“You don’t want to push somebody’s loyalty too far. Nigel is a man who values his reputation but, like any human, he will have a certain degree of tolerance. You don’t want to go beyond that point of tolerance,” said one top Conservative in an interview on not-for-attribution basis with The Hill Times last week.
In answering questions about the inappropriate $90,000 payment that Mr. Wright made to then-Conservative, and now Independent Senator Mike Duffy (Cavendish, P.E.I.) for his ineligible housing expenses without informing the Prime Minister, Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) accused Mr. Wright of “deception” during the Question Period on Oct. 30.
“On our side, there is one person responsible for this deception and that person is Mr. Wright, by his own admission. For that reason, Mr. Wright no longer works for us. Mr. Duffy should not either,” said Mr. Harper.
Another Conservative source said that the Conservative caucus is split on this issue and the way it’s being handled.
“Caucus is growing more discontented with what’s happening. You just have to look at their faces during Question Period to know that there’s frustration and confusion. I don’t think there’s an organized split but some people are certainly questioning the tactics,” said the Conservative source, who did want to be identified, and pointed out that the Conservative base is also raising questions.
“It’s deeply upsetting to the base. What I’ve heard in the past two days are people screaming and yelling about how far we’d come only to bring ourselves down in the past [few] weeks. When you do it to yourself, that’s when it really hurts.”
The source who has been active in the party since the Reform Party days said former Reformers and Alliance-era party members are questioning behind the scenes why the Prime Minister did not undertake any serious effort to abolish the Senate as this was one of the core goals of Reformers which included Mr. Harper.
Asked if it was ironic that the institution that Mr. Harper wanted to either abolish or reform was now damaging his own credibility, the source said: “It’s not ironic, it’s delicious, it’s wonderful, it’s spectacular. This is what happens when you try and build this progressive coalition rather than actually sticking to your agenda. It eventually comes back and bites you in the ass. The base is asking, ‘What about the Senate? Why aren’t we doing all the things we said we would do?’ Well, good question, why didn’t we do that? We had six years. It’s deeply, deliciously ironic,” said the source.
Conservative MP Mark Warawa (Langley, B.C.) in an interview last week disagreed that there’s any split in the caucus.
“Our caucus is solidly behind Prime Minister Stephen Harper and our caucus wants accountability, I know they want accountability and integrity and that’s why we’re pushing for improvements in the Senate and the House,” Mr. Warawa told The Hill Times.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Duffy revealed in a Senate speech that in addition to a cheque of $90,000 from Mr. Wright, the Conservative Party also paid his legal expenses totalling around $13,560. Mr. Harper has defended the payment of legal costs saying that all parties help out their caucus members on a regular basis if they need help with their legal expenses related to their Parliamentary work.
When this scandal came out in May, Mr. Harper at the time said that Mr. Wright took responsibility of his actions and resigned and that he accepted this resignation with “great regret.”
Earlier last week, Mr. Harper in an interview with a Halifax radio host, former Canadian Alliance candidate Jordi Morgan aired on Monday, said that he “dismissed” Mr. Wright because of the inappropriate $90,000 payment that he made to pay Mr. Duffy’s expenses. And then on Tuesday, Prime Minister accused Mr. Wright of “deception.”
Veteran Conservatives, strategists from other parties and pundits have said that criticizing a former top aide is a big mistake and this strategy could result in disastrous consequences.
“They [top political aides] know where the bodies are buried. If Nigel strikes back, Harper will regret it,” Warren Kinsella, former top federal Liberal strategist who worked with former prime minister Jean Chrétien closely said in an interview with Sun TV on Wednesday.
Mr. Kinsella added that Mr. Wright is not “an average Conservative” as not only was he the well-liked former chief of staff to the Prime Minister, but he also played a key role over the years in the success of the Conservative Party in fundraising, policy development and organization at the highest level. Mr. Kinsella said that Prime Minister lost his message discipline, last week, for which he’s well known.
“He looked like a monkey with a machine gun, shooting at everything that moves. Think back 10 years ago. How did Stephen Harper achieve power? He had message discipline. He kicked out the loose cannons from his caucus and imposed message discipline,” said Mr. Kinsella.
