The Conservative Party is moving to ban the use of pre-paid credit cards to purchase memberships after Pierre Poilievre warned they could be used to fraudulently buy the leadership.
The party quickly reversed its position on the use of pre-paid credit cards Thursday, after the Poilievre camp demanded they be banned and the party cancel any memberships purchased with them since Feb.
2. Read more: Poilievre camp raises concerns over membership ‘fraud’ in Conservative race “The party (and the Conservative Fund) will not be accepting pre-paid cards for membership or donations for this leadership race,” wrote Wayne Benson, the party’s executive director, in a memo to leadership campaigns obtained by Global News.
Benson said the party will be cancelling memberships purchased with pre-paid cards back to Feb. 2, as the Poilievre camp demanded. “Soon we will be issuing instructions to campaigns on a collaborative plan to resolve legitimate memberships that are cancelled as a result of this retroactive change.” It was a major reversal for the party, which on Monday told the leadership campaigns that it would continue to accept pre-paid cards.