Just like the Robocalls kerfluffle, another ‘Conservative’ scandal upstaged.
Senator Mac Harb owes about $240,000 in expenses claimed improperly, the outgoing chair of the Senate’s internal economy commitee says.
This following on ‘Glass House’ Liberal MP Judy Sgro’s hasty exit yesterday, after Shiny Pony was slapped upside the head by Mulcair and after Shiny Pony declared support for Senator Harb.
They just can’t get a break, eh?
I don’t know why Harper is wearing this scandal as both parties are involved and the Senate runs its own affairs. I still want to see whether Trudeau claimed any expenses to go to his part-time job as a guest speaker.
So we’re all ‘entitled’ to our respective housing allowances…?
I would like to thank the Senate for clearing that matter up.
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
Not only does our beloved Senator Mac owe 240,000 bucks,but he’s been collecting the housing allowance illegally since 2005!
It’s simply amazing that one of the people who are allegedly put in place for “sober second thought” never thought to check out the rules for 8 years!
But Prime Minister Trudeau will welcome him back into the LPC fold when this is all over,because that’s what Liberals do.
It isn’t upstaged until someone from the PMO writes a check and obfuscates over it.
I knew he was a Liberal senator since the headline failed to mention the party affiliation.
Judy Sgro.
She was embarrassingly stupid years ago when she was a Police Services Board Member, and she hasn’t got any wiser.
Now all we need is a little but of scrutiny of the InDeepers and the circle at the troughs will be complete.
Did Taliban Jack put ‘stress relief therapy’ on his expense account?
I wanted to comment that “this isn’t news until the CBC or Globe & Mail cover it” … but…
That’s almost a quarter million dollars, that’s how it could be reported, not $240,000. Not that this amount would fit into a brown paper bag.
Almost a quarter million bucks.
Curses foiled again
Well Lance …. like I said years ago in my first comment on SDA …. all you have to do is kick over the rotten log they hide under and watch the fun as they scurry.
Back then … I had hoped that sooner or later the MSM would stop provided logs to the bugs.
Keep on kicking.
The greed never ends . No matter how much they suck in.
Judy Sgro?
Wasn’t she of Immigrant Stripper/volunteer campaign workergate?
Yes she was.
Several Senators and at least one MP are too stupid to know where they live but they are smart enough to govern us.
Sure…
The thing that pisses me off about the Senate scandal was that this was an opportunity wasted. We’re talking chicken feed here but it would have been the perfect platform to launch a senate reform campaign.
Mac Harb can quite literally walk from home to Parliament Hill, it’s in the riding he used to represent for the Lieberals. Way to go Johnny Cretch, putting another Liberal pig in the trough on your way out the door.
Don’t worry, it’ll be buried in a single paragraph blurb somewhere on the back pages of the major newspapers and never mentioned again.
It takes a certain type of personality to run for public office but above average intelligence is not a requirement. Gift of gab, a propensity for social climbing and a love for meddling in peoples affairs seems to be the basic ingredients. Greed can also be a driver which is why no government seems to be able to kill the gold plated pensions they manage to hang on to. Add a superiority complex and a touch of narcissistic birth right and you have the making of the typical politician. Most politicians are ambulance chasers, school board busybodies or mayors/alderman types that love the spot light and the perceived power of lording over the common folk. The percentage that run so they can serve the people without feathering their own nest is probably single digit.
This is an opportunity for everyone to point fingers and feed on one another’s hypocrisy and greed. They all make me sick.
Why don’t they just bring back Francis Fox? All he did as Justice Minister was forge the name of his paramour’s husband onto an abortion certificate. That isn’t even necessary anymore, anything goes. Let it go Larry! Let it go!
They know where they live but they want us to pay for their little sanctuaries away from “home”.
Nice work if you can get it.
“…They all make me sick…”
Isn’t that the truth. A bunch of spoiled, over-paid gluttons posturing and finger-pointing for the cameras.
I really, really hope that this is stirring some sense of anger in the hearts and minds of the all the little guys and girls in the private sector who pay for these Prancing Pigs.
May it come to pass that they all enjoy their Marie-Antoinette moments.
So, the total dollar amount of disputed Senate expense claims (so far as we know to date) appears to me to be about $388,000 ($240,000, or 62% of the total, in respect of Mr. Harb; call it $58,000, or 15% of the total, in respect of Ms. Wallin; $90,000, or 23% of the total in respect of Mr. Duffy).
