Out for the count: How Canada got caught in Afghan election that doesn’t add up

In the back offices of the multiple-pizza-box structure where Canada’s Foreign Affairs is housed, the conversations must be getting pretty frenzied right about now. The news on the Afghan election, backed so earnestly by Canada and its $35 million contribution, has gone from terrible to tragic. The huge cloud hanging over the whole enterprise means it almost doesn’t matter at this point if the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission declares there are enough non-fraudulent votes to name Hamid Karzai president or orders a runoff. The damage has been done. “International observers said, ‘This may not be a totally fair exercise, but it is...