Lawyers for the Conservative Party MPs in the seven ridings being challenged have filed motions asking that the applicants file security for the Conservative MPs’ costs for a total amount of $250,000! Today we learned that this motion will now be heard by the Federal Court of Canada on September 18th.

Essentially, this Conservative Party motion asks the Federal Court to require that the applicants pay this amount in full and upfront -- before the full hearings get underway this fall – as a security deposit should the applications fail and the Court award costs to the Conservative Party MPs.

For the past six and a half months, Nycole Turmel has had to deal with a situation without precedent in Canadian parliamentary history.

Last May, for the first time in its history, and in the history of the CCF that preceded it, the New Democratic Party won the status of Official Opposition.

Even for an experienced leader the task of building an effective force in the House with the newly-elected group of 103 NDP MPs, so many of them rookies, would have been daunting.

Turmel had to undertake that task in the wake of the sudden death of the leader, having never even sat in the House herself.

At first, shock and sadness

Evidence has recently come to light that among other dirty tricks to suppress the NDP and Liberal vote, fraudulent robocalls where made to voters in several ridings by a firm linked to the Conservative party.

Understaffed Elections Canada has been investigating since last summer, and the leaders of the NDP and Liberal parties have called for a full inquiry.

But there is also a remedy under the Elections Canada Act that many may not be aware of, for s. 524(1) of the Act provides that:

Any elector who was eligible to vote in an electoral district, and any candidate in an electoral district, may, by application to a competent court, contest the election in that electoral district on the grounds that:

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