Could it be brain damage? Memory loss? No, just another CONjob.

Dean Del Mastro:    Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party of Canada always provides all documents requested by Elections Canada. In fact, we provide Elections Canada with full reports on all our campaigns. The Conservative Party of Canada ran a clean and ethical campaign. That is what the evidence demonstrates.   (Hansard, February 29, 2012)

On April 15, 2008, the RCMP executed a search warrant at Conservative Party Headquarters on behalf of the Elections Commissioner in order to seize documents related to the investigation of the In and Out scam. The warrant alleges that not only did the party exceed the maximum amount allowed for election expenses but the Conservative Fund may also have filed financial returns "that it knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a materially false or misleading statements."

An unidentified staffer opens the door for a plainclothes RCMP officer during a raid on Conservative Party headquarters in Ottawa on April 15, 2008.

Beyond any arguments or spin

The Conservative Party does not need to look into "robocalls" made during the last federal election any further, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.  "It's certainly not something our party condones."  But he told CBC News in New Glasgow, N.S., that he believes the calls directing people to wrong or non-existent polling places were isolated incidents.

Isolated, co-ordinated, funded, well connected incidents in which the perpertrators had access not only to call centres and robo services, but to voters’ lists and could sign off on the expense to the party.

I’m sure the CONs don’t have to look further into this because they know what went on.  It’s the rest of Canada that needs to have the truth brought out.

Ibbitson and Nanos think harper – and that means the Harper party – can survive this if he manages to avoid being directly linked to this very serious scandal.  I disagree.  Look what Adscam did to Paul Martin and the Liberals even when he chose to have his party investigated by an impartial body.  Martin was not found to be involved, but the taint of corruption clung to the entire party.

This may be the one harper can’t shake.  It goes beyond what even the most cynical people excuse of politicians: lining their pockets, favouring pals, abusing public funds.  This hits our sense of what is fair.  We don’t like cheaters.  They leave a really bad taste in our mouth.  We never really trust them after that.  And this goes beyond cheating.  It is the same criminal behavior corrupt governments in other countries engage in to impose their self-serving will on those they are supposed to represent.  Hell, we send observers to such countries to monitor their elections so that they don’t engage in voter suppression.  We send our troops to other countries to fight regimes that practice such corruption.

Pat Martin sees why this could be the scandal Canadians won’t ignore:

“The number of indiscretions has reached critical mass but the difference between this issue and previous indiscretions is that it’s so easy to understand. This is an issue of basic fairness. The in and out scandal was a complicated financial transaction that takes awhile to explain. This one, you know, any school kid could understand. It’s wrong to lie to people for your own self interest. It sullies our democracy. It speaks to a conspiracy to defraud.”

Lawrence Martin also sees the growing “number of indiscretions” as a major problem underlying harper’s and the CONs’ ability to come out of this one relatively unharmed. 
He gives a good list,  Worth the read, to remind us, since there have been so many.

Using Del Mastro and Airshow as spokespersons on this doesn’t help, either.  Del Mastro always carries that bully, oily sheen that naturally causes many to feel the snake oil salesman/repo man has been sent to deal with customers, and Petey?  He can barely cope with the barge of accusations directed at him.  Having someone who is more and more viewed as a liar and an elitist who uses public servants to attempt to sully the reputation of his critics is hardly someone who is credible in saying there’s nothing to see here, folks, we’re just ever so honest and ethical.

The biggest thing harper has going for him is time.  With a majority, he can hope that the economy tanks so much, people will forget about corrupt election practices, but that’ll only work if Canadians keep believing, against all evidence, that the CONs are the best ones to get us out of the mess.  And I don’t think that lie will hold much longer.

Or harper can distract us with another war, but with the economy as it is, will that really work to his benefit?  Again, I doubt it.  Failure in Afghanistan will be even more apparent over the next few years as all Canada has sacrificed in lives and money is shown to have accomplished little long term. 

And there’s the CONs themselves who simply won’t use that time to their advantage.  They have proven in this past year that a majority has snapped the collar on their arrogance and they seem to think they are above all laws.  That simply can’t hold when the rest of Canadians face job cuts, tax increases, threats to benefits and OAS, cuts to services.
You can’t build a stone mansion on a makeshift, wooden foundation.

Mandatory Poilievre

Pirate Fish says:  Listen to Dominic!

“They'll have to tear up their talking points because they've just been demolished,” Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc said Tuesday.

