Saturday, April 11, 2015

Being a Political Junkie in the Age of Duffy



For any reasonable political junkie (which in itself may, at least in Canada, be an oxymoron) - it is hard not to get caught up in the ongoing legal saga of Mike Duffy.  For those on the left side of the political spectrum there is that hope, no matter how faint, that somehow the Prime Minister will be exposed for the crass, manipulative, and dishonest politician some believe him to be; for those on the right, there is the equally faint hope that the Prime Minister and all of his senators, ministers and aides will emerge from this trial by fire with their armour shining even brighter than the day they were elected/appointed. The sad truth of is that at the end of the day all that is likely to happen is that we will all be disillusioned more than we thought possible.

I had thought that it was very likely that Duffy would be found guilty of many if not most of the charges laid against him. It seemed rather obvious that he had been less than truthful about his place of residence, and the cost of commuting between Ottawa and his home. It also seemed pretty clear, from various reports, that he had billed the government for trips that were clearly partisan in nature. I thought that somewhere it would have been written down in very specific terms that one could not do the latter and that in terms of the former, primary residence was an easily understandable term. I also thought that people like Duffy bent/broke the rules in rather subtle, unseen ways. That, at the very worst, people like Duffy and their shoddy morals slipped through the cracks. I was wrong on all counts.

The evidence from the first few days has made it clear that the rules are not clear. There are some basic assumptions that some people believe are clear, but they are only assumptions.  The actual interpretations of those vague rules appear to be up to the individual. In other words - if you have morals the rules are quite clear - if you don't well then you can make money.  However, what I find particularly disheartening is not that there are some morally bankrupt people in the Senate (I hope I would that I would never be that naive) but rather that not only did anyone who wanted to, know about the badly bent and broken rules, but that the political machinery doesn't see anything wrong with what was happening. I am not suggesting that all Senators manipulate their expense account but it is inconceivable to me that they did not know that others were doing it. In all likelihood some have known for decades. And  no one did anything to stop it.

When Stephen Harper asked/invited/expected Duffy to be on various stages with him as he was raising funds across Canada for the Conservative party, how did he think that Duffy got there. Harper had to have known that someone was paying for Duffy's flight and hotels costs. The leadership of the senate, the leadership of the Conservative Party and the senators who sat on him on committees all knew what he was doing and who was paying for it. They also all knew that he had not lived in P.E.I. for two decades.  As I suspect the court will hear in the upcoming weeks, not only did all of those people know about it, but when the media started to discuss it ( I expect most of the media had known for years about the blatant misuse of the expense claims) those same people looked for ways of manipulating the information to preserve the already tarnished sanctity of the Upper Chamber.

Duff may get convicted for some of his crimes. If there is any justice in Canada he may even get to spend some time in one of the new prisons his old boss (who so quickly abandoned him) is building. But as much as it pains me to say it - he may be just a fall guy. The real criminals, those who manipulate and perpetuate this system where deceit is not only permissible - it is defensible - will in all likelihood remain unnamed, and unpunished.

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