Lois Johnson is someone I respect and trust. A long time organizer within the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and from the beginning with the Conservative Party, Lois is exactly the sort of person you want to see involved in politics. Smart and completely fair and honest, she is one of the good ones.

Currently Lois is president of the Vancouver South Conservative Electoral District Association; in a life before the David Emerson affair, I was secretary of that EDA. Currently Lois is the campaign manager for the riding's candidate who I have heard some good things about, Ms. Wai Young.

Lois is the penultimate backroom powerhouse, preferring to put her seemingly limitless energy and organizational skills into action without getting into the limelight.

Therefore I was a little surprised to see Lois quoted in a news story this morning regarding a contract and grant which Ms. Young's company had won.

The funding from Citizenship and Immigration was earmarked to pay for the LINC Administrators Conference 2008, a professional-development event on language instruction for newcomers to Canada. The three-day conference was held in June at the airport Holiday Inn in Toronto.

Ms. Young was unavailable for comment, but her campaign said yesterday that she had consulted with the federal ethics commissioner, Mary Dawson, to ensure that the work did not put her in a conflict of interest.

"She was concerned that her opponents might draw the wrong conclusions about this work, and she wanted the focus in her campaign to be on the real issues," campaign manager Lois Johnson wrote in an e-mail. "Therefore, she also took it upon herself to step away from her business during the course of the election campaign, despite the Ethics Commissioner's advice that there is no conflict."

Although Citizenship and Immigration lists the $578,590 for Wai Young & Associates under its "grants and contributions" section, Ms. Johnson said the contract was awarded by Citizenship and Immigration's Ontario regional office after Ms. Young responded to a request-for-proposal, a process used in government tendering.

The Liberals have put out a media release accusing the government of funnelling funds to a candidate. I see no evidence of that whatsoever, although clearly there is a need to be above reproach if one is running for office. It appears Ms. Young has taken steps to ensure she was.

Not noted in the article, in addition to being this year's LINC conference organizer, Ms. Young was the master of ceremonies at the LINC conference the year prior. Another firm not related to Ms. Young received the contract grant to host the conference in 2007.

I don't know Ms. Young at all, but I do know Lois Johnson well. My experience with Lois is that she is honest to a fault and based on that I see no scandal here.