By Ray Rivers
April 16, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
“A politician that has been caught mishandling public funds and who then engages in political subterfuge in an attempt to cover up the error is doing a Duffster Dive”.
It is possible that the suspended senator, Mike Duffy, will avoid going to jail on any of the 31 charges against him. But, at least in the court of public opinion, he is guilty for his ambition, arrogance, avarice – and his duffster diving.
All on the public dime?
Does it really matter that Mr. Duffy, having been appointed to represent PEI, actually parks his duff in Ontario. It is not like he was elected by real PEI residents so he is accountable to no one, except possibly the PM who appointed him. But that quaint historical rule about residency allowed him to claim expenses he shouldn’t have, since Ottawa was his home, not a temporary residence. Don’t we all wish for a job with a fat salary as well as money for the groceries?
The Senate, itself, is an historical mistake – a solution searching for a problem, and in due course becoming the problem itself. And so this trial will be as much about the Senate as it is about Duffy getting a free ride at the public trough. How can there be clear rules about what one does or doesn’t legitimately do in the absence of a clear understanding of the role and purpose of that organization?
Though he has not been called to attend yet, this trial is also very much about Stephen Harper, his judgement and his back room boys. After all, the PM appointed Duffy to the Senate, when even Duffy now must doubt the legitimacy of his appointment. And a chunk of the questionable expenses were rung-up attending those Tory events, in which Duffy had proven himself to be a heavy-weight, when it came to fundraising for the PM’s party.
Stephen Harper and Mike Duffy – pals forever?
On one hand it is hard not to feel a little sorry for Duffy. He was, presumably, only doing what he thought he could get away with. A jovial fellow who now appears to understand the error of his ways and who was happy to pay back what he’d wrongly accepted, with somebody else’s money. And he must be suffering emotionally, since those whose favour he sought so badly to obtain have now turned their backs and shun him.
On the other hand Mike Duffy isn’t a decent fellow who deserves our pity. This was apparent to anyone who witnessed the fiasco which occurred on Duffy’s political broadcast during the 2008 election. Then Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, whose first language is French, was asked an illogical, possibly trick or set-up question – “If you were prime minister now, what would you have done about the economy and this crisis that Mr. Harper has not done?”
Nobody could answer that question, though Dion tried and stumbled, asking repeatedly, for the question and the interview to be restarted. Duffy aired the entire interview, including all of the false starts, and then later editorialized his view that Dion had just demonstrated his incompetence.
Duffy was playing partisan politics. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that Duffy had violated broadcasting codes and ethics and that the interview was not fair, balanced or even-handed and, in fact, had significantly misrepresented the interview and its participant.
Though Mike Duffy had won several awards over his lifetime in broadcasting, this sad episode was unprofessional. Worse than unprofessional, it was mean and brutally unfair to Mr. Dion, sealing his fate in the 2008 election and beyond.
Senator Mike Duffy – currently under suspension.
And, of course, the destruction of Mr. Dion as a contender helped enable Mr. Harper to win the election. Duffy, if he didn’t already have the affection of the Tory leader, sure did after this little trick. And it was shortly after the 2008 election that Mr. Harper appointed Duffy to the Senate.
Background links:
Duffy Diaries Duffy and Harper Duffy Biog Duffy Realizes His Error
Senate Oversight Crown VS Harper Broadcasting Standards Rebuke
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran as a Liberal against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province.
I’d love to hear how you feel about the newsworthy folks of the day Ben Levin and Jian Ghomeshi.
Deflection.
The senate originated from the same idea that the ruling class was a small elite club that was required to control power for the good of society and prevent over-zealous liberalizations by the proletarian rabble. So it is ironic that in the weird twisted development of democracy, parliaments and legislatures have become the stogy overly self-protective element in government. The disease of appointing cronies to the senate has made that body only a political retirement home for old party hacks when it could be so much more.
The need for a chamber of sober second thought has never been more necessary than it is today. MPs are elected because they have pretty domestic pictures of bliss for their campaign literature and possess the skill to clap their hands at the right time and speak what the whip tells them to say. Members to a non-partisan senate should be elected by the accord of a preponderance of members from each party to take on the jobs that are too sensitive for parliamentarians to handle, for example:
•How do we deal with the disappearance of First Nation’s women
•How do we develop a Canadian economy beyond the drilling and sale of raw crude oil and the hewing of wood
•How do we control our own population growth in a world of 7 billion people
•How do we make our resources sustainable, green and still keep a vibrant economy
•How do we encourage young people to continue developing Canadian values that are worth preserving
Canada has had many non-partisan commissions that have approached similar and just as difficult issues with positive results. This is just one man’s hope, but I believe that a better constructed senate is what we desperately need more than ever.
Hey Ray – Do you think it will be fair for the crown to publish Duffy’s mug shot when he is convicted when he doesn’t have the taxpayers money to hire a makeup artist anymore? Wouldn’t that be punishing him twice for his crimes? LOL, just another CON with his hand in the cookie jar.