Crime and Punishment

When does crime pay? When you’re Stephen Harper according to the Globe’s Jeff Sallot. Harper's booting to the curb of ex-candidate Derek Zeisman is winning him praise:

Mr. Harper, whose whole campaign is built around a promise to restore ethics to federal politics, will now eagerly contrast his action today to Liberal Leader Paul Martin's refusal to ask Finance Minister Ralph Goodale to temporarily step aside during the police investigation of the incomes trust case.

Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch doesn’t agree:

…Duff Conacher, the coordinator of Democracy Watch, a clean government advocacy group Ottawa, thinks that even the 12 hours or so it took for Mr. Harper to act from the time of the CTV newscast does not reflect well on the Conservatives.

“It's politics as usual. They only react to pressure from national news media,” Mr. Conacher said, suggesting Mr. Zeisman would still be the Conservative candidate in good standing if the story had run only with the truss ads in the local weekly.

12 hours? The 2+ weeks that Ralph Goodale’s been hanging around like a bad houseguest is OK? DuffMan says "oh ya!"