Everyone has been enjoying this wonderfully warm fall. I’m writing this on Sunday, and I’m wondering if the weather will stay friendly until Thursday or will it follow tradition and turn mean on the young Halloween celebrants.
***
Last week was a wow for news, some of it titillating, not much of it good.
The wild week in Ottawa got a lot of attention, even from those who aren’t political junkies.
Senators Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau appear to be particularly piggy when it comes to money, but surely it’s late in the game for their colleagues to get all prissy about it.
Let the RCMP and the Auditor General do their jobs. It’s interesting that Senator Marc Harb, (the only Liberal among the disgracees) resigned, but he was the only one that had a lucrative pension coming.
Prime Minister Harper is seeking the high road, but given his record as a control freak it’s astonishing he didn’t twig to his three senators’ expensive habits, and if he didn’t know about the cover-up for Mr. Duffy, he should have. If nothing else he’s guilty of poor judgement and he certainly underestimated the trio’s reaction to being abandoned by the party.
Is it okay for politicians to do whatever they want to until they get caught? Or does that apply only for an elite few? MP Dean Del Mastro, Harper’s former parliamentary secretary, has been charged under the Elections Act. Will he get the boot? If Duffy and Wallin did claim expenses while fundraising for the Conservatives, will the party return the money they raised?
Unfortunately the hoopla is taking attention away from other stuff like the European trade deal and another omnibus budget.
***
Closer to home, issues in forestry (more mill closures) and the rewriting of the century-old Water Act will have long lasting impacts on British Columbians.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.