Elections Canada came knocking on the door of Conservative Party headquarters:

The raid came after Elections Canada asked the Mounties to execute a search warrant.

At least two police officers entered the office, and later rolled a cart full of boxes and bags out of the 12th floor downtown Ottawa office and into a mail room.

Then elections official Andre Thouin left the office with a box of documents.

Well, that's not all.  Email is not working at headquarters, as the party servers are offline while the disks are being checked.

What is Elections Canada looking for?  The evidence of the in-and-out advertising is already in the open.  In fact, the only reason the sharp-eyed hawks at Elections Canada even know about the payment arrangement is because the Tories put it all in the election returns for everyone to see.

Why?  Because the Conservatives thought it was all above board.  In fact, the Conservatives have taken the Elections Canada decision to court so that a judge can decide on the correct interpretation of the law.

Imagine I had an argument with a cop over a speeding ticket.  I know this cop, and I make it clear that I want to challenge the ticket in court.  I was going to call into question the cop's spotty record with maintaining his radar gun.  The day before the court case, the cop shows up at my door, and informs me that he's impounding my car to check the brakes and steering system in case it is relevant to the case.

Does that seem right?  It doesn't to me.  In any case, common sense says the same cop who is going to be defending the ticket (and his own competence) ought not to be using his enforcement powers in this last minute attempt to bolster his case, not when the courts are already involved.

Maybe it's not a perfect analogy, but there is something not quite right about all this.

Elections Canada looked over the returns.  Elections Canada rendered a decision.  The Conservatives decided to contest the decision.  So now Elections Canada starts serving search warrants? 

What if the Conservatives had not contested the decision?  Does anyone believe Elections Canada would be raiding the office today?  I don't. 

This is an attempt to bolster the case, a case Elections Canada knows to be weak.

And the dramatics?  Well, it suits Elections Canada to flex its organizational muscles.  I've been told that for weeks, Elections Canada has said nothing to the Conservative Party about this issue.  There is a scheduled meeting tomorrow though.

In fact, the meeting tomorrow was to put Elections Canada in the spotlight:

During question period on Tuesday, the Tories said they have done nothing wrong. Prime Minister Stephen Harper noted that the Tories have launched court action against the Elections Canada over the issue and they were set to question elections officials on Wednesday.

And the day before the meeting in which Elections Canada officials would be questioned, Elections Canada pulls this stunt.

There's more weirdness, but I'm going to hold off for now, just because I think some of the information is fully baked yet.

Addendum:  The most worrisome thing about this is that if Elections Canada is playing fast and loose in a fight with the Conservatives that has gone beyond a mere interpretation of the law, who would trust Elections Canada to keep the information it collected confidential?  We already know the media was on the scene quickly enough.  In fact, the CBC was there ahead of everyone.  I'm not saying the CBC is going to get any of this data collected today...but I'm not saying the CBC is not going to get it either.

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