zW2Ig~~60_7.JPG "brandeentertainment"){kind=avatar}
Just 13 per cent of Canadians believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper is telling the truth when he says he had no knowledge of Nigel Wright’s $90,000-bailout of Sen. Mike Duffy, according to a new poll.
The CTV News Ipsos Reid poll also found that 44 per cent were “not sure whether or not the prime minister had any knowledge of the monetary gift made by Mr. Wright at the time,” and 42 per cent said they are “convinced that the prime minister would have known about the monetary gift by Mr. Wright at the time.”
In a sign of how politically damaging the scandal could be, the survey also found that 66 per cent of respondents considered the involvement of the Prime Minister’s Office a “serious ethical breach.”
Prior to his appointment as chief of staff, he was the managing director of private-equity giant Onex Corporation
I expect he will go back to his old job (paying in excess of one million a year)
I expect he will go back to his old job
I agree.......or something else just as lucrative.
Wright, who was asked by Harper to be his chief of staff in 2010, is a wealthy businessman.
He's the former managing director of Onex, the largest private sector employer in Canada. Onex owns or manages companies such as Indigo, Cineplex, Allison Transmission, Hawker Beechcraft and ResCare.
A profile of Wright in Walrus magazine estimated that he was paid about $2 million annually in salary and bonuses while at Onex, and owns millions of dollars worth of stock options.
He almost certainly took a dramatic pay cut when he came to the Prime Minister's Office, and told the parliamentary ethics committee, when it debated his nomination in 2010, "Public policy has been a passion of mine. For three decades I've had some involvement in the political process."
Wright told the committee his first experience on Parliament Hill was when he left law school for a period in his 20s to take a job as a speechwriter for former prime minister Brian Mulroney.
About being asked to be Harper's chief of staff, Wright responded: "A once-in-a-lifetime privilege, impossible to do anything with other than say yes."
He added that Harper's values align with his in every way.
Wright told the ethics committee he was taking a two-year leave of absence from Onex, and it's believed that he has extended that leave.
On Thursday, an Onex spokesperson wrote in an email, "We understand that Nigel intends to return to Onex after his time as [the PM's] chief of staff and we're looking forward to that, but will not speculate on timing."
The bottom line is.......those who love Harper (for whatever reason) will never forsake him. To do so would be like disowning a parent with the same values....or lack there of. But it's not just this Senate thing....it's a long, long, long list of other things Harper has done and not done.
Do you think Mulcair or Trudeau would have done better?
Why ask a question that is impossible to answer, one way or the other?
Could anyone stop a member of their group from padding their expense account? Probably not. But giving the Duffy 90 grand to get his butt out of the situation is a whole different matter.
If Duffy with his long history of both government and private employment with well paying jobs, can't scrape up 90 grand, then there's something fishier going on than a cod plant in Newfoundland.
there is a LIBERAL senator and Trudeau has said NOTHING!
Incorrect.
When asked by the media about Harb's expenses Trudeau said he was satisfied with how Harb had handled it by resigning caucus and the situation will be handled by the investigation. No money........was offered to Harb.
"There are 3 people wandering around with impunity right now who know the whole truth about this sordid affair: Duffy, Wright, and Harper. "
Add the name of Harper’s former special counsel and legal adviser Benjamin Perrin who worked on a deal between Wright and Duffy’s lawyer to help the senator pay back the invalid expense claims.
People will never come together until it hits the pocketbooks of enough people. Money, is everything. At that point, rich, poor, middle class (what's left of them) will always rise. In Canadaland however we are too comfortable, too wealthy, too complacent. We're like cattle in a lush field and once in a while we get hit, or prodded by our masters, but, we shrug it off because we do have the field. We haven't felt enough 'sting' yet to turn our horns in the right direction.
"until it hits the pocketbooks of enough people"
BINGO.
All the nonsense taking place in the Senate has not cost individual Canadians a penny ..... yet.
The money is spent, wasted but..... Canadian taxpayers have not been asked to pay for it... yet.
Why? The waste is simply added to the national deficit and the money borrowed and added to the national debt. As long as Canadians allow their government to run annual deficits to cover excess expenses over revenues, the problem will be hidden from them.
Our children or grandchildren will eventually pay the price for action not taken today: increase tax for the waste taking place. Our elected officials will not do it. Cowards.
"was rejected"
Nonsense.
The Conservatives have a majority and can pass any law they want. Harper and his Cabinet have decided not to. They have too much fun appointing political friends like the three senators in trouble for milking the public purse through their inflated expense accounts.
