Mike Duffy is seen in a January 2007 file photo.Ryan Carter/The Globe and Mail
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Before he became a senator, Mike Duffy was a reporter, and a good one. If reporter Mike Duffy were chasing the story about the remarkable gift that Senator Mike Duffy received from Nigel Wright, the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, to repay living and travel expenses, here are the questions that reporter Mike Duffy might ask Mr. Wright.
- Why did you decide to become personally involved in helping out a senator who has been accused of improperly charging more than $90,000 in expenses?
- You decided to pay these expenses out of your own pocket as a gift to Mr. Duffy. Did you secure the approval of Prime Minister Stephen Harper first, and if not, why not?
- Did you ascertain in advance whether the Senator could accept such a gift, and when and how he would be required to report it?
- Senator Duffy is reputed to be a highly effective fundraiser for the Conservative Party. Was your gift to the Senator intended, in part, to preserve his reputation and thus his effectiveness?
- Did you extend this gift to Mr. Duffy in order to secure his co-operation and silence, so that the controversy would disappear?
- Were any of the investigatory and reporting activities by the Senate committee on Internal Economy and the auditing firm Deloitte compromised by your actions?
But reporter Mike Duffy would know that these questions are mere brush-clearing for the next set of questions.
- The most important duty of any senator is to review legislation arriving from the House of Commons and to vote against that legislation if the senator believes it has been passed in error or in haste. How is Mr. Duffy to exercise that oversight, when he is so personally beholden to the Prime Minister’s Office and to you?
- The government is going after people who were overpaid by Employment Insurance, such as seasonal workers in PEI. They don’t have wealthy benefactors like you to make things right. What would you say to them?
- Your job is to keep the government on track and on message. Haven’t you just derailed those efforts by your own actions?
- To expand on that, your decision has embroiled you, your office, the Prime Minister and the Senate in a controversy that will dog this government for weeks to come, inevitably damaging its credibility. Given that your judgment in this affair has been so questionable, should you offer your resignation? Or have you already? If so what did the Prime Minister say?
Mr. Wright does not speak to reporters. If he did, he might say that he acted out of compassionate concern for a senator who, with the best of intentions, may have improperly interpreted confusing and ambiguous rules regarding residency and expenses, and who was under great stress when it became clear he could owe tens of thousands of dollars that he was in no position to pay back.
He would say that his most important concern was that taxpayers not be on the hook for any improper expenses Mr. Duffy might have incurred, and that he acted honourably, as Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre insisted Wednesday, by using his own funds instead.
And he would stiffly inform the reporter that he did not discuss private conversations with the Prime Minister, who would decide whether his chief of staff continued to enjoy his confidence.
Mike Duffy the reporter, however, would simply shrug, flip the page of his notebook and start in on the next set of questions.
John Ibbitson is the chief political writer in the Ottawa bureau.