Mac Harb’s goodbye

Embattled former Liberal senator Marc Harb has announced his resignation from the Upper Chamber with immediate effect, and that is good news.

Harb said he has been mulling the decision for some time. The RCMP is investigating allegations that he improperly claimed housing allowance for a Pembroke-area home the Mounties say was “uninhabitable.” He is one of four senators whose housing and travel claims are now under a police investigation.

Whatever his reasons for resigning, it’s about time. Throughout the senate scandal, exposing the egregious sense of entitlement underlying their actions, not one senator has paid any significant price other than bruised egos.

Throughout the senate scandal, exposing the egregious sense of entitlement underlying their actions, not one senator has paid any significant price other than bruised egos.

No one has really taken full responsibility for subverting the public trust.

The four senators have resigned or been kicked from their party caucus, but they still remained senators, collecting their pay and going about their daily business. They have paid some of the money back, which is quite literally the least they could do.

Now, however inadvertently, there is a sense of accountability in Harb’s resignation. He may well be the first true casualty of a scandal that has roiled the Upper Chamber and shaken Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office.

A Lebanese immigrant, Harb was first elected to city council in 1985, then served as Ottawa Centre MP for 15 years before being appointed to the Senate by Jean Chrétien in 2003. In May, a Senate internal economy committee asked him to repay $51,000 in improper claims which he did under protest, and subsequently resigned from the Liberal caucus.

The committee later asked him to return a total of $231,000 dating back to 2005. He has now paid back that debt. Harb has always maintained he has done nothing wrong. “At no time did anyone suggest my claims were invalid or questionable. And from what I could tell, most senators made similar claims.”

An RCMP investigation is not an expression of guilt, and Harb, it has to be noted, has not been charged with a crime.

But in politics, where perception is as powerful as reality, a senator being forced to pay back thousands of dollars in illegal claims is too sordid a picture to ignore. Like his colleagues Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, Harb is under such a huge cloud, he has, to all intents and purposes, lost his ability to act as an effective senator.

The final chapter in the Senate expense scandal is yet to be written, but Harb’s resignation may be the best way to save all of us more grief.