Prime Minister Stephen Harper richly deserves the mockery he has been getting in Parliament over the Conservatives’ sleazy bid to circumvent spending limits in the 2005-06 election campaign that brought them to power, and his own obtuse refusal to admit that the party did anything wrong.

The ground is being cut out from under Harper’s claim that the Tories did not exceed the spending cap in force at the time when they shifted advertising cash around their national and local campaigns in an elaborate “in-and-out” scheme that Elections Canada saw as a bid to get around spending limits.

The agency says the Conservatives improperly sought to overspend their $18.3 million ceiling by more than $1 million.

This week three justices of the Federal Court of Appeal stoked the long-running controversy when they sided with Elections Canada’s interpretation of the rules and against the Conservatives, in a unanimous judgment arising from a civil suit brought by two Tory candidates.

Mincing no words, Justice John Evans and his colleagues called the Conservative scheme a “cost-shifting arrangement,” and ruled that the Tory interpretation of the election law would “weaken compliance” with spending limits set by Parliament. “Abuses could well proliferate,” undermining the goal of “promoting a healthy democracy through levelling the electoral playing field.”

That left Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accusing Harper of encouraging his party to “defraud the Canadian taxpayer.” Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe mocked the Conservatives for hiding behind “falsehoods.” And New Democrat Jack Layton berated the Tories for “sinking into a financial scandal.”

This came just days after Elections Canada charged senators Doug Finley and Irving Gerstein and two other key figures in the Tory campaign with exceeding spending limits.

Yet despite this avalanche of woe Harper continues to shrug off criticism, and says the party will appeal this week’s ruling to the Supreme Court.

The Conservatives only invite more scorn by persisting with their threadbare claim that they are the victims of an “administrative dispute” and differences over “interpretations” of the law. As Liberal Dominic LeBlanc slyly noted in Parliament, “Mr. Speaker, there will be a lot of people in federal prisons tonight who will think they had an ‘administrative disagreement’ with the federal government.”

A party that campaigned to restore ethical governance cannot be comfortable being likened to criminals in denial, with election speculation in the air. Harper would do better to cut his losses, bow to Elections Canada’s better judgment, and accept responsibility for a sad chapter in the party’s history. This just gets worse.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: