MPS bolt for summer break after acrimonious sitting
The shameful antics of parliamentarians played out like a bad movie this year
OTTAWA — MPs fled to their ridings Wednesday, leaving a stench richer than the smoke wafting from the annual pork barbecue along the pedestrian mall a short walk from Parliament Hill.
One of the ugliest sittings is over — an odious spectacle that won’t be remembered for elevating decorum or legislation, but rather for criminal investigations, abuse of tax dollars, questionable leadership and scandal.
From allegations of election fraud, ethical breaches and whitewashed Senate reports, the shameful antics of parliamentarians played out like a bad movie.
The Prime Minister’s Office was left scarred by the resignation of Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright after he wrote a cheque so Sen. Mike Duffy could repay $90,000 in ill-gotten housing allowances.
Harper says he was in the dark about Duffy’s benefactor.
After reviewing the WrightDuffy transaction and other eye- popping Senate transgressions with public money, the RCMP is now investigating the PMO and the auditor general is preparing an audit of the red chamber.
The PMO also faced a backbench revolt by a pocket of Conservative MPs who defied the strict control the office lords over its caucus.
Brent Rathgeber had enough and bolted to sit as an Independent.
The pile-on continued with accusations the PMO was used for partisan purposes to discredit Justin Trudeau by leaking tidbits about his other life.
The Liberal leader opened himself to scorn and new questions about his judgment for moonlighting as an elected storyteller and charging upwards of $20,000 to motivate charities, unions, schools and others.
Some of the engagements bombed, leaving organizers in the hole and Trudeau promising to make things right while many asked why he would bill charities in the first place.
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair suffered through his own miscues and lapses that didn’t go unnoticed by critics.
The most damaging was the revelation that in 1994, when he was in provincial politics in Quebec, he didn’t contact police about an envelope he was offered by a suburban Montreal mayor caught up in the province’s ongoing corruption inquiry.
He followed that with a lowspeed police pursuit on Parliament Hill after running a security checkpoint and his “Do you know who I am?” response to an RCMP officer who caught up to him.
MPs are scheduled to return Sept. 16.
In between, Harper i s expected to shuffle his cabinet and prorogue Parliament to begin a fresh session that is unlikely to clear the air.