CP
So, here’s the difficulty with the “single bad apple” defence, in all its iterations: As time runs on, the rotten fruit starts to pile up. And all those singles begin to look like a collection.
This is the challenge now faced by the Conservative party, as its partisans seek to spin the conviction of former staffer Michael Sona on a single charge of election fraud. That verdict, handed down Thursday by a Guelph, Ont. judge, means Sona now faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. It also means the governing Tories will endure another year, heading into the 2015 election, of fending off opposition charges that they are predisposed to bending, twisting or breaking the rules, when and as it suits them.