Canada PoliticsSenator Mike Duffy may now be investigated for double-dipping amid growing anti-Senate sentiment
Mike Duffy's troubles continue to mount.
CBC News is reporting that the Senate Finance Committee may again review Duffy's expenses following a Canadian Press story, Thursday, which alleged that he was claiming senate expenses while campaigning for the Conservatives in 2011.
"In light of yesterday's media reports regarding Senator Duffy's expense claims, senators will be asking that the report concerning Senator Duffy be referred back to committee for further examination taking into account this new information," a spokesperson for Marjory LeBreton, leader of the government in the Senate, told CBC.
Duffy was forced to resign from the Conservative caucus, Thursday evening, after it was learned that Nigel Wright, the prime minister's chief of staff, personally funded Duffy's repayment of $90,000 in improperly-claimed living expenses.
[ Related: Senator Mike Duffy resigns from the Conservative caucus ]
Duffy's resignation will serve as a brief respite for the Tories, who were undoubtedly feeling the public outrage.
All three senators implicated in the housing allowance scandal — Duffy, along with Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau — have buoyed a growing anti-Senate sentiment across the country, according to Democracy Watch's Tyler Sommers.
Democracy Watch, an independent democracy watchdog, has launched a 'Shut down the Senate' campaign on their website.
Shutting down the Senate is the easiest, least costly, and best solution – much better than continuing the attempts to clean up the Senate that have all failed for the past 145 years.
Join with Canadians across the country and send a strong message to key politicians that you want them to stop playing games and immediately take action to shut down the Senate!
The campaign has been up for four days and already has almost 52,000 supporters.
"With every scandal that comes out of the senate, with every time the government makes a promise to reform the senate and then doesn't actually follow through, people get more and more frustrated and more and more upset," Sommers told Yahoo! Canada News.
"And the reality the Senate is terribly secretive and the ethics rules are so weak they may as well not even exist really. It's senators investigating senators."
[ Related: Should Mike Duffy quit the Senate? ]
The good news is that, after 145 years, the government is finally moving to do something with the Senate.
Earlier this year, Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal announced that "the federal government will seek clarification from the Supreme Court on "what is required to reform the Senate and what is required to abolish the Senate."
The bad news is that the court won't respond until the second half of 2014 at the earliest.
Constitutional issues notwithstanding, Canada's three major political have already staked their positions. Interestingly each of their senate strategies are quite different.
The Tories prefer reform through their Bill C-7, a controversial piece of legislation which would incline provinces to hold senatorial elections and impose a nine-year term limit for senators.
The New Democrats want the Senate abolished.
And, during his leadership campaign, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau suggested that cure for the Senate's woes is as simple as picking better senators.
(Photo courtesy The Canadian Press)
Are you a politics junkie?
Follow @politicalpoints on Twitter!
