The Harper government is facing allegations of illegal activity regarding their campaign financing for the election of 2006, when the Conservative initially took power.  The allegations are that they exceeded the campaign spending limit by more than $ 1 million and enabled 67 individual candidates to receive 60% refunds from the public on campaign spending they did not incur.  The Conservative Party is referring to it as an administrative mistake while Ignatieff is referring to it as “criminal charges”.  The reality of it is that it is illegal but since it is not in the Criminal Code, it is not criminal.  These allegations come at a time when it is believed that an election is just around the corner.  As seen in one of my previous blogs, the Conservative Party is predicted to be 4 seats shy of a majority government.  However, with this recent news having come out, it may turn out to hurt the Conservative Party in the election.  If these allegations are true then the Conservatives will likely lose a number of supporters given the public’s general disapproval of corruption and illegal activities from the government.  If these allegations do end up hurting the Conservatives in the election, I think it would be a shame.  I think the Conservatives have handled the economic downturn quite well since being in power and have limited their mistakes for the most part.  Not to say that the Liberals or NDP would have done poorly but in times of economic hardship, I personally think that an economist, like Stephen Harper, should be Prime Minister and focus on fixing the economy primarily and put other issues on the back burner, so to speak.  For more information on the allegations against the Conservative Party, go to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tory-election-allegations-illegal-not-administrative-prosecutor-says/article1924161/.