As a Grade 11 student, I had a chance to sit in the Senate briefly during the nickel tour offered at the time. I was in Ottawa for Student Commonwealth Conference, one of those free trips uber-nerds get to go on if they find the right application forms to fill out. I went on several nerd trips for free as a teenager. It pays to be a nerd.
Sitting in the red chamber, gazing at the giant paintings on the wall, one realizes the history of the place - for Parliament, if not the Senate. It's a big deal.
Watching the CBC National Oct. 22 had me wondering - is this Duffy thing going to be Harper's Watergate? Will the chamber become a museum?
I wasn't even hatched when the Watergate affair took place, but from what I gather, it started small, like this, and grew to be much larger, right to the very top. And that is precisely where Mike Duffy put it, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Harper's then chief of staff Nigel Wright.
As anyone with decent memory remembers prior to the scandal, Senator Mike Duffy, along with Senator Pamela Wallin, were the Conservative top dogs when it came to building support for the party. As a keen political watcher myself, the only Conservative senators I ever saw advertised for anything were Duffy and Wallin. It was a draw to go see them.
Saskatchewan's senators are A. Raynell Andreychuk, Denise Batters, Lillian Eva Dyck, Pana Merchant, David Tkachuk and Pamela Wallin. The only reason I know of Merchant is because she is the wife of class action specialist attorney Tony Merchant (a prominent, if unsuccessful, Liberal in his day). Tkachuk has had some prominence in the Senate in a leadership role. We've all heard of Wallin, about whom Peter Mansbridge pointedly said, "She doesn't like to be outshone, never has."
But the others? Never heard of them. Do they have pulses? I wouldn't know, and remember, I make a living following politics.
Quebec Senator Patrick Brazeau, also embroiled in controversy, had gained some prominence within Aboriginal circles. Appointed at a very young age, he could have been a stalwart of the Senate for decades. He even famously took on soon-to-be Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in a charity boxing match. When you had Brazeau, Duffy, former top political reporter in the country, and Wallin, with similar credentials, you had the absolute stars of the upper chamber.
To have its first stringers collapse on the ice, as it were, is devastating to the Conservative government. But will it bring down the government? Will it bring down Harper?
I don't know. It will bring down the Senate.
With people like Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall clamouring for its abolishment, those cries are going to grow louder by the minute.
As I've written in the past, the Senate has done good work. The late Senator Herb Sparrow was a good example. But the public sees so few examples of these, the upper chamber is becoming next to impossible to justify.
As for Harper, there are precisely zero heir-apparent MPs on the back burner. He never even appointed a deputy prime minister. It has been a one-man show from the get go. If he does fall on his sword, who will run this country without a change in government?
Someone better start taking notes for a screenplay, because when this affair is done, it should be made into a movie, a la All the President's Men. Call it All the Prime Minister's Men (and Women). Just don't let it become a CBC production.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
