Harper must be held accountable for Duffy scandal

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s continued refusal to answer questions and take responsibility for the way his staff mishandled the Mike Duffy affair is symptomatic of a leader who refuses to be held accountable. Canadians should not let him get away with it.

Despite evidence contained in emails from his own senior aides of concerted efforts by his office to hide the truth about the Mike Duffy affair from Canadians, Harper has dug in his heels, refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing.

Think about this: Here we have the prime minister’s top aides, including his chief of staff, his then principal secretary (now COS), his lawyer, manager of parliamentary affairs and others, cooking up schemes to, among other things, deceive Canadians about Duffy, change the Senate rules on residency, tamper with an outside audit and tell Duffy what to say in public in disregard of the truth — and he shrugs it off.

We now know from court documents that statements Harper and others made about the Duffy affair were wrong, perhaps even false. His credibility is on the line, yet the prime minister doesn’t believe he owes Canadians any explanation.

Here’s the irony: The man who so fervently demanded responsibility and accountability from the Liberals during the sponsorship scandal and promised a new era of integrity does not feel he should be held to the same standards.

Duffy, who is facing 31 charges including fraud, breach of trust and bribery, says he is innocent. Much has been made of former chief of staff Nigel Wright’s testimony that Harper was kept in the dark about the $90,000 Duffy used to cover his expenses, but that argument misses the point. The real issue is that if Harper didn’t know, he should have known. Not knowing does not absolve him of responsibility.

He appears to be rewriting the rules on what’s ethical or appropriate behaviour in our politics.

Remember that the big hit against then prime minister Paul Martin during the sponsorship scandal was his insistence that he didn’t know about the misuse of sponsorship funds. Martin’s plea of ignorance didn’t wash and he was rightly held accountable.

The same standard should apply to Harper. This was his office, staffed by people he hired and who worked for him, and it stretches credulity that these people would be so engrossed in massive damage control to protect him and the Conservative party from political embarrassment or worse and he didn’t know anything about it. For this to happen without his knowledge or approval, we have to believe that these loyal aides went rogue — hardly a plausible argument under a hands-on manager like Harper. But even if we are charitable enough to accept that the prime minister didn’t know, the fact is, he should have known. This happened on his watch, literally under his nose, and there is no denying the responsibility.

More problematic for the prime minister is that the emails show that he was definitely involved in the effort to change the Senate residency rules, going so far as to advance an interpretation that his staff should assert.

“As long as they (senators) maintain a residency in their province, as per tradition, we will deem that as sufficient for this purpose … i.e. the property requirement = residence,” Harper is quoted as telling a senior aide.

In spite of all this, what seems to be happening is that the normal rules of ethical behaviour and accountability one expects of all leaders apparently don’t apply to Harper. And he certainly doesn’t believe in the old rule about the buck stopping at the prime minister’s desk.

Harper has steadfastly stuck to the script, batting away or refusing to answer reporters’ questions. He appears to be rewriting the rules on what’s ethical or appropriate behaviour in our politics, and he is doing it solely for his own political purpose. He may obfuscate or deny the obvious, but reporters should continue to press for answers and accountability.

We deserve the government we get, and if Canadians believe their government should operate with a high moral and ethical compass, they should hold Harper accountable as they did with others before him.