PM lacks judgement to lead

If the Prime Minister was hoping that his prorogation and subsequent 17 week summer break would put the Senate scandal on the back burner when parliament returned he was spectacularly wrong.
It is increasingly obvious that Mr. Harper really has no one left to blame but his himself for all of this. He hired Nigel Wright as his Chief of Staff. He appointed Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, and Patrick Brazeau to the Senate. And, as we learned this week, Mr. Harper misled parliament in the spring when he said that Nigel Wright had “acted alone.”
The inconvenient truth is now that at least 13 of Mr. Harper’s own staff, who he hired to work in the Prime Minister’s Office, knew about the $90,000 cheque and the scheme to mislead Canadians about Mr. Duffy’s fraudulent travel and housing claims. You read that correctly – 13 people – are now part of this scandal and this cover-up.
So far from acting alone, Nigel Wright had the assistance of at least 13 other high ranking Conservatives in this fiasco. Here the 13 Conservatives that are now part of Harper’s Senate Scandal and cover-up.
·Former Stephen Harper Chief of Staff Nigel Wright (Source: RCMP court documents, countless Conservatives admissions of his role)
·Current Stephen Harper Chief of Staff Ray Novak (Source: Mike Duffy testimony in the Senate, 22/10/2013)
·Current Stephen Harper Deputy Chief of Staff Jenni Byrne (Source: CTV report, 22/10/2013)
·Former PMO staffer Chris Woodcock (Source: RCMP court documents filed on 24/06/2013)
·Executive Assistant to Stephen Harper Chief of Staff Nigel Wright, David van Hemmen (Source: RCMP documents filed on 24/06/2013)
·PMO staffer Patrick Rogers (Source: CTV report, 22/10/2013)
·Former PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin (Source: RCMP court documents filed on 24/06/2013)
·An additional unnamed PMO lawyer (Source: Mike Duffy testimony in the Senate, 22/10/2013)
·Former PMO staffer and current Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen (Source: Mike Duffy testimony in the Senate, 22/10/2013)
·Former Conservative Leader in the Senate Marjory LeBreton (Source: Mike Duffy testimony in the Senate, 22/10/2013)
·Senator Irving Gerstein (Source: CTV report, 22/10/2013)
·The late Senator Doug Finley (Source: CTV report, 22/10/2013)
The scandal and cover-up are no longer about travel and housing, but about a Prime Minister who lacks clearly lacks the judgment required to lead this country. If he chooses to surround himself with so many people who are willing to bribe a sitting Senator, mislead parliament and Canadians, and cover-up then go to great lengths to cover their own dirty work then one has to wonder; who else does he have working in his office and what sort of misdeeds are they undertaking today – with or without his knowledge? It is worth noting that Ray Novak, listed above, actually got a promotion recently as he was chosen – by Mr. Harper – to replace Nigel Wright as his Chief of Staff.
If the Prime Minister has such bad judgment about the people he hires to work in his office and put in the Senate how can anyone trust his judgment and honesty when it comes to other issues – from protecting Canadians’ privacy, to tabling accurate federal budget and economic figures, and negotiating trade deals?
Unfortunately, for Mr. Harper, this scandal is in its infancy. All of these issues arose from a random audit of just 7 Senators out of the 105 that have been appointed. Thankfully, Auditor General Michael Ferguson has agreed to audit ALL of the expenses and budgets of the Senators, and has promised to report back to Canadians prior to the next election in 2015.
This scandal and the fallout are far from over, and in the end, Mr. Harper will have no one to blame but himself for this theft of Canadian tax dollars and the tangled web of lies that was constructed to cover it up. Stay tuned.