Can anyone explain to me why voter turnout in this country is so high?

Senator Mike Duffy has resigned from the Tory Caucus, as has Senator Pamela Wallin. Both are gone over problems with expense claims amounting to many thousands of dollars. Duffy’s involve his housing allowance and expenses claimed for Senate business on days when he was campaigning for the Conservative Party and being reimbursed by them. Wallin’s are about her expenses for travel other than to and from her home province. The story is unfolding, but these are more than red flags even now. Duffy has paid back over $90,000, admitting that his housing claims were ineligible while still insisting that the forms are unclear. And it’s reported that Wallin repaid $25,000 just prior to the audit, and approximately $15,000 since the audit began, tacitly admitting that her expense claims too, for whatever reason, are out of wack.

Added to all of this, is the separate, and much more serious matter of Duffy’s $90,000 repayment being covered by a gift from the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright. On the surface this may seem like the caring gesture of a wealthy friend, but, for obvious reasons, Senators are required to declare all gifts of more that $500 within 30 days. This does not appear to have been done making this a secret payment. This is what is referred to as “under the table”, and it is completely unacceptable. We, the taxpayers, pay Senators, and we pay them very well ($135,200 a year plus benefits and generous pensions). We do this because they work for us, and they work for us because we do it.

Wright has resigned, expressing regret for his actions, while maintaining his motive was “the public interest”. Unfortunately for Mr. Wright, a $90,000 surreptitious payment to a Senator is potentially a criminal act. Now don’t get me wrong, what’s unfortunate for Wright is most fortunate for the Canadian tax payer and necessary for the integrity of Parliament.

Of course, everyone caught up in these matters is insisting that the forms, procedures, requirements, expectations are unclear. And I fear there is more truth in these claims than we might want to believe. Our entire parliamentary system has been increasingly unaccountable for decades, to the point that no one is even asking the most obvious questions. Who is responsible to see that forms are properly filled out and procedures actually followed? Why do we have to wait for an audit to discover that someone has been making bogus expense claims for half a decade? Who signs off on these things?

In every job I’ve ever had there were people responsible to see that I filled out forms and followed procedures correctly. No personal reflection on me. It was the simple recognition that we are all tempted to interpret rules and apply procedures in ways that most benefit us.

When this scandal is over – I do not say “resolved” – there needs to be a thorough rethink of all the checks and safeguards in our entire parliamentary system. This won’t happen of course, any more than it did after the Sponsorship and Airbus scandals, which ended unresolved. And I will continue to scratch my head every 4 or 5 years and wonder why over 60% of eligible voters in Canada actually vote.