What Are They Hiding In Those Ballot Boxes?

Judicial recounts are triggered automatically if the margin of victory is less than 0.1% of the total votes cast. What's surprising is that a recount apparently doesn't mean opening every single ballot box and checking out every single ballot. So a Conservative candidate actually has to go to the court to demand just that - a full recount:

VANCOUVER, B.C. — A Vancouver Conservative candidate who lost a federal election recount last week is appealing the result in court.

Wai Young lost the judicial recount to Vancouver South incumbent Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh by just 22 votes on Friday but Conservative party official Ray Leitch says she's unhappy that not all the ballot boxes were rechecked in the process.
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In the Vancouver South recount B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm opted to recount votes from 28 out of 184 ballot boxes.
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The recount in Vancouver South found four vote changes in 22 of the 28 boxes that were opened, raising the possibility of 30 or more vote changes in the unopened boxes, Leitch says.

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I wonder why would anybody be that opposed to reopening the remaining 156 ballot boxes and counting the votes in there. What is there to hide? If everyone is so sure that Ujjal Dosanjh has won the riding, why can't they invite the Conservative scrutineers and count the ballots in their presence? Let them see for themselves - one for Martin, two for Martin, I mean - 16,109 for Dosanjh, 16,087 for Young. Period. There should have been no need to get the court involved in the first place.

Interestingly enough when the Liberals requested a recount in Brossard -- La Prairie, those in charge took their time to reopen every ballot box, recount all the votes and review all the spoiled ballots. They found dozens of spoiled ballots that were wrongly disqualified and some 200 votes (mostly for the Bloc) that should have been rejected. That was enough for the Bloc's 143 vote lead to evaporate and for the Liberal candidate to win the riding. The victory margin in Vancouver south was 5 times smaller and it went down from 33 votes to 22 after just 28 ballot boxes out of 184 were recounted. So it almost seems like someone at the Elections Canada is just afraid that Dosanjh could lose the riding...

Well, they're obviously not doing the Liberals any good by refusing to reopen the ballot boxes. If the appeal goes through, if Ujjal Dosanjh actually loses his seat following a full recount and must resign from the Commons just days after the swear-in ceremony - it would sure be embarrassing for both Mr Dosanjh and for the Liberal party of Canada. If the appeal is dismissed - that won't stop the rumors about possible defeat of Dosanjh and the story itself may come back to haunt the Liberals during the next campaign. If anything, the Liberals should support the appeal. Because opening those ballot boxes and getting every single vote recounted is the only way to prove that nobody is trying to hide the true election results for Vancouver South.

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Update as of Nov.1: Recount for Kitchener-Waterloo is done and once again, when it's a Liberal candidate that may benefit from the recount - they do take their time to recount all the ballots, not just 15%. Following the recount, the Conservative lead shrunk from 48 votes to just 17. In Vancouver South, the margin of victory for Dosanjh was just 33 votes; it went down to 22 after a partial recount. Is there any other reason one would object a full recount - except for striving to save the seat for Dosanjh?

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Update as of Nov.3: Finally - Elections Canada Officials gave in and went ahead with a full recount. Finally. But why couldn't they do just that a week ago? Why did it have to go all the way to the court?