Thats an election official leaving Conservative Party office with files (Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press).

Just when Canadian political news coverage has slowed down to a crawl, the RCMP and Elections Canada just dropped the mother of all political bombs.

The allegation is basically around election money laundering. The accusation is that Conservatives gave $1.2 million to their own candidates which they then transfered to the national fund which was used for advertising, if its true it would be an illegal scheme to get around donation, spending and government refund limits. Currently there is a civil suit between Tories and Election Canada, I expect it to escalate beyond that to charges being laid if there was enough to secure a permit to enter their offices.

It looks like Christmas has come twice for Dion, first with Mulroney and now this. The reason why this is so damaging is because it will be hitting Conservatives at the core of their message. Harper has claimed he has cleaned up government but fighting Elections Canada in a law suit over financial schemes will damage that core message of accountability.

As tempting as it may be, Liberals and NDP should let the media report on this and do the damage. Turning this into a partizan issue will take away from the credibility of the alligations. Opposition parties should then release plans (through a private members bill) on how they plan to clean up the rules to insure that this will not happen in the future, refocusing the debate on to their message. The more difficult choice is whether to call an election within the month or wait until September/October and risk people forgetting about the scandal. I think Dion will worry about the “summer vocation syndrum” and organizational readiness. As a result, I still stand by my previous prediction that Dion will wait for September/October to make his last stand because if he looses, he will be as finished as Paul Martin.

Oh yeah and to top it off, the defence chief steppted down, what a day.