Being Senate-related, these figures do not, of course, include the $250,000 or so Mr. Trudeau, Jr. took in in “speaking fees” from government-funded agencies, mainly in Ontario, since becoming an MP — the main outrage in all of this business of alleged kleptomania/kleptocracy.
On the other hand, what have been the shares of media coverage of the Senate expense “scandal”. Probably only the coverage given Ms. Wallin has been proportional to her alleged transgressions. What’s the balance? Five percent to Mr. Harb and eighty per cent to Mr. Duffy? Never mind that the committee enforcing the rules is dominated by Conservatives. And never mind that the accountability provisions brought in by the Conservatives in 2006 have made these media “investigations” (witch hunts?) possible. This latter point has been acknowledged by none other than Craig Oliver himself, although neither of these facts seem to be of much interest to the rest of the media. And never mind that Mr. Duffy and Ms. Wallin — and most other Senators — have to maintain, as a condition of their appointment, real estate holdings hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from their place of employment (which, apparently, Mr. Harb does not).
And never mind that Stephen Harper has removed the “offending” Senators from the Conservative caucus. And, of course, never mind that Mr. Trudeau, Jr. has embraced Mr. Harb. Of course, the Liberal leader would do that, wouldn’t he? What single thing could bring the situation into clearer relief than that? Why, just think, on the basis of absolutely nothing, they’re defying gravity in a few robo-polls (most notably Frank Graves’s EKOS poll — which says a lot in and of itself) and they’re behaving as if they’ve just been handed back the keys to the cash register.
I am, however, encouraged by the NDP move. It may finally have occurred to Mr. Mulcair that he needed to drop the little co-dependency thingee he was trying to maintain with the Liberals, having realized (hopefully) that the Liberals would never enter into a condominium/coalition/merger arrangement that they did not dominate. It’s too bad that Andrea Horwath, for her own sake, if nothing else, hasn’t yet recognized the same set of misjudgments on her own part. Now, if we can only get the NDP to quit trashing the national interest (by doing things like, er, going to Washington and gutter-mouthing Keystone XL, etc. ad nauseum)…
Peterj;
Absolute classic! You cannot get a more accurate description.
Aye Lad, aye!
Far too many of them are nothing but pathetic little turds lusting for recognition.
I fondly remember a run-in I had with an elected official at a public venue fifteen years ago. At an in camera session afterwards, he complained bitterly that I had showed “no respect for the governing authority”. This, from a twerp who was barely thirty-five years old at the time.
They deserve all the contempt and derision you can muster.
Jamie MacMaster “Did Taliban Jack put ‘stress relief therapy’ on his expense account?”
Good question since Taliban Jack’s term for handjob was “massage therapy” He also didn’t know the term for terminal cancer.
peterj, right on with your comment:
“It takes a certain type of personality to run for public office but above average intelligence is not a requirement. Gift of gab, a propensity for social climbing and a love for meddling in peoples affairs seems to be the basic ingredients. Greed can also be a driver which is why no government seems to be able to kill the gold plated pensions they manage to hang on to. Add a superiority complex and a touch of narcissistic birth right and you have the making of the typical politician. Most politicians are ambulance chasers, school board busybodies or mayors/alderman types that love the spot light and the perceived power of lording over the common folk. The percentage that run so they can serve the people without feathering their own nest is probably single digit.”
That is why I voted for and will support PM Harper so long as he can put up with serving us. He got rid of the gold-plated pensions and in the process gave up a million $ he would have been entitled to. This is the person I would love to have lunch with, feel comfortable with to look after Canada’s best interests and believe is wise enough to steer us through the coming difficult times. He does not fit any of your criteria in my opinion.
I agree with your opinion. Just hard to soar like a Eagle when the sky is filled with so many Turkeys.
Caleo;
I had lunch with PMSH years ago during Reform days. Inquisitive and not pretentious at all. He is the reason I still support the CPC. The party appears to be infiltrated by the carpetbaggers and unable to cleanse themselves effectively.
I used to be dismissive of political movements that could not control their message and keep their movements ‘pure’. Time has taught me that it is almost an impossible task. PMSH’s top down messaging is a necessity not a desire.