National Newswatch

Liberal Senate leader to argue Harper’s office in contempt of Parliament

The Liberals in the Senate are trying to trigger special parliamentary hearings in the hopes of forcing the prime minister’s former top aide and other Conservatives to testify.

Benjamin Perrin: ‘I was not consulted on, and did not participate in, Nigel Wright’s decision’

A statement from Benjamin Perrin, former legal advisor to the Prime Minister, in regards to last night’s story from CTV.

Sen. Duffy’s 2011 election campaign tours to Tory ridings organized by Conservative Party HQ

Election campaign appearances by Senator Mike Duffy in 2011, now part of a controversy over his Senate expense claims during the same time period, were part of a tour of campaign stops by high-profile party members organized by the national….

Jacques Demers may quit Senate over scandal

The Senate expense scandal of the past week may soon claim an unlikely victim.

Those who seek to benefit from public office should leave Tory caucus: Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says any federal Conservative who is in politics to seek personal gain from public office should get out of his caucus.

Wherry: The Commons: John Baird tries to explain what he understands to be true

Thomas Mulcair stood to a hearty cheer from his caucus and, when the applause had quieted, he attempted a joke. “Mr. Speaker, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, to Peru apparently,” he quipped.

Horgan: Scrums: Everything is a mess Provided by iPolitics

All you need to know is this: Everything is a mess. The Mike Duffy expenses scandal, which now includes a $90,000 payment from the prime minister’s ex-chief of staff, Nigel Wright, is spinning into unknown territory, and if anything is…

NDP Leader Mulcair says cops wanted to talk to him about meeting with Vaillancourt

Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he was contacted by police in 2011 because of an alleged bribe offered many years earlier by a now-controversial mayor.

Paul Wells: Stephen Harper and the knowledge economy: perfect strangers

This story will get buried by all the other news today. That’s understandable, but I wish it weren’t so. It’s about a long-term government failure. In 2007 Maxime Bernier created the Science, Technology and Innovation Council to measure…

Senate set to debate expense audits amid greater scrutiny

The Senate will debate its own committee’s reports into living expenses claimed by three senators Tuesday night in a session that could see Senator Mike Duffy’s claims sent back for a second audit.

PM’s former legal adviser arranged deal for Wright to give Duffy $90K

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former special counsel and legal advisor worked on the legal deal between Nigel Wright and Sen. Mike Duffy’s lawyer that called for Wright to help Duffy pay off $90,000 in invalid expense claims, CTV News has learned.

Senate Selection Committee Could Be The Most Expensive Meeting On Parliament Hill

It could be the most expensive meeting on Parliament Hill. Two senators are each pocketing several thousand dollars annually to head a committee that meets once a year – and sometimes not at all.

More Tory Senators add their voices to call for change

With the deepening of the Senate’s multi-front expense scandal, several senators are speaking about the need for change in the red chamber.

Will the Duffy scandal be the one that sticks?

Amid the wreckage, the Conservatives in Ottawa still must govern. How they do that when two of their own Senators quit caucus late last week, and then their boss’s top aide resigned in the middle of a long weekend, is no easy task. Their headaches, mostly fuelled by the relentless…

The cover-up is the scandal — not the Senate

Tasha Kheiriddin — Mr. Prime Minister, you have got to be kidding. Within two months, three senators appointed by Stephen Harper have resigned from the Conservative caucus. At issue are questionable expense claims totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars…

Harper’s speech was a chance to be accountable. He blew it

John Ivison — Stephen Harper had a golden opportunity to say sorry to Canadians and his caucus for the Senate expenses scandal; to explain what he knew, when; and, to put forward some concrete proposals to restore the public’s faith in Parliament.

The treachery of words: Harper addresses caucus on Senate scandal

Colin Horgan — Words matter. It matters if you say you repaid money you owed to taxpayers, and it matters how you say you did that. And it matters when, faced with the backlash from those words allegedly not….

