Given the headlines of the past week, this will come across as counterintuitive but when all is said and done, Elections Canada has more at stake in its escalating feud with the Conservatives than Stephen Harper.
If it turns out that the Conservatives did break the election rules in 2006, there will undoubtedly be a political price for the party to pay but in the end, a lost battle over its past campaign spending will not destroy it.
One only needs to see the Liberal resilience in the face of the sponsorship debacle to know that it takes more than a bit of acid to permanently corrode a major political brand in this country.
As a rule, voters tend to be more forgiving of parties' ethical breaches than politicians are of each other and more discerning in their application of the tar brush. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, who emerged personally unscathed from a scandal that literally took place in his political backyard, has cause to know that.
But if it should turn out that Elections Canada overplayed its hand, the cost to its institutional reputation could be prohibitive. A failure to make a persuasive case against the Conservatives would bolster allegations that vindictiveness played a part in its approach. It might never totally recover from the loss of confidence that would ensue. Source...
