The last several Harper government controversies - or scandals if you will - seem to reveal a pattern in terms of the way the Tories handle crises.

Step 1 seems to be to denial.  During this step critics are ridiculed for suggesting any wrong doing.

Step 2 is what CTV Question Period's Craig Oliver calls 'mudify.' In this step the Tories complicate the issue by claiming a misunderstanding or a difference in interpretation.

Step 3 is to find some way to make the Liberals look bad.   They haven't been in power for six years, they've been relegated to third party status and they only have an interim leader but they are, and always will be, the enemy.

And finally, step 4 is hold no one to account.  If you  hold someone to account, after all, isn't that admitting you did something wrong?

Here is a closer look at some of the most recent scandals and how the Harper government responded:

1) F-35 debacle:

Step 1 -Deny:

Despite the auditor's general's comments suggesting otherwise, the

Once again Section 331 of the Elections Act has reared its ugly head.

Under section 331 (Non-interference by Foreigners), it is illegal for a non-resident to directly participate in election campaigns in Canada.

"No person who does not reside in Canada shall, during an election period, in any way induce electors to vote or refrain from voting or vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate unless the person is (a) a Canadian citizen; or (b) a permanent resident," the act states.

In 2004, this section came to light when U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore came to the Toronto International Film Festival and urged Canadians not to vote for the Harper Conservatives.

During the 2011 election, Canada's Green Party cited section 331 when they asked their Australian counterparts to take down a YouTube video endorsing Elizabeth May's Greens.

Now, journalism students at Brock University claim the Harper Conservatives are in violation of the section for allowing U.S. Republican strategists to

Tom Mulcair will be making an appearance in the living rooms of millions of Canadians over the next few days.

On Tuesday, the NDP officially launched a new English-language television ad, just a week after releasing a similar French-language commercial.

The ad starts with the announcement that "Canada's got a new leader" and includes "ordinary Canadians" telling viewers that Mulcair will fight for them.

It also features, Jack Layton's widow, Olivia Chow, who says "Jack's vision is in good hands."

According to the Globe and Mail, the ad - which is part of the largest non-election advertising purchase in the party's history - will appear during some of  the country's most watched  shows, including Hockey Night in Canada, Canadian Idol and The Good Wife.

The campaign is intended to counter potential negative attack ads from the other parties.

Many are expecting the Conservatives to act as they did in 2009, when, just ten days after the Liberals elected Michael Ignatieff,  they released

67 year old Al Michalchuk says he didn't assault Alberta Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, as alleged and he has the evidence to prove it.

Police were called out to Michalchuk's home on Saturday afternoon after the PC candidate told them he was assaulted by the  homeowner while he was out canvassing.

Maintaining his innocence, Michaluchuk showed security camera footage of the incident.

The footage shows Lukaszuk knocking on the door of Michalchuk's Edmonton home and Michalchuk stepping onto his porch.

Lukaszuk is out of the frame as Michalchuk moves forward and points away from his house before making what appears to be a nudge or punch toward the Conservative candidate.

There is no sound on the video, taken by two security cameras at Michalchuk's home.

Michalchuk, a Wildrose party supporter, told PostMedia News the video showed "nothing happened."

"I put my right hand on his right elbow, and turned him around and asked him to leave over and over again," he said.

"The whole episode

If you thought the decade long debate about the long-gun registry was over, you are sadly mistaken.

While the bill to end the controversial registry received royal assent in Ottawa last Thursday, the NDP's newly minted leader vows to bring it back if he becomes Prime Minister.

Speaking on the Radio Canada show Tout le Monde en Parle Sunday, Thomas Mulcair said the solution is to fix the irritants in the long gun registry — not scrap it.

"I will work to register firearms. The public and the police have the right to be protected," he said according to iPolitics.

"It is a monumental error and it is the first time in my political life that I see a government removing one of the public's protections. All of the police forces across Canada, except for the Calgary police, want to maintain it because it protects them and it protects the public."

The long-gun registry issue has sparked divisions within the NDP caucus in the past with some MPs from rural ridings breaking ranks and siding with

Another report, this one by the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), claims to have the answer to Canada's immigration woes. Just limit immigration during recessionary times, it says.

As has been widely reported, many new immigrants to Canada are struggling financially. The unemployment rate among this group is now four to five percentage points higher than general population, under-employment in this group is between 25 to 35 per cent and one out of  every five new immigrants is living in poverty.

The Stephen Harper government, like its Liberal predecessors, has taken a three-pronged approach to curb the declining economic welfare of Canada's immigrants. It has implemented a comprehensive foreign credential recognition program, invested in settlement services and has re-focused immigration policy based on our economic needs.

But the problems persist.

While the authors of the IRPP study support many of the Harper government's policies on immigration, it also suggests

Canada's political spectrum used to be easy to understand.

The NDP were on the left, championing programs for the marginalized groups such as labourers, the poor and aboriginals in our society. The Conservatives were on the right, espousing free-market principles. And the Liberals placed themselves smack dab in the middle.

People of my parents' generation often picked a party early in life and supported it through thick and thin. Ideologies mattered.

But now we have a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister leading the federal NDP. We have an ex-NDP premier at the helm of the federal Liberals. And the federal Conservatives, traditionally the most fiscally responsible party, have offered up some of the largest budget deficits in Canadian history.

What the heck is going on in Canadian politics?

Former Liberal MP Glen Pearson says what's happening is that all parties are moving to the centre of the political spectrum in an attempt to gain and, in the case of the Conservatives, retain

Calls for Peter MacKay's resignation continue just days after the damming auditor general's report into the F-35 procurement process.

Analysts from the left-leaning Toronto Star all the way to the Conservative-friendly National Post have suggested our defence minister step-down and take responsibility for this boondoggle. CBC's Rex Murphy - who many believe is a small "c" conservative - jumped on the bandwagon on Thursday with a sharp-tongued yet witty attack of his own.

"Is anyone in charge? Or is Peter MacKay a kind of Honorary Defence Minister?" Murphy asks during his segment on The National.

"He's Canada's Defence Minister — he's a big man at the cabinet table, he's next to being as powerful as Stephen Harper himself. Except when anything goes wrong. Like F-35 costs, procurement, projections or anything to do with any of these. Then he's just Peter MacKay — Honorary Defence Minister — an ornament."

Murphy also goes on to 'dress down' the Prime Minister.

"If Stephen Harper were in