Could our very own Senator Mike Duffy (if he can call P.E.I. home without having lived there for decades, surely we can tag CKDH’s Round Mound of Sound a Nova Scotian for his 1960s stint as an Amherst radio disc jockey and news reporter) succeed in doing what decades of NDP policy wonks have failed to do?Bring down the Senate of Canada.
And, perhaps, a prime minister in the bargain.
It would be a delicious irony if Duffy — who liked to be called “The Senator” long before he was one, who lobbied successive Liberal and Tory governments for his appointment to the chamber of entitled-to-their-entitlements and whose journalism career ultimately became one long suck-up, appoint-me-please job application/supplication — should go down in history as the architect of its demise.
It would be even more delicious if Stephen Harper — who began his political career as a Reform Party triple-E Senate reformer and who, as prime minister, refused to appoint a single Senator until the 2008 faux threat of a Liberal-NDP coalition prompted him to name his own Gang of 18 in order to outvote the Liberals on the Senate floor — should now be brought down by a Senate scandal of his own making.
Harper’s 18 new senators, of course, included Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, the three at the heart of the current expenses scandal.
Harper didn’t appoint Wallin and Duffy — both high-profile broadcasters — for their lifelong support of the Conservative party, but so he could trade on their public personas to fill party coffers.
Which worked until it didn’t.
Those same public personas have now not only given the expenses scandal marathon legs but also offered the disgraced Senators an Everest-high pulpit from which to fight back after Harper decided to disappear them.
While Duffy will almost certainly lose his battle against suspension this week, he will have succeeded in exposing the seamy, smarmy underbelly of Harper’s PMO.
That — coupled with an expected Supreme Court ruling keeping the constitutional bar for Senate reform unachievably high — just might force Harper into a channel changing popular referendum on Senate abolition.
And that may be enough to force an end to the Senate, but not enough to save Harper.
Win-win. Thanks, Mike.
STEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax and co-founder of its MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of two novels and eight non-fiction books. Buy his books 
Abolish the Senate period! No premier will stand in the with over 80% of the voters beyond fed up …. Try and win a provincial election backing any of these clowns … Try us I double dare you. Thought so… Now if those who believe the Senate is of true value to all Canadians … After it is GONZO. (Not soon enough) organize on your own time and dime with rules and take it to the people in a general election .. If you win you win. thought not again …. btw no pay no severances … And just in case you are feeling sorry none of them will be seen at your local food bank …. Cry me a river. To be con’t
Well said. If Duffy brings down the senate and the prime minister we owe him a huge vote of thanks.
We need the Senate, it is the chamber of second thought that must pass every bill before it can become law. We don’t want it easy for any government in power to make laws. Lets boot out Harper for appointing Senators who didn’t meet the residency requirements. Boot them out too, but lets not abolish the Senate.