Duffy diary shows Senate must go
It would be a rich irony if a media personality who made his living with words winds up convicted by the words he wrote in his Senate diary.
But it’s what can be read between the lines of Mike Duffy’s daily log — a testimonial demonstrating that nothing in the daily life of this senator had anything to do with the business of sober second thought — that tells us what’s truly wrong with the Senate and why it likely can’t be fixed.
Notwithstanding Duffy’s guilt or innocence on the 31 charges against him that will be determined by a judge, Duffy’s diary clearly demonstrates senators offer no value to the public that pays their salaries or the provinces from which they come. They exist today as taxpayer-funded servants of political parties.
Elected instead of appointed? It doesn’t matter. The political machines of each major party will simply get behind a favoured, salable partisan or a “nonpartisan” stooge in the mould of Duffy. And, once elected to the Senate, he or she will be obligated to do the party’s bidding as fundraisers and nothing else.
Duffy’s diary shows senators have no other duties other than political partisanship work at the behest of the political masters who have made their largesse possible. And because senators have no other role, idle hands become the devil’s helper.
After all, Duffy is hardly an isolated case. No fewer than 40 current senators have reportedly been asked by the auditor general to clarify expense claims. Even if we get rid of them, there will always be others willing to be as shameless as Duffy. (Remember, while a working journalist, Duffy lobbied Jean Chretien for an appointment, according to the former Liberal prime minister.)
Sadly, it appears those who aspire to serve in the Senate share in that sense of entitlement that allows one to disregard fairness and common sense in the simple act of filling out expense claims. To believe you are Senate material is to understand you are there because you are to work for the political party that appointed you.
Such a damning indictment of Canadian senators might be a disservice to the likes of General Romeo Dallaire, former hockey great Frank Mahovlich or even highly partisan Progressive Conservative Huge Segal, all of whom took their jobs seriously.
Notwithstanding failed attempts to make the Senate non-partisan (see the Dallaire, Mahovlich appointments), today’s Senate is more viciously partisan than ever.
It is no longer a retirement home for benign elder statesmen like the late Saskatchewan senators Staff Barootes or Davey Steuart.
Saskatchewan’s Senate history is instead being written in part by Dave Tkachuk (appointed in 1993 by former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney as a GST senator and expected to be called to testify in Duffy’s trial), and, of course, Pamela Wallin (appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009 along with Duffy and also now engulfed in the expense scandal).
That high-profile Saskatchewan senators are involved in this expense mess isn’t likely why this province — at least according to the most recent Angus Reid poll — now embraces abolishing the Senate. That we’ve had NDP governments advocating abolition or that current Premier Brad Wall now advocates abolition isn’t the issue either.
Practically minded Saskatchewan people recognize we are not now, never have and never will be served by senators from this province. Others across the country will soon come to the same conclusion.
That’s because any lingering doubt about the Senate is now being erased by the Duffy Diary.
Filed as evidence in the trial, the RCMP alleges the diary indicates “inappropriate expenses related to personal and partisan activity.” Consider these examples in Duffy’s diary when crossreferenced with his expense claims:
■ June 20, 2009: Ottawa to Toronto. $856 to his Senate American Express card. $377 claimed in expenses. Diary entry: “Spent the previous day in Peterborough with then-Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro; on June 20, drove to Cambray, Ont. for an event with Conservative MP Barry Devolin, then took a taxi to Pearson Airport in Toronto and flew home to Ottawa.”
■ July 2-3, 2010: Duffy and his wife travelled to Peterborough, Ont. on “public business,” to discuss “broadcasting issues.” Claimed: $698 in expenses. Diary entry: “Spent the night at a Super 8 motel; the next morning, they had coffee with Del Mastro and his wife.”
Working on behalf of the people of P.E.I.? Not so much.
And Duffy’s diary goes on and on — a glimpse into how even those in the Upper House don’t see their role in any way other than a political one.
Taxpayers need to rid themselves of the Senate, once and for all.