised to the level of criminal activity or that i could raise to the level of criminal activity, but that doesn't mean it wasn't unethical."

Kenney won the leadership race with 36,625 votes and Brian Jean finished second with 18,336 votes.

Sixty-five people worked on the five-year investigation and they conducted 563 formal interviews.

More than $450,000 was spent on overtime and travel expenses.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski