The Liberals are in it now.  Stephen Harper has delivered a notice of intent to sue Stephane Dion, Michael Ignatieff, Ralph Goodale, and the Liberal Party over the allegations made that Stephen Harper knew of an alleged bribe attempt aimed at Chuck Cadman in 2005:

Mr. Harper filed a notice of libel suit Monday against Mr. Dion, two other top members of his caucus and the party. Court documents obtained by CTV and The Globe and Mail say two articles published on the Liberal website were “devastatingly defamatory” to the Prime Minister.

The notice of libel, which also names Liberal Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff and House Leader Ralph Goodale, takes on the Opposition for saying that Mr. Harper knew Conservative party officials attempted to bribe Mr. Cadman to vote against a Liberal budget in the spring of 2005.

You can see the notice of intent here (click on the image to call up the PDF):

I've read through it in detail, and what strikes me is the intense interest in the communications that went on:

8. We give you notice that you must preserve and not alter any paper or electronic files or other data generated by and/or stored on your computers and storage medua (e.g. hard disks, floppy disks, backup tapes), or any other electronic data, such as voice mail or data on other devices such as Blackberries relating to matters addressed by this Notice of Libel.  Failure to comply with this notice may result in sanctions being imposed by the Court (and liability in tort) for spoliation of evidence or potential evidence.  Additionally, failure to preserve and disclose any relevant electronic document or evidence would run counter to the Guidelines for Discovery of Electronic Documents in Ontario which may subject you to sanctions.

9. Electronic data and storage media that may be subject to our discovery requests and that you are obligated to maintain and not alter include but are not limited to the following:

(i) all digital or analog electronic files, including "deleted" files and file fragments, stored in machine-readable format on magnetic, optical, or other storage media, including the hard drives or floppy disks used by your computers and their backup media related to the drafting and publication of the articles in issue in this Notice of Libel;

(ii) all of the e-mails, both sent and received, whether internally or externally; all word-processed files, including drafts and revisions from individuals involved in the drafting an publication of the articles in issue in this Notice of Libel;

(iii) all data created with the use of personal data assistants of individuals involved in the drafting and publication of the articles in issue in this Notice of Libel;

(iv) all data created with the use of document-management software; all data created with the use of paper and electronic mail logging and routing software involved in the drafting and publication of the articles in issue in this Notice of Libel;

(v) all Internet and Web-browser-generated history files, caches, and "cookie" files relating to the drafting and publication of the articles in issue in this Notice of Libel;

(vi) any and all other files generated by users involved in the drafting and publication of the articles through the use of computers and/or telecommunications; including by not limited to voice mail and cell phones of all individuals in the drafting and publication of the articles in issue in this Notice of Libel.

How can the Liberals possibly run the risk of a court allowing this level of discovery to proceed?  How many computers would be removed from Liberal headquarters?  How many cell phones and BlackBerries?  Every person named in an email referring to the Liberal position on the Chuck Cadman controversy would have to hand over their email accounts and cell phones.  Even people who were just cc'ed on an email would be subject to review.  How many Liberals, senior and junior, would be covered by this discovery motion?  Dozens?  A hundred?  More?

Even though a third party appointed by the court would be responsible for looking through all the material to identify what was relevant, it would still represent a major disruption of the Liberal Party's ability to operate.

This libel suit is not about protecting Stephen Harper's reputation, or not just about that.

This libel suit is a move designed to explode an electronic grenade into the heart of the Liberal Party's IT operation. 

Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are not acting defensively.  They saw the allegedly libelous statements made by the Liberal Party on their website, and recognized an opportunity.

Libel me on your website?  Right then.  Give us all your computers and cell phones.

And what about Stephane Dion?  I wonder if he is fielding phone calls from Liberals who know they were mentioned in an email or in a phone call, and want to know exactly what Stephane Dion is going to do to keep their email archives and BlackBerries from being laid out in front of Conservative Party lawyers.

Some leaders might command enough loyalty from their people that their people would be willing to put up with the inconvenience (and potential legal risk) of having their electronic communications examined by the courts, if it meant helping their leader out.

Is Stephane Dion a leader who commands that sort of loyalty?

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