Watergate North

I'm quite concerned about the ramifications of the police raid on the Conservative Party headquarters as it's ultimately an attack against democracy. I understand Elections Canada were unable to obtain a search warrant in Ottawa, so they did so through Toronto.

...copying everything from payroll information to the strategy for a coming election.

"All of our financials ... payroll records, strategy for the campaign ... obviously there are discussion papers on that.

I'm dubious whether it's standard operating procedure to be able to obtain such a broad based warrant, nevertheless it's unseemly and in the need to protect democracy the judge should have erred on the side of democracy by appearing to be very much seemly:

the official insists that material taken from the headquarters did not pertain to the case being investigated by the watchdog organization.

The United States had Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein while we in Canada are treated to the spectacle of the raiding of party offices in broad daylight (as a tendentious media applauds); which to my mind can only be for partisan purposes as all parties engage in the same 'in-and-out scheme', however only the Tories are investigated? The Tories

communications plan...turned into a communications debacle

I know these bylines write themselves but wouldn't you be paranoid too if the media were outside cheerleading as the raid is executed. I listened to John Geddes of Macleans deny the possibility of partisanship, as EC is supposed to be non-partisan and the ramifications are unthinkable. Indeed! Not to mention that they're stealing from Conservative Party members when they take election strategy minutes. Thankfully:

the police, who executed the search for the Election Commissioner, did not get membership or donation lists that were housed on a different system.

Steve Janke has posted extensively on this topic.