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By David Climenhaga, on May 20, 2013, at 1:29 am The home of Canada’s Parliament, held in contempt by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Reform Party, doing business under the name of the Conservative Party of Canada. Below: former chief of staff Nigel Wright, Mr. Harper and Senator Mike Duffy.
Surely the wrong man has quit!
Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, resigned yesterday in the imbroglio that followed the revelation he gave disgraced Senator Mike Duffy $90,172 to pay back the Parliamentary expenses the supposed representative for Prince Edward Island in the Upper House had improperly claimed.
The purpose of the controversial payment, obviously, was (Read more…)
By Jim Sadlemyer, on May 19, 2013, at 9:35 pm One person’s tragedy is another’s travesty.
By Michel, on May 19, 2013, at 9:15 pm Ran out of scotch to he’s making a ruckus.
To quote the loquacious and disgraced Mike Duffy: “Words are important.”
In that spirit, let’s take a careful look at Nigel Wright’s resignation press release to see if it can shed light into this whole affair:
In light of the controversy surrounding my handling of matters involving Senator Duffy, the Prime Minister has accepted my
By Obert Madondo, on May 19, 2013, at 8:13 pm PM Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright resigned early Sunday following last week’s revelation that he cut a $90,000 personal cheque to cover Sen. Mike Duffy’s fraudulent Senate expense claims. The announcement has set the Twitterverse on fire. “Mr Wright’s resignation doesn’t end the matter – how and why was this deal done,” tweeted former Liberal leader [...]
The post Sen. Mike Duffy’s Scandal Torpedoes Nigel Wright: Canadians React appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Obert Madondo, on May 19, 2013, at 4:10 pm From the day it emerged that Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright cut a $90,000 personal cheque to cover Sen. Mike Duffy’s fraudulent Senate expense claims, the Conservatives tried desperately to kill the scandal. On Thursday, they tossed Duffy overboard, and on Friday, Sen. Pamela Wallin. Also on Friday, the PMO vowed that Wright [...]
The post Statements: Resignation of Harper’s Chief of Staff Nigel Wright appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Greg Fingas, on May 19, 2013, at 1:26 pm Plenty of others have had loads to say about the scandal surrounding Stephen Harper, Nigel Wright, Mike Duffy and the Senate generally – with Wright’s resignation today serving as just the latest chapter of a story with plenty left to be told. But I’ll add a couple of notes to the mix.
First, I’m not sure some commentators (especially those thinking that “the cheque” is the real story) have noticed the significance of this juxtaposition of events: A senior government official told Postmedia News on Thursday that Wright wrote a cheque to Duffy’s lawyer “in trust.” The official, who (Read more…)
By trashee, on May 19, 2013, at 9:11 am … and this troubling scandal deepens. How much did Harper know? What DON’T we know about – yet? A what point does the number of misdeeds, lies and deception by Harper government officials lead some to suggest that Harper call an election? Clearly, the government is losing the confidence of Parliament and the people of [...]
By David Climenhaga, on May 19, 2013, at 1:29 am Toronto Mayor Rob Ford as he might have appeared in ancient Rome, whence comes the idea that in politics public figures and their associates must be above suspicion. Below: The real Rob Ford; Caesar’s wife.
Schadenfreude is all very well, but this whole Rob Ford video scandal has me feeling just the tiniest bit hinky.
It’s a due-process thing, and I recognize that there can be no due process in politics, as unjust as that may seem.
No, realpolitik demands that the operative rule in politics be summed up in the notion we abbreviate with the phrase “Caesar’s wife (Read more…)
By Lorne, on May 18, 2013, at 9:11 am Here is Rex Murphy holding forth on the current ‘troubles’ in Ottawa:
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By Simon, on May 18, 2013, at 4:24 am Wherever you went in Toronto today you couldn't get away from Rob Ford.Everybody was talking about him eh?
Wondering whether he's a crack head, or just plain crazy.So I wasn't really surprised to find him waiting for me on my way home.And as I stared at this ghastly apparition, I could almost hear him screaming " Somebody get me that !@#!! TAPE. Read more »
By valerieburns613, on May 17, 2013, at 12:33 pm We could get Nigel Wright’s resignation, but so what? His polling numbers don’t matter. If he trends on Twitter during his scandal, who cares? Nobody is going to vote for him, or against him.
