Mistakes in Senator Duffy controversy 'mind boggling'
The mistakes made in the handling of the Senator Mike Duffy expenses controversy may speak of deeper troubles in the federal Conservative government, says a University of P.E.I. political scientist.
The P.E.I. senator resigned from the Conservative caucus Thursday night following allegations he charged expenses both to the Senate and Conservative election campaign funds on days he appeared to be campaigning for the Tories during the last federal election.
Duffy was already dealing with a story that he had accepted a gift of more than $90,000 from the prime minister's chief of staff to repay several years of housing claims from the Senate.
Duffy said to end the distractions this is causing he will sit as an independent until these questions are answered.
UPEI political scientist Don Desserud said the long list of troubles for Duffy, a strongly partisan senator, may have deeper implications.
"These kinds of mistakes being made, the inability to see what this would look like, the perceptual problems, the decisions being made by people so close to the prime minister really do speak to something else," said Desserud.
"You start to think, after a certain period of time a government just gets tired of trying. Maybe they don't take their opposition seriously, maybe they've just given up on worrying about things like that. I don't know, but it is mind boggling to see the number of mistakes that were made in this affair from top to bottom."
Desserud said given the partisan nature of Duffy's time as a senator, it may be difficult for him to find a new role for himself.
