Angry in the Great White North

The Canadian Press is reporting that the Tories have won their fight against Elections Canada in the so-called In-and-Out controversy:

The Conservatives have won their "in-and-out" court battle with Elections Canada over ad spending during the 2006 federal election campaign.

A Federal Court judge today set aside the chief electoral officer's decision to refuse to certify $1.2 million in challenged expenses.

The judgment is a blow to Elections Canada, which argued that national radio and television advertising should have been claimed as expenses by the party rather than by individual candidates.

It means the Tories are entitled to partial reimbursements for the spending.

Elections Canada says it will review the decision before deciding whether to appeal.

As with many of these sorts of decisions, the impact is much larger than just the money, or the ad campaigns, or the fact that Liberal bloggers will moan and groan and secretly draw pictures of Conservatives being tortured and shot as a form of therapy.

Elections Canada claimed that the ads in question were "national".  The Tories claimed that the ad named the local candidate, and that this was local enough.  Part of the Conservative argument was that Elections Canada ought not to be in the business of passing editorial judgment on whether the content of the ad would be of sufficient interest to local voters.  Indeed, in a federal election, the issues are national in nature.

This win could see Elections Canada being directed to pull back and focus on tracking the money and expense claims and such, and not act as film critics.  Though I doubt many in Elections Canada would agree with me, this is a good thing for them.  Set objective measurable standards for an advertisement (size of the candidate's name, time on screen, relative size to other names, and so on), and leave content to the people paying for the ad.  If they put out an ad that does nothing to interest or excite the voter, they'll pay for that at the ballot box.  Elections Canada doesn't need to be involved, and if I was working at Elections Canada, I'd be relieved that I was no longer expected to be an arbiter of the quality of advertising content.

Biggest what?  Remember this gem?

Liberal House leader Ralph Goodale called it "the biggest electoral scandal in Canadian history."

Gee, I think issuing millions in untendered advertising contracts so that part of the money could be kicked back to the party in power to use in election campaigns would have been bigger.

Oh yes, and in that case, Liberals went to jail over the scandal.  This was a fight over a refund.  And it looks like the Tories will get their refund, having fought for it in the courts, and not hiding in the shadows and passing unmarked cash-stuffed envelopes around in restaurants.