Mike Duffy, ditto. He can be the least popular politician in the country, and it changes positively nothing. Even if a Senate Conflict of Interest Code hearing is called at a Senate committee, even if that committee makes a report to the Senate itself, and even if the Senate itself makes a finding against Duffy – even then we should not pretend that this is (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 17, 2013, at 9:38 am Assorted content to end your week.
- Paul Krugman draws a much-needed connection between austerity politics and Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine: What Smith didn’t note, somewhat surprisingly, is that his argument is very close to Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, with its argument that elites systematically exploit disasters to push through neoliberal policies even if these policies are essentially irrelevant to the sources of disaster. I have to admit that I was predisposed to dislike Klein’s book when it came out, probably out of professional turf-defending and whatever — but her thesis really helps explain a lot about what’s going (Read more…)
By Obert Madondo, on May 17, 2013, at 9:06 am By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Scandal-plagued Sen. Mike Duffy quit the Conservative caucus Thursday after his fraudulent Senate expense claims threatened to engulf the Harper government. Duffy, appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009, now sits as an independent. “It is clear the public controversy surrounding me and the repayment of my [...]
The post Beleaguered Harper-appointed Sen. Mike Duffy Quits Conservative Caucus appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Simon, on May 17, 2013, at 2:55 am Well he's finally been kicked out of Con caucus.Senator Mike Duffy has resigned from the Conservative caucus and will sit as an Independent amid controversy over his living and travel expense claims.Even as the scandals keep on coming.Sen. Mike Duffy attempted to influence the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission’s upcoming decision involving the right-leaning Sun News Network, a source has told CTV News. But now at last we can understand why the boys in the PMO were so desperate to try to make the problem go away. Read more »
By Admin CP, on May 16, 2013, at 11:56 am Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright wrote a personal cheque worth more than $90,000 to pay back Senator Mike Duffy‘s living expenses, Harper’s office confirmed Wednesday. “Mr. Duffy agreed to repay the expenses because it was the right thing to do,” Harper’s spokesman Andrew MacDougall said [...]
The post Harper’s chief of staff paid off Mike Duffy’s Senate expenses appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Lorne, on May 16, 2013, at 9:49 am
In Act 5 Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, when the overthrow of the ruthless, power-drunk politician/king is nigh, Angus speaks these words about him:
Now does he feelHis secret murders sticking on his hands.Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.Those he commands move only in command,Nothing in love. Now does he feel his titleHang loose about him, like a giant’s robeUpon a dwarfish thief.
Despite the fact that English literature is dismissed by many of our current ‘masters of the universe’ as something of a frill, with nothing to offer the practical, results-driven mentality (Read more…)
By Simon, on May 16, 2013, at 2:44 am Golly. When I compared the Harper Cons to a cult last night, I forgot to mention one thing eh?They're are a cult. But they are strongly influenced by The Sopranos .Where if you get in financial trouble, Tony tells you to go see Vinnie in the back room, and he'll cut you some slack.Or in the case of the Harper mob, you go to see Nigel at the PMO, and he'll cut you a big cheque.Read more »
By Lorne, on May 15, 2013, at 9:06 pm If you start at about the 5 minute mark, you will witness Harper’s pet parrot Pierre, through endless repetition, parody a Member of Parliament actually answering a question and showing respect for Canadians’ intelligence.
* Show an absolute absence of anything that could be even remotely interpreted as integrity. Recommend this Post
By Obert Madondo, on May 15, 2013, at 5:50 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Our Senatorial soap opera entered a new chapter on Tuesday. Independent Sen. Patrick Brazeau informed the media that he’ll defy the Senate’s order to repay the $48,744 in living and travel expenses he fraudulently claimed from Canadian taxpayers. “Senator Brazeau has fulfilled his obligations in forwarding all relevant [...]
The post Sen. Patrick Brazeau defies Senate order to return housing allowance appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
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