This past week, he took all of that to the extreme, attempting to put a positive spin on the drama that is now Mike Duffy’s life.
Not sure who worked on the speaking points the local MP has been peddling, but they’re a stretch for even the most gullible among us.
A quick recap in case you haven’t been paying attention to the ins and outs of the Mike Duffy scandal.
Duffy was one of three senators believed to have claimed living expenses they weren’t entitled to. In Duffy’s case, this was worth more than $90,000.
Duffy swore up and down he hadn’t done anything wrong, and had always followed the rules.
The story wouldn’t go away, and Duffy eventually said he spoke to his wife, they agreed the story was a continued distraction and he’d repaid the $90,000 — though he said at the time he still didn’t believe he’d done anything wrong.
It was revealed last week that Duffy actually got a personal cheque from Nigel Wright, the chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for $90,000.
Stinks. To high heavens.
That isn’t what Poilievre would have us believe.
No, he was insisting Wright did the “honourable” thing, that Wright showed true “leadership” in dipping into his own pocket to gift Duffy with the money.
Yes, that sadly is the plop Poilievre is trying to get us to believe.
Poilievre, who answers to the name Skippy on the Hill, has sunk to a new low.
He says what is really important here is that the taxpayer isn’t on the hook, and since Duffy didn’t have the money himself, Wright did the right thing to protect taxpayers.
Just how Duffy didn’t have the money is an entirely different issue of course, but that has its own intrigue, doesn’t it?
Poilievre has laid his flimsy reputation on the line defending a Senator who took advantage of taxpayers and a bureaucrat with deep pockets who works behind closed doors.
It’s also very telling about the weight Poilievre carries within the Conservative Party. Surely, if Harper felt really strongly about this, he would have sent a more reputable mouthpiece to defend the government.
You wouldn’t find Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird spouting this rhetoric.
Sen. Mac Harb, a former Liberal who now sits as an independent, and Sen. Patrick Brazeau, a former Tory who also sits as an independent, say they won’t return $51,000 and $48,000 respectively and will fight a Senate committee’s order to return it.
The thing is of course is that this is hogwash.
Taxpayers pay Duffy’s salary, so there really was no risk they’d end up on the hook for it.
Sure, Poilievre had messed up before.
There was the “f--- you guys” in the heat of a committee meeting in 2006; in 2009, he was accused of having insensitively used the term “tar baby” in the House of Commons.
In 2010, Poilievre allegedly got impatient waiting at a Parliament Hill checkpoint and pressed a button to open the security gate and drove his car through without being identified and without having his vehicle inspected. He later apologized.
More recently, he suggested that “the root causes of terrorism is terrorists.” A deep thinker, Skippy is.
So if Wright really wants to protect taxpayers, surely he’ll be dipping into the other pocket for Harb and Brazeau, right?
Oh no, situations are entirely different, the youngster Poilievre insists.
It’s a sad commentary on how Poilievre feels about voters, that he’d peddle this nonsense and think anyone would believe it.
He looks ridiculous, he sounds ridiculous.
And he actually thinks we’ll buy into it.
Original Article
Source: edmontonsun.com
Author: Susan Sherring
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