Advertisement

Peter Shurman housing debacle clouds new legislative session for Ontario Tories

Drama drama drama — that seems to be theme within the Ontario Tory caucus of late.

The latest drama, came Sunday, when leader Tim Hudak removed Thornhill MPP Peter Shurman from the Finance critic role.

Shurman, as first reported by the Globe and Mail last week, was claiming a housing allowance of $20,719 for a second house in Niagara-on-the-lake. The allowance is available for anyone who lives 50 kilometres away from the Ontario legislature in Toronto. But here's 'the rub': Thornhill is not more than 50 kilometres away.

During a press conference on Monday, Hudak said he asked Shurman to repay the money.

"As leader of the PC party, I need to make sure we have a higher standard. Did Peter follow the rules? He did follow the technical rules. But I need to enforce a higher standard when there's such an importance around accountability in our province and our country today," Hudak said.

"He made his decision not to repay, I made my decision to remove him as finance critic."

Hudak added that he didn't know Shurman was claiming the expenses.

"Did I approve these expenses? No," he said.

"Was I aware that he was billing all these expenses to the taxpayer? No."

[ Related: Ontario Tory MPP Peter Shurman loses credibility over $21k housing allowance ]

Interestingly, Shurman says that Hudak knew about the expenses.

"I went to the office of the leader of the opposition and I said to Tim Hudak, I've checked with the folks downstairs and they say that this is the case and I want to heads up you," Shurman told NewsTalk1010 radio host John Tory on Friday.

"He said thanks for doing that, in other words acknowledging the fact that I had told him and that this was totally within the bounds of not only reason but legitimacy. I followed the rules."

[ Related: John Baird dismisses Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak’s critics ]

Ultimately, Hudak — who continues to face questions about his leadership — did the right thing.

As political consultant Gerry Nicholls told Yahoo! Canada News last week, Shurman's actions hurt the Progressive Conservative brand.

"This is the last thing the Ontario PCs want in the news," Nicholls told Yahoo! Canada News.

"They want to hammer the Liberals for their lack of respect for tax dollars and this gets them off message; this story gives the Liberals a chance to go on the attack."

The whole Shurman episode, however, is another hit to Hudak's image as someone who can lead his party to victory in the next election.

On Monday, Ontario legislature's summer session reconvened on Monday after a two month summer recess.

This should have been another opportunity for the Conservatives to finally capitalize on the Liberal government's ballooning debt and a gas plant scandal that just isn't going away.

Instead, the media is focused on the latest drama within the Tory caucus. As leader, Hudak must wear that.

Are you a politics junkie?
Follow @politicalpoints on Twitter!