Tolhurst Trying to Crowd Source for Legal Costs

The political world locally didn't stop spinning while the election was in session, and in that time a committee heard the results of an audit into the 2014 election expenses of Ward 6 council candidate Glen Tolhurst, and the good news is that no one will be prosecuted. On the other hand, this has left Tolhurst with substantial legal bills, and he's using an increasingly popular venue to raise funds for his legal defense: crowd-funding.

Remembering Happier Times...

It wasn't a great day yesterday for Pamela Wallin as the RCMP came out and alleged that she has defrauded the Senate, committed a breach of trust in filing inappropriate expense claims, and that "irregularities" in expense reports since 2009 have been flagged several times. Clearly, things are not going well for the senator, a once respected journalist turned university chancellor turned Conservative politician, which is why when I found this yesterday, I thought it might turn some frowns upside down...

Now That's Some Good Bloviating

Stephen Harper's first Question Period of the fall didn't go the way he wanted, I think. Despite a strong attempt to pivot away from the ongoing senate expense scandal (including new revelations that Senator Mike Duffy and members of the PMO beyond Nigel Wright colluded on Duffy's sweetheart deal) by harping - pun intended - on the new free trade deal with Europe, the opposition smelled blood in the water and wanted to track it back to the source: Stephen Harper.

Still, Harper left some of the heavy lifting in Question Period yesterday to the new new parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Tory MP Paul Calandra. When NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus hit the floor to ask again about Duffy, it was Calandra that unleashed a rhetorical flourish that made his fellow Conservatives proud and left everyone else confused.

Who Pays for Scandal?

On Friday it was reported that Senator Pamela Wallin had made a payment of $100,600.98 covering the remaining amount of expenses she inappropriately claimed as a senator, as well as an additional $13,938.19 in interest charges. To say the she did so begrudgingly is an understatement as she refuses to accept responsibility for using the Canadian taxpayer as her own personal piggy bank. “If mistakes were made, I am responsible for those, but there was never a deliberate attempt to thwart the travel policy that was in place at the time the claims were submitted,” Wallin said in a written statement. Coming from a woman who photocopied an airline ticket so she could claim the expense from both the senate and the University of Guelph, that's some serious chutzpah.

Still, I have to say that I give Pamela Wallin credit, she misspent government money, and even though she's kind of being bullheaded about just owning up to the fact she was wrong, she did - eventually - pay it back. So did Mike Duffy, even if he had to write a IOU to PMO staffers in order to the job done. Spending scandals are nothing new to government, but what struck me about the senate expense scandal is that at least were getting the money back. Can the same be said for most other scandals of this sort?