If you have kept track of steve over time you will see he has wiggled out of tight corners before so do not count him out yet. However, I would not bet on the chances of those three senators. I think it will be goodbye for them.

interesting bedtime reading

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10..._hp_ref=canada

Steve "we have to reform/abolish the Senate" Harper, instead of being good for his word, actually stuffed the Senate with Tory fundraisers. Perfect, the Senate pays their salaries and expenses and the Conservative party trousers the cash raised.

It was a nice little earner until it was rumbled. Wallin said in an interview that she was being censured for not submitting proper receipts for her expenses. Her expenses had previously been approved. However, when they were audited she was told by the Party only to submit the receipts relating to Senate business, not those relating to Party business. When the discrepancy was discovered she was told she had to repay the difference. Thus the problem. Duffy is telling a similar story.

There was an interesting interview on The Current this morning with a journalist who had been covering Harper's career for 20 years. There was lots of juicy stuff but one thing he said was that Harper was a student of politics and understood how Mulrooney and Cretian were deposed by factions within their own party. Wanting to avoid this, he has ensured all the power stays in his office so no other politician could build a base to launch a challenge. The journalist suggested that the strategy had worked so far but, ultimately, when Harper needs friends he will find he does not have any.

That said, there is no credible alternative at the moment so, unless Harper can be caught in a clear lie, he will likely survive.

Canadians have a weird choice

Mulcair, whose base comes mainly from nationalist quebeckers, and a socialist to boot, not ready for prime time

Justin, whose claim to fame is his daddy (whom I liked and voted for in my riding some 30-40 years ago ) is untried and untested, and an unknown quantity, also not ready for prime time

So, other than liz may, who is left?

Harper

Even if Harper leaves the scene, another conservative will be elected PM 2 years hence I figure

I don't think Novocastrian needs me to speak on his behalf but I think his "preoccupation" is entirely justified. He is a scientist and it is entirely rational to be "preoccupied" with a Prime Minister who acts as though science's only role is to enhance his government's interests.

I agree. There will not be a change of government till 2019, when either the Liberals or NDP have established themselves as the alternative.

if i remember correctly in the days of my youth we were taught that the leader we are stuck with is the best of the mediocre bunch

[QUOTE=montreal mike;
What has mystified me all along with these 3 senators is how on earth was a cheque cut? Surely someone must have approved their expenses? One does not simply produce a signed cheque unless and until one is provided with valid receipts to substantiate the claim. At least that is how it works in the private sector! This is a basic rule which bean-counters call 'internal control'
So was everyone and their auntie asleep at the switch?[/QUOTE]
Lol @ Liz May! ;-) This story has dominated the news for a long time and the criteria senators' expenses are deemed eligible by (or not) has been at the forefront the whole time. It has nothing to do with the private sector, (obviously), and if you saw Wallin's interview with Mansbridge you already know how she was claiming travel expenses for speaking engagements between her time in Ottawa and arriving back in Saskatchewan. Some of those expenses were incurred before the rules were changed to dis-allow them, and in any case she paid all the money back, (though not cheerfully). She may or may not touch on some of those points again when she speaks today or she may announce that she's suing the government for defamation of character. She's smarter and richer than Duffy or Brazeau and already hired the lawyers for it. When Brian Mulroney got caught taking kickbacks from Karl-Heinz Schrieber in the Airbus scandal he did exactly that and it cost us over a million. Stephen Harper is gaining popularity right now because he is seen as dealing with this problem, either going to change the senate or abolish it, and the European trade deal will lock that in. Cheap French cheese might even get BE members to vote for him. He even took the opportunity to remind the House yesterday what a great thing he did there while Mulcair was pressing him on Who Knew? He's on record as saying he'd like to reform the senate so long ago that this can't hurt him and this disclosure of Duffy's won't hurt him either; what should he of said?, Don't pay it back? The PM has to keep big business going and keep beer and bread going to the masses and things could be worse here. It's sad but true; his job has never been so secure since he's been head of state while our economy has done ok despite a global recession. There are simply no attractive alternatives, either in the Conservative party or out of it at present, and though I don't like him I think we're going to be stuck with him.

CARETAKER

i think quite a few at this board will agree with you, unfortunately

I certainly do

And those who don't, well, when they see that cheese.......
This business is stealing valuable attention from the Quebec Charter of Racism and Intolerance, IMO.

Of course he will. "Nothing new in these revalations. Mr Duffy / Ms Wallin were bad boys/girls" Pivot to "Those crazy NDP'ers are opposing the cheap cheese deal with the EU and "That liberal guy with the good hair smokes dope you know". Rinse. Repeat.

well in my neck of the woods Duffy et al were hardly mentioned in the local news

instead the topic de jour was how glorious this charter will be

at least according to the predictable propaganda of the governing party

If support really is 68% either revised or as it stands it seems almost insurmountable, and making sure the laws and values of Canada aren't superceded is crucial. In the best of both worlds the expense scandal will be the death-knell of the senate and the Charter will kill Quebec nationalism and the PQ. Not going to happen, I know, but at least the senate will be gone. Our elections here almost always have voting divided along urban vs rural lines, and every vote counts. Inconvenient democracy.

that is why this odious charter has a chance of passing

montreal area is overwhelmingly against

but it the ingoramuses in the hinterland who may carry the day

I look forward to Pamela Wallin's speech this afternoon. The pundits have been setting it up as potentially quite explosive. As somebody else has commented, she's better funded (and probably a bit brighter, too) than Duffy, and it seems clear that the pair of them have dropped their last vestiges of party loyalty as a result of being thrown under the bus by threatening suspension without pay. Brazeau's a somewhat different case, as the pending sexual assault charges cloud the expenses issue a bit.

It seems pretty clear from Duffy's statement yesterday that he sought advice, in advance of making his claims, as to whether they were acceptable. The Senate leadership, the PMO and whatever the parliamentary expenses office is called all seem to have signed off on what he submitted, so it is clear that as far as they were all concerned, no rules were being broken. From his recollection of the meeting he had with Harper and Wright, the ONLY concern was the optics of the whole thing and how it would play out with the "conservative base," with no thought given to whether he'd actually done anything wrong.

It seems Harper's wiggle room might be that his staff went out of their way to provide him with "plausible deniability" by deliberately not briefing him on what was going on. That, to my mind, is indefensible.

It's also possible that, given the nature of Duffy's claims, there may yet be accusations of extortion, bribery, and other criminal charges resulting from the RCMP investigation. Duffy has nothing to lose and everything to gain by hanging the PM out to dry. He's ill, he's stressed, and he's fighting for his livelihood (and the pension rights that will doubtless transfer to his widow if this whole episode does him in...)