I Was Sitting By The Phone, Mr. Harper

And that chance for your senate appointment is slipping away, because the way it's looking now, we'll have a PM Trudeau in approx 1.5 years.

Only in Canada is conspiring to pay back squandered taxpayer dollars a huge scandal..Mark Steyn's Deranged Dominion is spot on...

When the PMO does it that means its not illegal.

And you just gotta love the Brazeau scandal over receiving lesser punishment for admitting wrongdoing. Scandalous! Imagine the chaos if the courts were to adopt such practices!

If only we made the Senate self-policing...
http://bcblue.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/trudeau-gets-a-liberal-senator-to-investigate-a-liberal-senator/

This has less to do with politics than a system of systemic corruption in our Governmental institutions. No Part can fix them. Its time to reboot a New Charter with real teeth against tax abuse..
Notice how many are Media people who abuse their seat.

Senator Duffy, with the help of the media, has succeeded in transferring the indignity of the populace from the senate to the Prime Minister. That's a slick bit of work. I'm surprised that anyone is silly enough to fall for it, but it seems to have been an effective bit of propaganda. M. Trudeau's cheerleaders are going to use this relatively pointless issue to beat Prime Minister Harper over the head with for the next 9 months.

Meanwhile, in Ontario, the "gas plant scandal" is fading from the news, Orange, the OLG scandals, and the E-Health Initiative are forgotten, and no one seems to care that Stewardship Ontario has quietly gone back to collecting environmental taxes, (without any constitutional authority) and distributing them to a nebulous list of "green" businesses. No one even knows any more how much money has gone to die at the mausoleum at Queen's park.

I think it might be a matter of scale: No one except a billionaire can really appreciate on a visceral level how big a billion dollars is - but ninety thousand dollars is a very real amount of money to ordinary people. Nine billion dollars is an abstract. Ninety thousand dollars represents a lifetime of savings for an average Joe.

Sitting here at Wendy's eating a burger and they have CTV news on

I think for 15 mins now it's been all about Senator Duffy and firing back

Glad the burger and fries was good

Next on CTV is another 10 mins of escapees then over to 5 mins of people protesting coal shipments in BC ports on Frazer riverat least the grannies commercials are entertaining

Ok done visiting and burger

That was my weekly 1/2 hr of TV watching

Seems like I didn't miss a whole lot in the world

I still don't see how harper did anything wrong. am I missing something? He fired people because they were abusing taxpayer money. Mr.wright took it upon himself to start cutting cheques for people and haroper found out about all of this and fired everyone or if you wanna get technical some may have stepped down in humiliation. I feel kinda bad for harper these are people he trusted.

Again I don't think harper is wrong in doing what he did.

A couple of points on this non-scandal.

1. Sorry LAS it wasn't a loan but a payment
.
2. Duffy is hurling his accusations in a privileged forum where they are not subject to laws with regards to slander etc.. If he means what he says, why not state them outside without parliamentary protection?

3. Due process. For goodness sakes, this has been going on for a year! There have been many committees, an audit etc. If Duffy thought he was so maligned, why did he not come out with his accusations earlier?

4. That is because Duffy was a willing participant in this so called conspiracy to make his egregious moral lapses go away. Now caught and losing his long sought sinecure, he comes out fighting.

5. Where is Mac Harb?

It's perfect timing for PMSH to step aside and let Jason take charge in lots of time to right the ship and get ready for another election.

I'm wif Paul in Calgary. PMSH did absolutely right in ditching Duffy and letting Wright fall on his sword. Let the media frenzy conflab carry on and stuff ...yawn.

The election is 2 years away - will any of this still be remembered? - probably not. Most definitely not after the first national leaders debate when we see the Shiny Pony do his substitute teachers emoting routine - he won't be able to hide there. It'll be 'Must see TV'!

Agent Smith "The election is 2 years away - will any of this still be remembered?"

Of course it will. The horses asses Conservatives will make sure it's remembered. It's getting close to a year and if were lucky trials will be coming up right around election time.

My email to Harper last February

"I can't fathom why the Senate witch hunts are going on. Could you explain to me a possible positive outcome from the current attacks on senators and now people are suggesting possible criminal charges."

Prime Minister Trudeau kind of has a familiar ring to it.

Last February Harper should have taken his kick in the balls, had the Senate codify their expense rules and forgive past sins. Now there are going to be 100 more senators having their expenses challenged. Idiots! They are the only game in town for me but they are still idiots.

Curious how Lieberals and Dippers plus Media Party can get so
exercised about "Duffygate" but Ontario Libs wasting a billion
to cling to office = "crickets" by all concerned.

So what is supposed to have been illegal about the Wright cheque?

So Duffy protests that it was all about politics! Well, shocker! What do you think a political appointee is all about? What do you think politics is all about? And you eagerly entered the "political" world as a player, rather than as a commentator.

For someone who has been observing and commenting on politics for most of his professional career, it is amazing how naïve he pretends to be.

so who is JustIn, and what is a paid speaking engagement?????

Memo to Harper, ref Duffy et al:

You can put a pig in a palace, but you'll still have a hog.

Yes, Ms. McMillan, you might make a good Senator. Perfect psychology for the role,
in fact.

But you'd hate it. Ottawa strongly encourages public transportation, especially
buses, and several of the most interesting places can't be reached by private car.

On the other hand, unlike the proles, you would have underground parking on Parliament
Hill. Oh yes, and do be sure to live in Rockliffe Park, not the Glebe.

