Begins tomorrow morning, in our nation’s fair capital – Ottawa.
I am speaking of course about the Mike Duffy fraud trial.
Many accounts that I have been reading put great importance on his trial, for numerous reasons.
In truth though, it is about one thing and one thing only.
And I will come to that.
But it does once again put the Senate on trial which I see as a needless waste of everyone’s time:
As I have said on countless occasions – the Senate is an undemocratic body populated by unelected ‘hacks, flacks and ne'er-do-wells’.
It should have been abolished years ago.
The trial will only serve to harden that view amongst the many who share it with me.
The NDP’s unequivocal stance - that it will deep six the Red Chamber – is guaranteed to be an election favourite.
But that is all just a sideshow. It will not determine the winner of the upcoming Election.
The real issue is whether or not the Prime Minister lied when he told the country he knew nothing of his Chief of Staff’s gift of $90,000 to the Duffster.
I think Stephen Harper lied when he said that and I believe this will come out when said Chief of Staff, Nigel Wright gives his testimony in regard to this sordid chapter.
From all accounts – despite the ill advisedness of the gift, Wright is one of the few honourables in this sorry saga and he can be expected to tell the truth, under oath – whatever that turns out to be.
But should that truth differ from Harper’s recall – the Prime Minister will then be in the unenviable position of having been caught out lying to Parliament and to the public generally.
I do not see how he could then stay on, in such a circumstances.
What is totally sad about all of this is that it did not need to happen.
There was nothing to be gained by either Harper or Wright coming to Duffy’s defence. Indeed it was the Government’s position that it too wanted the Senate reformed or gone.
So why get involved in the internal doings of such as dysfunctional body?
There was absolutely nothing to be gained by the Tories and everything to lose as Nigel Wright correctly prophesied in one of his last emails as Chief of Staff.
If Harper goes down, as I think he very well may, he will have the rest of his life to dwell on that question.
As I see it…
‘K.D. Galagher’
