Senate Shame

If you have been following the senate shenanigans you know there has been some back-and-forth finger pointing at directing blame. Senators Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau seem to have had no problem helping themselves to the perks of their appointment. They may try and argue they did nothing wrong, saying the standard line of ‘everyone else does it’ as a means of rationalizing their actions, but the fact remains they ignored the all-important ethical considerations.

Senator appointments are less about what they can do for Canadians and more about what they can do to bolster the strength of the appointing political party. In Duffy’s case, the general Ottawa population was aware that he had been a long time resident of Ottawa. If Duffy was supposed to be a senator for PEI, why would the PMO accept Duffy’s claim that he had a cottage there as being sufficient to justify the appointment? The PMO should have never appointed Duffy and for that they must assume some responsibility for this farcical situation.

Duffy is probably no worse than many others that have served themselves well with the public purse, he just got caught. The same goes for Wallin and Brazeau. Based on the information provided through the media, it would appear that ethics was not a trademark of these three less-than-honourable senators. The PMO must scrutinize senator appointees more thoroughly with a particular emphasis on overall integrity if we want to eliminate, or at least reduce, encore performances of this rotten affair.