A Conservative MP who is part of a Canadian mission to ensure free and fair elections in Ukraine will find out next week - mid-mission - whether numerous irregularities will invalidate his own election. Ted Opitz will be in Ukraine ahead of that country's Oct. 28 election when the Supreme Court of Canada delivers Thursday its long-awaited landmark ruling on the legitimacy of the vote in his Toronto riding of Etobicoke Centre.
The top court served notice Friday of the imminent ruling, just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper was speaking at a public send-off for hundreds of Ukrainian election observers, including Opitz.
Harper made no specific reference to Opitz, but earlier Friday in the House of Commons, his government made no apologies for choosing to send to Ukraine an MP whose election remains shrouded in controversy.
Indeed, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird extolled Opitz as a model election observer.
"People are entitled to be innocent until proven guilty," said Baird, dismissing the ongoing legal uncertainty that hangs over Opitz's narrow election victory last year.
The Supreme Court will determine whether Opitz will continue as an MP or have to face a byelec-tion against former Liberal incumbent Borys Wrzesnewskyj, whom he defeated by a mere 26 votes in the May 2011 election.
An Ontario Superior Court judge earlier this year nullified the results in Etobicoke Centre, a riding with a large Ukrainian-Canadian constituency, after finding procedural irregularities with 79 ballots. Opitz appealed the ruling to the top court.
This is the first time the Supreme Court has been asked to rule on the validity of an election result.
