He called the Senate expense scandal a “distraction.”
It’s a choice of a word that should come back to haunt the prime minister and it neatly symbolizes a fundamental misunderstanding of the depth of an ethical slide which is, sadly, a hallmark of long-serving governments.
“When distractions arise, as they inevitably will, we will deal with them firmly,” said Harper.
In other words, let’s put this behind us, we’ve got to get to work reminding voters that our economy will collapse if the New Democrats or Liberals are ever trusted with government in 2015.
A “distraction” can be defined as a diversion, or an interruption, but this is neither and one suspects Harper knows this very well, despite his choice of word.
Harper knows it is the “distractions” that stick, that political futures can ride more on indiscretion than ineptitude, that the perception of fat cats angers more voters than foreign policy, that questions of morality and principles do more damage than deficits or debt.
Voters also appear to react more strongly when the sums of money involved are dollar figures to which we can relate.
This is not to belittle the value of $90,000 to voters struggling with mortgage payments, children’s educations and job insecurity, but it is a dollar figure that people can imagine and that is why this is sticking to this government more than the $3.1 billion in “missing” anti-terror funds identified earlier this month by auditor general Michael Ferguson.
Anyone can figure what $90,000 can do for their mortgage payments or their children’s university education. Something like $3.1 billion is unfathomable.
That may explain why the final indignity for deposed Harper cabinet minister Bev Oda was her $16 orange juice.
It may be why former Liberal minister David Dingwall will be forever remembered for his immortal “I am entitled to my entitlements,” when accused of billing taxpayers for a pack of chewing gum while head of the Royal Canadian Mint. That phrase became a Harper battle cry to symbolize Liberal waste and arrogance, even though Dingwall was later exonerated of expense account abuse.
It may be why Ontario’s eHealth scandal climaxed with reports that a consultant earning $2,700 a day charged taxpayers $1.65 for Tim Hortons tea and $3.99 for Choco Bites.
It would explain why British media reports of MPs expensing everything from toilet seats to moat cleaning made headlines around the world.
And that is the crux of the Mike Duffy-Nigel Wright deal that has led to Wright’s resignation as Harper’s chief of staff and Duffy’s resignation from the Conservative caucus, but not the Senate.
Why did Duffy need to grab a cheque from the wealthy chief of staff to pay back taxpayers’ money to which he was not entitled in the first place?
He has reminded many that he took a pay cut by going to the Senate, but it is not a job that includes a vow of poverty.
Did he cut a deal with a previous chief of staff when he took the appointment then cry foul when put under media pressure to repay a bump up in a special package he had personally negotiated?
And there is a second, larger question.
Are we to believe the prime minister had no idea that his chief of staff was negotiating a deal in Harper’s own office for a disgraced member of the Conservative caucus?
In the Commons, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird stressed the prime minister was not aware of the payment until it was revealed last week by CTV and he said there is no paper trail laying out the terms of the gift.
The prime minister has still not addressed the matter, other than to say he was “very upset about some conduct we have witnessed — the conduct of some parliamentarians and the conduct of my own office.”
By the time Baird was on his feet during question period, Harper was airborne for a trade mission in Peru. He is scheduled to meet with reporters Wednesday in Lima.
The public part of the Tuesday caucus ended with frustrated reporters trying to shout questions at the prime minister over the applause of a caucus that tried to drown out the press gallery.
He won’t have anyone to shout down the media Wednesday.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Tim Harper
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