It’s everything normal with Canadian politics this week as Canadians were once again treated to a feast of Canadian political fare as RCMP and election Canada officials coordinated a morning raid on Conservative party headquarters last week, turning over every stone looking in every closet and corner, in an attempt to uncover revealing e-mails, memos, documents and invoices that would shed the light of truth on evidence of a possible skirting of the rules of conduct by the Tories in the last Canadian federal election.

Legal documents released Monday contain the names of several cabinet ministers whose ridings received campaign advertisement funds from Conservative headquarters during the last election with strict instructions to immediately return the shekels to the party by overt means. The ministers mentioned were Communications Minister Josse Verner, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, and Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier.

Apparently, the information used to obtain the search warrant was gathered through interviews and a legal document which forced advertisement purchasing firm Retail Media to unwillingly provide officials with documents that provided the basis for the issuing of the search warrant to Tory headquarters.

The affidavit by Elections Canada investigator Robert Lamothe alleges that Tory musical-chair advertisement transactions permitted the Conservatives to spend more than 1 million or more shekels over and above its legal campaign advertising limit of $18 million. That Conservative Fund Canada, the Conservative party’s official agent, filed financial returns that it probably knew or should have known contained materially false or misleading statements. During the 2006 campaign, the party quickly shifted funds from its national office into – and then quickly out of—67 local ridings in an attempt to obscure the amount it was spending on its national advertising campaign. Allegations have even gone so far as to suggest that documents, possibly invoices were altered or created by someone, to dupe the unperceptive.

How much effect would extra funds have in turning the attention of undecided voters to the cause of the Conservative Party? NDP and Liberal party members commented that the extra funds could have directly lead to the electoral battle being tilted in the Conservative direction, securing a minority government for Stephen Harper in the January 2006 ballot.

The movement of advertising shekels between the national Conservative coffers and local candidates is directly controlled by Conservative Fund Canada and the Conservative party of Canada. This in itself makes their denials normal, yet absurd, but understandable, if I was caught manipulating the picture to reflect a lie, I would be a little embarrassed too. There is the problem, they truly don’t see anything wrong with their actions, and it has become a part of Canadian political culture to outright lie, to not reveal all the facts, to sit tight lipped and indignant in the face of all criticism.

The whole affair has the legal and political debate halls ringing with the sounds of raised voices arguing about the morals and ethics involved in a political culture such as Canada’s, for our part its obvious these things cannot be governed and monitored by the culture of politics if we are to have concrete change.

How do we start to make concrete changes to this political culture? First, concerned individuals, financially independent and morally respected, should be contacted to form an independent group to watchdog all political actions, by all parties and individuals that are apart of the Canadian political culture. Real power to conduct lawful investigations into possible violations of the rules of conduct and law during all political functions within the Canadian political culture should be given to this group, to allow evidence to be obtained against any individuals thinking they are above the rules of Canadian law and conduct. This evidence can then be used by Canadian legal authorities to bring any breaking of the rules to the attention of the Canadian voter and allow for subsequent punishment or reimbursement or individuals or groups involved in any nefarious Canadian political affairs.

The biggest problem with the plan of course will be finding the financially independent, yet morally respected individuals, to form the watchdog political group tasked with being the Canadian political watchdog, not a job I want.