Harper government had to know $90,000 payment to senator crossed all sorts of ethical red lines

Andrew Coyne — Section 17 (1) of the Senate Conflict of Interest code states: “Neither a Senator, nor a family member, shall accept … any gift or other benefit, except compensation authorized by law, that could reasonably be considered to relate to the Senator’s position.”

Harper in Colombia to discuss trade expansion with Pacific Alliance

Carlo Dade — This week’s trip by the Prime Minister and Trade Minister to Colombia for the Pacific Alliance Summit is more than just another trip south; it is shaping up to be the most critical test of the country and government’s seriousness and ability to diversify Canadian trade away…

Things fall apart in the Harper PMO

Michael Harris — Amateur astronomers were afforded a rare sight over the weekend in the skies over Ottawa: the explosion of the Harper Universe. It all started with Senator Mike Duffy performing his Hindenburg imitation, crashing and burning over false Senate expenses…

For Harper’s Tories, back to basics on ethics

David Akin — “People who work hard, pay their taxes, and play by the rules want accountability from their political leaders. We don’t expect politicians to be perfect. But we do want to know that our tax dollars – money we’ve worked for – are being spent properly and wisely.

The integrity issue is reaching critical mass

Lawrence Martin — There’s some who still hold to the line. Ethical abuses? No big deal. The people don’t care. It won’t hurt the Harper Conservatives much. These people should try telling the Liberals that they weren’t damaged by the sponsorship scandal or Brian Mulroney…

Harper Tories evoking laughter and anger

Geoffrey Stevens — “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.” — Retired House of Commons law clerk Rob Walsh, on the Mike Duffy/Nigel Wright Senate expenses uproar, CBC-TV, May 17. Politicians don’t like it when people get really mad at them. Anger creates political damage.

To end the uncertainty, we need to buy the Ford video

Rosie DiManno — Plea to my publisher: Buy it. Buy that video which allegedly shows Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack. Because somebody will. And if that somebody happens to be an ally of the mayor or just a Ford junkie with deep pockets, the purported evidence of Toronto’s chief magistrate sucking on a crack pipe will…

Duffy Affair shows Harper Conservatives appear to have forgotten their values

John Ivison — Stephen Harper will be in mid-air to Peru when NDP leader, Thomas Mulcair, rises in the House of Commons to grill the Conservative government on the Duffy Affair Tuesday. But whichever minister is drafted in to defend the indefensible, the Prime Minister…

Political opportunity knocks to abolish Senate

Sid Green — “For every thing there is a season” Ecclesiastes 3:1 The time has come. Most Canadians must now agree that the democratic anomaly of an unelected government-appointed Senate has finally served its non-purpose and should be abolished.

Mulcair’s best-kept secret

Ezra Levant — Opposition leader could have blown the whistle on Laval mayor, but didn’t. Why? Thomas Mulcair, the leader of the NDP, says that in 1994 he was offered a bribe by the mayor of Laval, Que., Gilles Vaillancourt. He says he didn’t accept it.

Kinsella: Are political polls irrelevant?

Warren Kinsella — After the B.C. fiasco, Canada’s polling industry is — once again — engaged in a painful existential debate about what they do and how they do it. Because, make no mistake, they were dramatically mistaken about last Tuesday’s…

Adams: Bad news, good news: social media and the public

Paul Adams — The other day I got an email from a friend in the news division of a major American television network, asking me what I thought of an article rehearsing the many defects of today’s media.

Bob Rae: Patriating the Constitution and the Charter

Bob Rae — The recent flurry about patriating the Canadian constitution has brought back a flood of memories, and some reflections. Pierre Trudeau, Frank Scott and Bora Laskin were friends in the 1950s and ’60s, all three law professors and advocates of the need for a bill of rights…

Toronto Star: Stephen Harper should appoint a pro to head Canada’s library and archives

Toronto Star — As the head of Library and Archives Canada, a seemingly sleepy position, Daniel Caron was remarkably controversial. He stepped down Wednesday after being castigated by Heritage Minister James Moore for spending $4,500 of federal funds on Spanish lessons.