The Duffy Affair: Accountability According to Stephen Harper

When Stephen Harper was first elected Prime Minister in 2006, he promised to bring a new era of accountability to Ottawa. Harper and the Conservatives swept to power on a wave of popular indignation over the Liberal sponsorship scandal, arriving in Ottawa with talk of ending the elite impunity that had taken hold after the long rule of “Canada’s natural governing party.”

Harper announced his intentions in a 2005 speech: “We must clean up corruption and lift the veils of secrecy that allow it to flourish. We must do nothing less than replace the culture of entitlement with the culture of accountability.”

Eight years later, with a growing expenses scandal in the Senate prompting the resignation of Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright and forcing senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin out of the Conservative caucus, the culture of accountability appears to be slow in taking hold.

The specter of unelected Conservative senators using their position for personal financial gain is particularly damaging, since Senate reform has long been a key component of the Conservative plan to clean up Ottawa.

There has rarely been a better argument for reforming the Senate than Mike Duffy’s confusion about what “primary residence” means, despite his life-long career in journalism and a government job that requires him to keep a close eye on the details of proposed legislation. A consummate Ottawa insider, Duffy has also confirmed fears that official “Senate business” occasionally includes campaigning and fundraising for Conservative candidates at public expense.

In other words, the Duffy affair is a classic example of Conservatives committing the very misdeeds they promised to clean up: unelected government officials using public funds to promote both individual and partisan interests.

But as the scandal continues to unravel, there are signs that the rot goes deeper than improperly claimed expenses. In particular, how could a Prime Minister notorious for micromanagement not know about Duffy receiving a $90,000 personal bailout from Nigel Wright, a chief of staff renowned for his political savvy?

This is precisely the question that the Prime Minister should face from the Opposition during Question Period, and from the media in an open and unscripted press conference. But that’s exactly what isn’t happening.

Harper was not present during Question Period on Monday, met with his caucus on Tuesday, and is set to fly to Latin America today—in the midst of a serious scandal that calls the federal government’s integrity into question.  

When Harper did find the time to address the scandal during a televised speech to the Conservative caucus last Tuesday, he failed to provide any new details. Instead, he tried to divert attention away from his office by praising the government’s efforts in creating “one of the most accountable and transparent systems of governance in the entire world.”

If that is indeed the case, Harper chose a strange way of illustrating Canada’s enviable transparency when he declined to take questions from journalists after the speech. Preferring to exit to the sound of partisan applause rather than face media scrutiny, Harper demonstrated precisely why his government continues to suffer from a serious accountability gap.

Since taking office, Harper’s media appearances have resembled a tightly managed public relations campaign. He ensures that the government always appears on brand and on message, and too many questions from journalists tend to threaten the script. With Harper’s accountability at stake in the Senate expenses scandal, his conduct with the media—the very institution charged with holding governments accountable—should be center stage.

Rabble.ca editor Derrick O’Keefe put it best: “This government’s relationship with the media is a scandal in its own right.” But it doesn’t stop there.

When a 2012 report on freedom and access to information by the Centre for Law and Democracy put Canada at 55^th place globally, the Conservative government responded by dismissing the report as inaccurate—5 months after it was released. The late response gave extra credibility to the report’s findings, which cite unjustifiable government delays in releasing documents as one of the most common strategies used to suppress access to information.

If the Conservatives are guilty of withholding information, they’ve also engaged in the opposite tactic: the use of omnibus information-overload to push through legislation that would otherwise encounter serious opposition. In 2012, the Conservatives passed two omnibus bills of over 400 pages each, packed with provisions that gutted environmental protections and made major changes to employment insurance and Old Age Security benefits.

With so many unrelated changes packed into one massive bill, it’s nearly impossible for the public to grasp the full scope of the legislation before it passes.

None of this sounds like the behavior of one of the world’s most transparent and accountable governments. Whether or not Harper faces further political fallout from the Senate expenses scandal, his government will continue to do its work as far from democratic oversight as possible.

A genuine culture of accountability means more than government officials resigning when they get caught. 

Image Credit: mikeduffy.ca