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Thomas Mulcair gets testy ahead of committee probe on NDP satellite offices

It seems that NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is on his heels over allegations that his party used up to $3 million of taxpayer money to set-up satellite partisan offices in Montreal and other provinces.

The NDP claim those offices weren't partisan in nature, at all; that staff in those locales should have been paid from parliamentary budgets because they were serving constituents.

The problem is that there's not many people who believe them.

On Thursday, Mulcair will face a Conservative and Liberal laden House of Commons committee probing him about that and about suggestions that his party deliberately misled House of Commons' officials about where those employees were actually working.

On Wednesday, in a post-caucus meeting scrum, it was the media's turn to have at Mulcair.

Warning, you may get a glimpse of 'Angry Tom'.

Mulcair's defence has been weakened by a leaked report which quotes House clerk, Audrey O'Brien, who said this: "At no point was the House administration informed that the employees would be located in Montreal or that their work would be carried out in co-location with a political party’s offices.​"

For their part, the NDP have released emails, of their own, suggesting that House administration were aware that staff were in Montreal.

[ Related: NDP motion on abortion threatens to end Harper government's no comment policy on issue ]

Whether the NDP is disciplined for this,doesn't really matter. The bigger issue here, is the NDP losing their 'ethical ground' in the minds of Canadians.

The Tories and Grits have enjoyed the media attention this story is getting and are salivating at the opportunity to humiliate the New Democratic leader in committee tomorrow.

"The question is what are they actually doing out of that office," Tory MP Randy Hoback told CBC News on Wednesday afternoon.

"Are they doing partisan activity is what we believe they were doing. If that's the case then it's actually a misuse of resources from the House of Commons."

The Liberals says that they're looking forward to the committee meeting.

"Let's hear what Mr. Mulcair has to say," deputy Liberal leader Ralph Goodale said.

"Let's hear how he explains for example, the bylaws that say very clearly that a Parliamentary office is 'an office that is located or near parliament hill and an office that is provided to every member by parliament.'

"Let's have the evidence on the record, give Mr. Mulcair an opportunity to explain himself.

Given that ethics — the Conservative Party's ethics — promises to be a ballot box question in the next election, Mulcair needs use the committee meeting to convince Canadians that his party is ethical.

It's not going to be easy — the opposition MPs on committee are sure to goad him, hoping to see 'Angry Tom.' This could be Mulcair's most important 'meeting' as NDP leader.

Hopefully, for his sake, he handles it better that he did the media scrum.

(Photo courtesy of The Canadian Press)

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