The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

For the past few weeks I have resisted the temptation of responding to what is now called the Senate Scandal. I have been reluctant to become part of the collective outrage in part because it is just too easy to pick on people who not only lack the capacity to make morally or ethically driven decisions, but also who lack the political skills to recognize when the hole that they have dug for themselves is getting too deep to get out of. But I have also not engaged in Duffy bashing because something else was bothering me about the whole affair but I could not quite figure out what it was. Then yesterday as I was listening to news program I realized what was bothering me.

A commentator said something to the fact that he was shocked and disappointed in the Prime Minister's response; that the PM had run on a platform of being the most ethical prime minister - and now quite clearly he, or at least his office was making poor ethical decisions.The fact that a commentator was shocked should be a bit of a concern to us all for a variety of reasons but I digress. Why would any one expect our politicians to have higher ethical standards than some regular Canadians? While it is alarming that a few senators declared costs that they were not entitled to, is their behaviour that unusual? How many Canadians every year declare costs that they are not eligible to?

According to the Financial Post - there are hundreds of modest income earners in the Peace River area who have been avoiding paying approximately two million dollars in income tax; Revenue Canada found about 2,700 people in the Barrie and Sudbury area who failed to file their returns accurately. The Globe and Mail reported a single tax preparer filed 129 returns with fraudulent information saving his clients approximately $245,000.00. An organization called Canadians for Tax Fairness (its members include some people who clearly lean towards the left including Ed Broadbent) suggest that 81 billion dollars a year is lost by people not paying all of their taxes because they get paid "under the table". Of course there are also the billions of dollars that are stashed in off shore accounts so that the richest of us don't have to declare that income.

Avoiding or at least reducing the amount of income tax one pays by any means possible is, at the very least, a national sport. It is common around income tax time to hear people brag about how much money they saved on income tax by using a deduction that while it may have been sort of legal - really wasn't. I don't think I have ever heard someone brag that they paid their full tax. Of course the reason why people cheat or "fudge" their tax returns is because, as they argue, they already pay too much in taxes and the government just wastes the money anyways. I suspect that some of the people who use that argument also complain about the bad roads or the waiting time for medical help.

 I profoundly disagree with what some of our senators did in terms of manipulating their expenses so that they would have more money to spend on luxuries. I am just not sure if I have the moral right to judge them. While it would be nice to assume or to believe that our politicians will provide moral leadership - nothing in the past 20 years has given me reason to believe in that particular fantasy. Why is anyone surprised when they don't provide such leadership?  It would seem to me that our country is in serious trouble if we are waiting for our politicians to provide leadership around ethics.

If we expect (and I do) that people who commit fraud against the Canadian taxpayer should at the very least pay the money back (and perhaps a bit more), not only does that include Duffy - but I suspect it also includes thousands of Canadians. If we are going to get morally outraged at politicians who steal - maybe the next time we see or hear of someone who is ripping all of us off, we need to say something. (We are all delighted when when we pay cash and are not charged hst) Either we lead our politicians by example and therefore have the right to expect more from them, or we follow their lead and get exactly what we deserve.