So Fat Bastard is squealing,,what did you expect Steve. When the snakes start hypnotizing the charmer there will be biting. Steven Harper succumbed to the political correct affirmative action Hollywood/Ottawa star power hiring practises and here is the result. A pig is a pig is a pig Steve, there were ample honest people of higher profile in the honesty strata than anyone in the urnalism world Steve, you just needed to look to Sask or Alberta. When we muster 16 million in DONATIONS! in Alberta, for a new S.T.A.R.S. air ambulance and you scuzzballs in Ontario steal 122 million out of your air ambulance system bankrupting it, Steve needs to stay away from hiring anyone who lives in Ontario claiming they live in PEI or Sask. Urnalists and token natives in the senate, why not the homeless as Doctors. And once again, how a person spends his private money sends the stinking liberal press over the edge like Shrieber did, while the MSM had a front row seat watching their heros ,da proof is da proof steal 41 million, and they missed it all, some press we have.

Well, the media are certainly having a gay old time with their manufactured "outrage" over their manufactured "scandal" directed exclusively at the PM and the Conservatives, but what will they do when the AG starts giving the names of Liberal Senators who make up the majority of Senators caught up in this "scandal". Will the media blame PM Harper for Liberal "mis-spending" too? It seems that the only mistake PM Harper has made in this whole fiasco is in not following the lead of the retarded son of Trudeau Sr. Clearly the best strategy for PM Harper was to simply accept whatever "mis-spending" had occurred, shrug his shoulders, and tell the media that he would welcome back any Senator guilty or not, just like the little boy who heads up the Trudeau Party did. As absurd as this whole media generated "scandal" is, it's surely not as absurd as the prospect of the lisping frizbee coach becoming PM, now that would be truly "scandalous" and quite absurd... funny too.

The Conservative government has done a great deal of good over the past few years, in spite of some missteps; most made a lot worse by the media. However, all that being said, this boondoggle is so stupid it just pisses me off. For a few hundred thousand dollars, there is a very good chance that we will lose the best government we have had since probably the Diefenbaker era; certainly the first to take any steps to back away from government controlling every aspect of our life. (baby steps I'll agree, but still..)

It would have been so easy to step forward when this came out, and simply said,'There are a lot of reasons why I have always had a problem with the senate, and this is one of them. The rules of the senate are so nebulous as to allow members to take advantage of 'legal' benefits without fear of repercussions. Understand, no 'rules' were broken here, and that is one of the problems. First, senators start to believe they deserve these perks, and second, there are no clear rules in place to prevent them from taking them. So, let's fix the rules so this cannot happen in the future.'

Now, it is too late for that. The senators in question have been demonized to the point they are pursuing a 'burn it all down' defense. They did not break any laws. That does not mean they are right, but it should have been handled differently.

Say Hello to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau! It is to weep...

Whatever may be happening here, isn't it very, very small potatoes compared to Adscam?

Send a farmer to Ottawa--he'll always come back a politician.

One point that is often missed is that when Harper first took office, he wanted little if anything to do with the Senate. As vacancies occurred during his first term, he appointed *nobody* to the Senate. It was partly a tactic to encourage provinces to give him names of elected Senators, but he also didn't want to be seen packing the Senate the way the old Liberal PMs did.

Then the coalition scare of 2008; suddenly Dion could be PM. Harper quickly filled every vacancy to ensure Dion couldn't do so. Then he decided that since he was appointing Senators anyway (no doubt grumbling that the feckless provinces wouldn't step up to the plate and hold elections), he may as well try pushing one piece of Senate reform: term limits. So then he appointed some "big names" to the Senate on the condition that they support his reform. Then Quebec, ah good old Quebec, stamped its feet and dragged the issue to court. "You can't reform the Senate without consulting the provinces!" Quebec whines (or translated into typical Quebec whine-speak: "You have to pay us off first!"). Harper then has to go to the Supreme Court himself to get a reference opinion. So even that one reform Harper attempted is stillborn (the Quebec court has now ruled against Harper, and the Supremes have yet to weigh in).

And now some of those "big names" have turned around and bit Harper in the butt, big time. What a completely *useless* institution our Senate is. It produces nothing of value, can't be reformed, can't even be abolished. Drop an asteroid on the blasted thing already!

All the good the Harper government has done, potentially undone over something he wanted nothing do with in the first place. Only in Canada. I don't know how I'll be able to look my fellow countrymen in the face if they elect that empty-headed fool to sit in the big chair. I'll just want to punch a lot of people in the nose.

Yes, Harper waited a few years to appoint senators and fought tooth and nail with the Liberal dominated Senate to get anything passed. When he had the opportunity to take control of the senate, he did so. He waited a three years to stack the Senate and finally did so to get legislation passed. He hasn't appointed any senators lately but I would highly recommend doing so in dribs and drabs before the next election.

The whole problem with the current scandal is that it is manufactured. Somewhere in people's minds the term principal residence was substituted for residence. Duffy and Wallin have residences in their home provinces and Ottawa. The rules got changed and applied retroactively. I simply don't understand why Duffy, who owned 2 residences prior to appointment can be differentiated from other senators who acquired a residence later given that the Constitution Act 1867 states that living at the seat of government for duties does not affect residency. In law, a person can have 2 or more residences. While there are definitions of residence for voting, tax, driver's license, and health care they are irrelevant for Senate purposes where residence has never been defined.

I simply think we are talking a pretty thin differentiation of behavior between Wallin, Duffy, and Brazeau and maybe 75 other senators. I suspect Brazeau isn't even guilty of anything, including poor judgement. He's the only one of the four who met all the arbitrary rules for determining residency. I do think Harper fumbled the ball by not telling his people in the Senate to get it out of the news as quickly as possible.