Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion has run out of time.  He was supposed to have paid off his debts from his leadership bid.  Stephane Dion has failed:

Conservatives are using Stephane Dion's lingering leadership debt of roughly $600,000 to bolster their mantra that the Liberal boss is not a leader.

Dion and his former rivals are legally entitled to ask the chief electoral officer to give them more time to repay loans and outstanding bills. But Poilievre signalled that the Tories will use any extensions to accuse Elections Canada of giving Liberals "preferential treatment'' and helping them break the law.

Now let's be clear.  An extension is not illegal, as such.  Stephane Dion insists he is following the rules:

"I will respect the rules of Elections Canada, something that Mr. (Stephen) Harper and his party are not doing,'' Dion said, predicting that no one will take the misleading Tory attacks seriously.

So what rulse are we talking about, exactly?  Here is the rule covering extensions:

435.38 (1) The Chief Electoral Officer, on the written application of a leadership contestant or his or her financial agent, may authorize

(a) the extension of a period provided in subsection 435.3(4) or 435.35(3); or

(b) the correction, within a specified period, of a document referred to in subsection 435.3(1) or updated document referred to in subsection 435.35(1).

(2) An application may be made (a) under paragraph (1)(a), within the period provided in subsection 435.3(4) or 435.35(3), as the case may be; and

(b) under paragraph (1)(b), as soon as the applicant becomes aware of the need for correction.

(3) The Chief Electoral Officer may not authorize an extension or correction unless he or she is satisfied by the evidence submitted by the applicant that the circumstances giving rise to the application arose by reason of

(a) the illness of the applicant;

(b) the absence, death, illness or misconduct of the financial agent or a predecessor;

(c) the absence, death, illness or misconduct of a clerk or an officer of the financial agent, or a predecessor of one of them; or

(d) inadvertence or an honest mistake of fact.

So on what grounds will Stephane Dion be granted an extension?  Section 435.38 (3) allows for illness (Stephane Dion is looking fine), the disappearance, death, or illness of Stephane Dion's financial officer or his key staff (nope, all accounted for), or gross misconduct (wouldn't rule it out, but not likely).

That only leaves inadvertence or an honest mistake of fact.  This can't be too hard to figure out.  Here's my try at it:

Stephane Dion inadvertently put off raising a million dollars to the last minute, and he honestly, but mistakenly, believed as a Liberal, he would automatically be prime minister within a few weeks of becoming leader.

Well, maybe not.  Sounds lame, but then I'm not the Chief Electoral Officer.  The Chief Electoral Officer is the one who needs to be convinced that Stephane Dion acted inadvertently, or that Stephane Dion was mistaken about the facts.

The important thing is that Stephane Dion thinks he's obeying the law, and it is unlikely that the Chief Electoral Officer will inadvertently tell Stephane Dion that he is mistaken on that fact.

Boy, I'd love to see that written application.