Clean, Open (oops!) Government

Doesn't look good. Optics isn't everything, of course, but it does represent one whole hell of a lot of reality that something, somewhere, isn't quite right.

It isn't every day, after all, that the RCMP appear as the legally appointed policing authority to ensure that Canada's Commissioner of Elections, can unobstructedly enter Conservative Party Headquarters to remove potentially incriminating documents for perusal by, and at the behest of, Elections Canada.

Tempest in a teapot, say the Conservatives. A misunderstanding. An incorrect charge of malfeasance. All will be revealed, in the course of legal action: "We remain extremely confident in our legal position", Prime Minister Harper announced in the House of Commons.

Don't panic, don't draw unwarranted conclusions, sit tight and wait for the exculpatory explanation. But, will there be one? Sounds kind of um, unkosher from this end...?

And there are the Liberal operatives, beside themselves with the joy of newfound opportunity, video cameras in hand, filming the indignity of the Conservative headquarters being raided by the Mounties. Heaven-sent.

Mind, this wasn't being billed as a Mountie probe; they were simply acting as legal enablers, lest those party faithful at headquarters had sought to imperiously deny entry of Commissioner William Corbett to the premises. He's only doing his duty, after all.

Tasked to do so by Elections Canada. Who identified something strictly adverse in the series of peculiar financial transactions whereby funds were wire-transferred to local electoral candidates who in turn returned cash to the party through advertising purchases.

Thus handily seeking to overturn the official elections campaign expenses guidelines. Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand saw this procedure as legally questionable and refused Conservative advertising claims as representing legitimate expenses.

Not entitled to reimbursement as advertising expenses. and bringing the federal Conservatives over the spending limit for campaign spending by an inconvenient one million dollars. Wait!

The Conservatives aren't taking this passively, they've launched a lawsuit in Federal Court. Entirely legal, they say, and anyway, they're not the only ones doing it. As though. Tch, tch, how utterly embarrassing for the government. Didn't even see it coming.

Pulling swift and questionable tactics to obtain an advantage in the helter-skelter heat of election campaigning doesn't exactly qualify as "clean" and "open". Inconsequential, to be sure, but a piquant observation anyway.

Local isn't national, and the sleight-of-hand of making it appear legal by appending a discreet tagline referencing local candidates doesn't quite cover for the fact that it was the federal end of the campaign this scheme was cooked up to benefit.

Well, we'll all have to wait and see what portends to result from claims and disclaimers, won't we?