Wheels of the bus go round and round
OTTAWA — On May 9, the day the Senate released the audits of three senators who had received tens of thousands of dollars in entitlements to which they were not entitled, Sen. Marjory LeBreton, the leader of the government in the Senate, read a statement to reporters.
The reporters asked if the Senate would ask the police to investigate the overpayments for fraud, in the same way they investigate EI or tax cheats.
LeBreton said no, and pointed out that Sen. Mike Duffy — the only Conservative caucus member among the three — had already paid what he owed.
“All I know is that Sen. Duffy, way before this happened, asked the Senate administration for the amount of money he had claimed in expenses,” she said. “They gave him the amount and he repaid it all.”
As we now know, Duffy received a personal cheque for $90,000 from the prime minister’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, for his repayment.
Fast-forward to this Wednesday, after we had all learned about that cheque. Duffy has been ejected from the Conservative caucus. Wright has resigned. Sen. David Tkachuk has admitted discussing the audits with Wright before he and fellow Conservative Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen cut the nastiest parts out of the Duffy report.
The Conservatives are down in the polls, the prime minister has jetted off to Peru and LeBreton is giving a speech in the Senate.
She starts off by bemoaning the bad old Liberal days when senators submitted fraudulent taxi chits, and complains that the Conservatives are being unfairly attacked.
“I know, more than most that, around this town populated by Liberal elites and their media lickspittles, tut-tutting about our government and yearning for the good old days that we are never given the benefit of the doubt and are rarely given credit for all the good work that we do.”
LeBreton, who has been cashing government of Canada cheques since she worked for prime minister John Diefenbaker, said that it is an “honour and a privilege” to be a senator, but not all senators see it that way.
“Unfortunately, there are a few, and there have been a few, who actually believe that this honour, this position, was owed to them based on their own inflated view of their role or stature at any given time. Therein lies the rub, honourable senators. Senators in that category view the Senate, and all the resources available, as their right. Their own self-importance transcends reality.”
She seemed to be talking about Duffy and Pamela Wallin, who were sitting side by side in the back row on the opposition side, the Siberia of the red chamber.
Thump. Thump. The wheels of the bus go round and round.
It was much the same with Wright.
After CTV’s Bob Fife revealed the secret payment, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Wright had “the confidence of the prime minister” and would not resign.
After he resigned, a friendly Globe and Mail report quoted a senior source as saying that the prime minister fought to keep him, but Wright insisted on resigning, such was his sense of personal honour.
As the public reaction to the dirty deal built, the prime minister held his tongue, finally bringing in reporters to a special caucus meeting on Tuesday.
“I’m very upset about some conduct we have witnessed, the conduct of some parliamentarians and the conduct of my own office,” he said.
By the time he got to Peru, where he finally entertained questions on the matter, a week after the story broke, he was even more upset.
“I’m sorry, I’m frustrated, I’m extremely angry about it.”
He had no idea that Wright had paid Duffy, he said.
“It was his personal decision and he did this is his capacity as chief of staff, so he is solely responsible and that is why he has resigned.” Thump. Between the expressions of public support and the bus-under-throwing of Duffy and Wright, the facts had not changed. What had changed is that Duffy and Wright were no longer on Team Harper. Voters are disgusted and the government needs to channel that disgust away from the boss.
It’s not pretty, and it doesn’t augur well for Harper. Suddenly, this government looks like the Liberals did in the Paul Martin days, when Martin got rid of Dave Dingwall at the Royal Canadian Mint and Jean Pelletier at Via Rail, throwing the heads of old friends to the mob, standing in the House calling on the opposition to let ethics investigations take their course while backbenchers obediently applaud the punishment of their former colleagues.
One problem with heaping scorn on those who were only last week secretly conspiring for the benefit of the boss, is that those who have been chucked under the bus do not like it, and they lawyer up, or start talking, or conspire to unseat the boss.
The good news for Harper is that, unlike Martin, who was bedevilled by revenge-seeking Chretienites, he has few enemies in the party. The bad news is that he has more this week than last.