OTTAWA — The Senate spending scandal will loom over the Conservatives as party faithful and heavyweights head to Calgary for the party’s convention beginning Thursday.
The prime minister can, however, take the stage Friday night knowing the chances of having his speech overshadowed by the controversy are lessened because of today’s decision in the Senate to not hold any debate tomorrow as had been scheduled.
Even though the Senate will not be in session, the scandal remains a hot topic among those in Calgary, with even Preston Manning, the founder of the federal Reform party, saying everybody should be embarrassed by the scandal, even the prime minister.
“I think everybody should be embarrassed by it. It’s an embarrassment to the Senate. It’s an embarrassment to the Parliament. It’s an embarrassment to the party and it should be an embarrassment to the national media,” Manning told reporters in Calgary where he was holding a one-day symposium on Senate reform through his Manning Foundation for Democratic Education.
Conservatives in the Senate consistently blamed the Liberals over the past week for stalling their bid to suspend three former caucus colleagues. But today it was the Tories who ensured the vote on whether to suspend Senators Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau could not take place before early next week.
Government leader in the Senate Claude Carignan said it was “tradition” to not sit when any party is hosting a convention, although up until this afternoon, he had been prepared to sit Friday.
The move prevents Duffy from offering any more explosive revelations ahead of Harper’s speech Friday.
Carignan: It’s a ‘tradition’ for Senate to not sit during party conventions
The prime minister was already in Calgary Thursday morning, affording him a break from the constant grilling opposition parties in the House of Commons have levelled on him this week.
READ MORE: Softer motions to be introduced, debate to suspend 3 senators could drag into next week
Government leadership in the Senate yesterday softened the proposed sanctions against Wallin, Duffy and Brazeau, despite the prime minister’s demands this week to get rid of the three accused of claiming illegitimate expenses.
The deputy government leader in the Senate introduced a motion Thursday to suspend all three senators accused of filing inappropriate expense claims, replacing the three original motions introduced last week.
The new motion would keep Wallin, Duffy and Brazeau from collecting a salary, but allow them access to medical benefits and life insurance.
On his way in to the senate Thursday, Brazeau wouldn’t comment specifically on the amendments, but said: “This is why it’s a complete gong show and why we need a full inquiry into the matter.”
Three things separate this motion from the initial ones: it allows the senators to keep some benefits, it suspends all three senators using one vote instead of three, and it is classified as “government business” rather than “Senate business.”
It’s that last part that could make it more difficult for Conservatives who have been speaking out against the motions to vote their conscience, for a vote against the motion could be seen as a vote against the government.
Senator Cowan: Conservative “incompetence” to blame for Senate delay
Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, who has vocally criticized the lack of due process the motions offer, said he will now have a harder time voting his conscience.
Conservative Senator Don Plett has been vocal about his issues with the suspensions, and expressed gratitude last week that the motions were introduced as Senate business, allowing him to vote against them without having to be on the record as voting against his government.
He hasn’t said yet whether he will vote for or against the suspensions now that that has changed.
When asked Thursday whether he feels he has lost his battle now that the motion is government business, he said, this isn’t about winning or losing, it’s about doing the right thing.
Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, who has vocally criticized the lack of due process the motions offer, said he will now have a harder time voting his conscience.
“I have to assess what I’m going to do between now and then. As a general principle, I’ve never voted against a government motion,” he said Wednesday, adding that the new motion at least demonstrates some humanity.
Carignan, however, told reporters that whenever the vote happens, it will be “a totally free vote.”
The opposition in the Commons is still trying to get answers from Harper over the bombshells Duffy dropped earlier this week—a $13,560 cheque the Conservative party cut to cover Duffy’s legal fees, as well as the beleaguered senator’s claims that the Prime Minister’s Office dictated every word and every step he took as the spending scandal grew.
READ MORE: Duffy claims Tories paid his legal fees
The NDP and Liberals were relentless this week, demanding to hear what the prime minister knew, when he knew it, and the circumstances under which his former chief of staff left the Prime Minister’s Office.
But Harper dodged questions all week, refusing to directly answer whether his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, resigned or was dismissed after cutting Duffy a $90,000 cheque to help the senator repay housing allowances.
“Mr. Wright and I both agreed that his actions are completely inappropriate. That’s why he’s no longer working for us,” Harper said during Wednesday afternoon’s question period.
The prime minister then turned the tables to attack NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, asking him why he let “his party” repay legal fees to the tune of $100,000 in a libel case.
The circumstances to which Harper referred stem from 2002, when a court ordered Mulcair, who was then a Liberal member of the provincial legislature in Quebec, to pay close to $100,000 in damages.
Mulcair never entertained the question, instead focusing on why the Conservative party footed the $13,500 bill for Duffy’s legal fees.
To that, the prime minister repeated his defence of using Conservative funds to pay for Senator Mike Duffy’s $13,560 legal fees, saying it happens from “time to time,” although he would not say specifically what services were rendered for the money.
– With a file from The Canadian Press
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