In a column headlined “It may be Nigel Wright’s power to destroy Stephen Harper,” Toronto Star columnist Chantal Hébert also wondered about the Prime Minister’s strategy to accuse Mr. Wright of “deception.”
“Only a saint or alternatively someone with a guilty conscience would continue to play dead as his former boss wreaks irreparable damage on his or her reputation,” wrote Ms. Hébert in her column. “Prime Minister Stephen Harper can only pray that former chief of staff Nigel Wright falls squarely in one or the other category.”
Mr. Wright has not given any media interviews to defend his position.
Last week, Employment and Social Development Minister Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Alta.) defended Mr. Wright prior to the start of the Conservative Party’s Policy Convention in Calgary, Alta.
“I know Nigel Wright to be a person of good faith, of competence, with high ethical standards. And as far as I can tell, this was an uncharacteristic lapse of judgment on his part, both the decision to write a cheque and apparently the way it was handled thereafter,” said Mr. Kenney, in an interview with The Calgary Herald.
Tom Long, a business executive and a-behind-the-scenes important player in Conservative Party politics also defended Mr. Wright.
“I talk to a lot of people by virtue of my work…people’s fundamental view of him hasn’t been altered one iota. Not one iota,” Mr. Long told The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Harper has been calling on the Senate to suspend the three Senators—Duffy, Pamela Wallin (Saskatchewan) and Patrick Brazeau (Quebec) without pay and benefits for two years for claiming inappropriate expenses.
Government Senate Leader Claude Carignan (Mille Isles, Que.) introduced three motions for this suspension, but later bowed to pressure from within the Senate and last week withdrew those motions.
Sen. Carignan replaced these three motions with one new motion seeking the suspension of three Senators for two years, but with life insurance and health benefits. The Senate is likely to vote on these motions this week.
Only four Conservative caucus members so far have publicly spoken out against suspending the three Senators, including Conservative Senators Don Plett (Landmark, Man.) and Hugh Segal (Kingston, Ont.) and Conservative MPs Peter Goldring and Peter Kent (Thornhill, Ont.). These caucus members say the suspension with or without benefits deprives the three Senators in question from due process and it could jeopardize a fair police investigation.
“This isn’t about benefits, this isn’t about a paycheque. You’re firing them. This is about reconsidering the whole process,” said Mr. Goldring in an interview with The Hill Times.
Mr. Goldring said that he had talked to about 40 to 50 other caucus members about his position on this issue and 80 per cent agreed with him. He declined to mention any names or if they spoke out against the Senate motions in the caucus meetings.
According to a poll conducted by Ekos and released last week, Liberals were leading the pack with the support of 37.4 per cent, followed by the Conservatives with 26.4 per cent and the NDP with a support of 24.9 per cent. The poll of 1,377 Canadians was conducted between Oct. 26 and 29 using online and telephone surveys and has a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
In a marked contrast to this poll, in the 2011 federal election, Conservatives won 39.6 per cent of the vote, the NDP 30.6, and the Liberals 18.9 per cent of the vote.
Conservative pundit Tim Powers said it’s too soon to make a judgment on how much damage this scandal has caused for the Conservatives.
“In the short-term, there’s a lot of bruising. It’s too early to tell what magnitude the injury may be afterwards. Is it a bruise or is it a crippling injury? It’s too early to tell,” said Mr. Powers who is vice-chair of Summa Strategies and is a Mulroney-era Cabinet ministerial staffer.
Meanwhile, The Globe and Mail last week ran the names of 11 key Conservative players who knew or might have known that Mr. Wright wrote a cheque to cover improper expenses on behalf of Mr. Duffy. They include, Sen. Duffy, Mr. Wright, Benjamin Perrin, former legal adviser to Mr. Harper; Ray Novak, now chief of staff to Prime Minister; David Van Hammen, former assistant to Mr. Wright-then chief of staff; Chris Woodcock, former director of issues management to the Prime Minister; Conservative Sen. Irving Gerstein, chair of Conservative Fund Canada; Arthur Hamilton, lawyer for the Conservative Party of Canada; Sen. Marjory LeBreton, former leader of the government in the Senate; and Senators David Tkachuk (Saskatchewan) and Carolyn Stewart-Olsen (New Brunswick), both former members of a three-person subcommittee of the Senate’s Committee on Internal Economy.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: ABBAS RANA
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