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Conservative allegations that Elections Canada tipped off the media and the opposition Liberals to an RCMP raid on Tory Party headquarters so troubled Canada's Chief Electoral Officer that he sought ways to "kill" the story, internal documents reveal.

Marc Mayrand has refused to speak publicly about the case since the Commissioner of Canada Elections executed the search warrant with RCMP assistance on April 15-16 as part of a probe of alleged ad spending violations by the Tories during the 2005-06 election campaign.

But an e-mail exchange between Mr. Mayrand and his chief financial officer, Janice Vézina, obtained by The Globe and Mail under an Access to Information request, indicates that senior officials at Elections Canada were deeply concerned by Conservative allegations that the agency was biased.

The documents also show that Mr. Mayrand said an internal review by the agency found no indication of a leak.

In the days after the high-profile raid in Ottawa, the Tories charged that Elections Canada had ignored similar electoral ad spending transgressions by the opposition, and told the media and Liberals about the raid to maximize political damage.

"With regard to this allegation of [a] leak do you have any suggestion as to how we could kill it?" Mr. Mayrand asked in an e-mail dated April 18.

"If we can dispel this story [the leak], we will have only positive media coverage," replied Ms. Vézina, the associate deputy chief electoral officer in charge of political financing. "And the alternative is that we appear to be partisan or biased or vindictive and at the moment the media seem to believe we tipped off the CBC and the Liberals."

At the time of the raid, a Conservative official who spoke to the media on condition of anonymity was widely quoted as saying that the party viewed the search warrant as "a PR stunt and a tactic of intimidation." Other Tories went further.

"I am also given pause to wonder why it was that the Liberal Party of Canada just happened to be on the scene, camera crew at the ready," Government House Leader Peter Van Loan told the House of Commons.

But Mr. Mayrand makes clear in the April 18 e-mail exchange that he believed the allegations were unfounded.

"Our internal review indicates no reasonable ground to believe there was a leak," he wrote. "This may be pure diversion tactic/competitive frustration from a media outlet vis-a-vis another. The central fact is that media were there more than two hours after the operation started."

Ms. Vézina replied, "Ok. But however we do it we need to kill it as it seems to be the one negative aspect haunting us and damaging our reputation. Even the disclosure of the affidavit won't eliminate the doubt about the so-called leak."

Ms. Vézina proposed a joint news release with the RCMP and the Commissioner of Canada Elections, William Corbett, who was leading the investigation. No release was issued.

Elections Canada staff also drafted a statement for Mr. Mayrand that defended the agency's impartiality: "The last thing that Elections Canada, and any electoral body for that matter, can afford to be is partisan," says the draft, which was not released. "There is absolutely no benefit in pursuing such a course and being anything other than impartial and non-partisan."

Mr. Mayrand declined an interview request.

Elections Canada alleges the Conservative Party funnelled more than $1-million for television and radio advertising to 67 local candidates then took it back to buy national ads in an "in-and-out" scheme that circumvented national spending limits. Most of the candidates claimed the amounts as reimbursable expenses.

Mr. Mayrand rejected the expense claims and referred the matter to Mr. Corbett, who launched his investigation in April of 2007. The Conservatives went to Federal Court in an attempt to overturn the decision on expenses.

The documents reveal that the search warrant was granted on April 11, four days before it was executed. Elections Canada provided no records from the days leading up to the raid, and only three e-mail exchanges from that week.

This would indicate the agency did not document in writing any communications strategy, media lines or questions from reporters before or during the week of the raid. Spokesman John Enright insisted all relevant documents were provided.

Sections of the e-mail exchange between Mr. Mayrand and Ms. Vézina were blacked out.

The remaining documents show Elections Canada kept a close eye on media coverage of the raid and its political fallout. Summaries of blogs, websites and broadcasts were compiled.

On April 29, the agency wrote a summary of news articles on the ad-buy controversy and tallied the number that were positive, neutral and negative.

The document lists Elections Canada's key messages and juxtaposes them with Conservative Party key messages. (An Elections Canada official later said this was a trial project cancelled after one day.)

On the day it was cancelled, Conservative MPs voted against a Bloc Québécois motion expressing "full and complete confidence in Elections Canada and the Commissioner of Canada Elections." Opposition MPs passed the motion 152-117.