That would be these talking points:

Poilievre: Mr. Speaker, this is a five-year-old accounting dispute.  Fortunately, the Federal Court has ruled in favour of the Conservative Party and against Elections Canada.  (Hansard, Feb. 28, 2011)

and it would be due to this:

A civil court victory the Conservative Party has touted as vindication against charges of election wrongdoing has been unanimously overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal. The ruling confirms Elections Canada's interpretation of electoral spending laws and says it was reasonable for the electoral watchdog to reject the way the Conservative Party reported national advertising expenses for the 2006 election.

I predict the next CON approach to answering charges by not answering will be to shift their attack from Elections Canada and attack those damn, interfering courts Kenney is always going on about.  There they go doing their job again, damn legal eagles.  They are such sticklers for law and order, getting tough on illegal activities.

Just don’t wait too long, Michael

"We wait and see and watch what the government does," Mr. Ignatieff told The Canadian Press, when asked about the prospect of an election. "If they're prepared to work with other parties in the House then, you know, that's fine. If not, then we'll have to take our responsibilities."

Seriously, Ignatieff.  Do you really think some pivotal event will turn this around for the Liberals, offering them a better time to call an election?

Hey, ignore me if you want to, I’m just a voter.  What do I know?  I’m sure you and your advisers know what I want better than I do, right?

Just consider a few things, though:

While the Liberals have been waiting and seeing, they propped up Harper & Co. so many times that more and more people have lost hope that the party stands for anything concrete.

While the Liberals have been waiting and seeing, Harper has been using taxpayer money to fund a 4 ½ year election campaign.

While the Liberals have been waiting and seeing, Harper has been replacing key personnel in those very agencies meant to hold the elected government accountable so that he is more able to hide the truth of the damage he has been doing to this country.

While the Liberals have been waiting and seeing, Harper has been undermining the non-partisan nature of the public service so that more and more it is becoming an extension of his power which he can use to help him win the next election.

While the Liberals have been waiting and seeing, Harper has been closing access to information, making it more difficult to fight him with the truth next election.

While the Liberals have been waiting and seeing, Harper has been using his lap dogs to set up a media agency that will serve up his propaganda during the next election.

And while the Liberals wait and see, Harper will make sure that his pet media people get whatever they need to fund and push Steve’s propaganda onto the nation. 

I’ve said it before: these actions by the CONs aren’t political activities, they are attacks on our democracy in order to bludgeon it into compliancy.   To all opposition parties: quit giving Harper’s undemocratic actions legitimacy by waiting for that perfect time and reason to toss his destructive, selfish, sorry ass into political limbo forever.

He has given Canada and Canadians more than enough reason as he has lied to us; withheld vital information from us; sent our troops to die so that he could feed off their glory only to cast them into the gutter when they return in pain; repeatedly snubbed Parliament as he prorogued; ignored committees and deadlines; seriously damaged the public service through his relentless attacks on public servants; enabled torture; struck several blows against women’s rights; undermined  minorities' advances; set back aboriginals and homosexuals; stepped up the level of intolerance in Canada; fostered fear in Canadians; was fiscally irresponsible and off the mark repeatedly; changed our international reputation from one of compassion to one which is tight fisted, mean, backwards; clearly set a line between law enforcement personnel and the Canadians they are sworn to protect by the attitude that we are all really no more than potential criminals who need to be kept in our designated place;  removed tools necessary for social and economic equality...

There are just a few reasons Canadians should go to the polls again.  Some of us already know this.  Now, Ignatieff, convince the rest.

Pirate Fish says Poilievre is awesomely doltish

Elections Canada “is using tax payers dollars to lose awesomely in two different court cases...” says little Pierre.  He was, of course, referring to Elections Canada’s investigation into the in-and-out cheating scam the Cons ran during an election.

The pudden-head Poilievre abused the Procedure and House Affairs Committee - doing what Steve pays him to do: attack like a rabid weasel - as Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand appeared to discuss Elections Canada's 2009 supplementary estimates,

And as with a rabid weasel attack, it was ludicrous, disproportionate, and unwarranted.  Elections Canada must not be threatened by budget cuts when such threats are so blatantly linked to a party seeking to shut it up or discredit it for their own partisan, ass-saving purposes.  It was doing what it was mandated to do: protect our democracy by investigating a bunch of cheaters and liars who would do anything to win despite what the electorate wants.

If spending money on a losing case is the criteria for whether or not funds should be available, maybe the Pompous Little Prick can explain why it is just perfectly fine to have spent 1.3 million dollars to date on fighting a legal battle to deny democratic rights to a Canadian.

Awesomely obvious Pierre is a fool.