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Stephen Harper to take hot seat in Senate expense scandal on Tuesday

We'll have to wait one more day to see Stephen Harper face the likes of Thomas Mulcair, Charlie Angus and Ralph Goodale about the Senate expense scandal.

As per his regular schedule, the Prime Minister will skip Question Period on Monday and attend on Tuesday, according to iPolitics' Colin Horgan.

So, Tuesday will be the first time that the opposition parties will have it Harper since we learned that Nigel Wright, the prime minister's now-former chief of staff, gifted Senator Mike Duffy $90,000.

"We’re going to see a duel between somebody who knows how to persist and try to get answers, and somebody who has mastered the art of saying nothing when he responds," NDP MP Craig Scott told Postmedia News.

"The prime minister’s going to be asked to account for himself, and not simply account for others."

[ Related: The Senate expense scandal isn't going away anytime soon ]

Last week, while in South America, Harper spoke to reporters about the growing scandal.

"I was not consulted, Harper said of the $90,000 cheque, according to the Canadian Press.

"I was not asked to sign off on any such thing. Had I obviously been consulted, more importantly I would not have agreed, and it is obviously for those reasons that I accepted Mr. Wright's resignation."

[ Related: Stephen Harper says he's 'frustrated' and angry about Senate expense scandal ]

Certainly, if history is any indication, Harper won't directly answer any questions in the House: He'll deflect and stick to his government's talking points.

A political public relations consultant, however, advises against that.

Bernard Gauthier says Harper needs to take more responsibility for what happened.

"He hasn't done that. He's spoken twice to Canadians on this, once in Peru and once on Parliament Hill and never really did that," he told CTV News.

"I think he missed an opportunity there to say 'you know what, I have to wear some of this. I appointed these people, I tried to set a culture of accountability, it's not working, I need to do more."

After that, Gauthier suggests that Harper get on with the act of governing.

"First off, he has to try and get back to the business of being prime minister of the country and get back in to giving announcements on other topics, and major policy speeches and being visible out there on things other than the Senate," he said.

"The second thing he needs to do...is take really take bold action on the Senate and particularly Senate reform."

[ Related: Senate expenses scandal back to centre stage today ]

We can also expect to see some fireworks in the Senate this week.

On Tuesday James Cowan, Liberal leader in the red chamber, is expected to grill the Conservatives about reports that Duffy's Senate expense report was whitewashed by a Tory dominated Senate committee.

It's going to be a raucous week on Parliament Hill.

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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