It might be time for the Chief Electoral Officer to step aside

Some of us have been saying this for a long, long time. It's good to finally get some reinforcement from a few politicans, past and present.

Memo to the Parliamentary Press Gallery, and more particularly to those scribes in our national print and broadcast media - the ones who have nothing better to do each week than write about Laureen Harper's adopted cats and David Miller's windshield wiper fluid - if this were happening in Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Cuba or Afghanistan you'd be covering it, writing about it, or at least thinking about it.

As a recap, and as a public service, the following is happening, right here, in Canada.

A Chief Electoral Officer is publicly declaring an by-election valid despite Court findings to the contrary, including an admission from the Party Leader that he funneled illegal donations by way of government cash into the campaign.

The day before being named Chief Electoral Officer by the current Premier, the current Chief Electoral Officer held executive position with the Progressive Conservative Party, serving as the president of an electoral district association.

Previously, the Chief Electoral Officer was the President of the Premier's political party.

The Chief Electoral Officer did not oversee the by-election campaign in question, and hasn't even investigated the complaints or the facts which were presented in court, agreed to by all sides, and formed part of the evidence convicting a provincial cabinet minister to a two year prison sentence.

Instead, the Chief Electoral Officer has publicly concluded that the by election must be valid and upheld, by reason of the fact that the member who was the recipient of the illegal donations won subsequent re-election. The Chief Electoral Officer refuses to investigate.

In Newfoundland & Labrador, which is still part of Canada, this is what passes for democracy.