Senator Mike Duffy and Senator Pamela Wallin were both paid campaign expenses by Conservative election candidates in the 2011 federal election, Elections Canada records show.

Election campaign appearances by Senator Mike Duffy in 2011 that are now part of a controversy over his Senate expense claims during the same time period, were part of a tour of campaign stops by high-profile party members organized by the national Conservative campaign headquarters to boost local candidates, says a Nova Scotia Conservative MP who shared in paying Senator Duffy’s expenses.

The Finance Department alone plans to spend $10-million on its own over the next 12 months on the federal government’s ‘Economic Action Plan’ budget advertisements, which will bring total costs for the controversial ad campaign to a minimum of $104.8-million over four years.

Meanwhile, the government’s conflict of interest commissioner has formally contacted Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office in an investigation into how and why the PM’s chief of staff rescued Conservative Senator Mike Duffy from a scandal over ineligible living and travel expense claims by giving the Senator $90,000 to repay the money before an independent audit report was made public.

Liberals say win indicates a change coming in Atlantic region, but tough to project Labrador byelection result nationally.

OpenText’s Tom Jenkins says government must now work as ‘convening power’ and bring research and commercial sectors together.