Ethical Oil, the pro oil-sands non profit organization that claims to have no government backing, appears to share the same mailing address as Treasury Board President and Conservative MP Tony Clement's old campaign office. Clement's office has denied any connection and questioned the validity of the source.
A 2004 post from The Free Dominion, a website for "principled Conservatism", mentions Clement's campaign, and includes a Toronto mailing address for his campaign:
Fourteen Canadian Alliance Councillors say: CHOOSE TONY
Fourteen members of the former Canadian Alliance National Council released a statement today, declaring their support for Tony Clement’s campaign for Conservative Leader.
[...]
Tony Clement Campaign
PO Box 1047, 31 Adelaide St. East
Toronto, ON M5C 2K4
Toll Free 1-866-257-4499
Direct 416-848-8180
That address is the same as that of the Ethical Oil campaign.
Screenshot from Ethical Oil website.
Tony Clement's communications director Jennifer Gearey told the Vancouver Observer that it was "sheer coincidence" the addresses were the same, asking if living in the same house as a previous tenant indicated a connection between the residents. She requested the story to be removed from the Vancouver Observer website.
"The balance of probabilities makes me think that the P.O. box is still under the control of the Ontario PC party," said Vancouver-based analyst Ian McGugan, who first notified The Vancouver Observer about the mailing addresses of the Clement campaign and the Ethical Oil website.
Whatever the case, Ethical Oil donations go to a mailing address in Ontario, while Ethical Oil: the case for Canada's oil sands author Ezra Levant, who was also the site's initiator, is based in Calgary and the main spokesperson for the campaign, Kathryn Marshall, works in Vancouver. Marshall was formerly a development associate at the Fraser Institute, a right-wing think tank.