If accountability was an issue, the senate really should have been careful what they wished for but it’s far too late for that now. After the public discovery that multiple appointed bureaucrats have been padding their expenses for travel, spousal add-ons, alleged bribes and more — they have painted themselves into a corner and gotten caught. Auditor-general Michael Ferguson’s office is now analyzing every receipt that’s been submitted, much to their chagrin. Trending hashtags: #senateproblems, a take on #firstworldproblems and #abolishthesenate.
Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth really stepped in ‘it’ this week when she complained to the paparazzi on Parliament Hill about the level of scrutiny on her expenses, down to her meals while travelling. At issue, she opted for a paid meal over “Ice cold camembert and broken crackers” which were offered with the purchase of the airfare. After all, cultured individuals know that camembert should be served warm or at room temperature. She bought something else to eat and her assistant dutifully submitted the receipt as an expense. Now the world knows.
The middle aged, openly lesbian senator from a political family in Toronto said a mouthful as she was interviewed on the way to work this week and scoffed at the idea that the Auditor would have any understanding of what it was like to have to “fly around the world to get here to Ottawa.” And she was serious. Her attitude seemed to be that no senator should have to eat what those airlines are passing off as breakfast (on a one-hour flight). After ordering a costlier breakfast at the public’s expense, she is now annoyed that the extra few dollars is an issue. Isn’t the problem really that senators feel entitled and don’t understand why that’s a problem?
Upon first hearing this sound bite, we furrowed our brows and shook our heads like Looney Tunes cartoon characters trying to understand something foreign, complete with cartoon Foley soundtrack. It reminded us of another legendary statement, attributed to Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution when she heard of the starving masses and reportedly said something like “Let them eat cake.” So remiss was the queen’s understanding of the challenges of poverty, she presumed that they would be able to benefit from the palace’s leftover cake.
Other senators (Wallin, Duffy) have had embarrassing and notoriously public spectacles made of their expense reports — surely they were the exceptions and not the rule? Not so. Nearly $200,000 of misappropriated public money has been repaid to the government since the bean counters auditing the situation have discovered a giant leak in the “tight financial ship” that should be the Canadian senate. Senators are increasingly living up to the suspicion that they have been sidling up to the trough for long enough based on an overinflated sense of entitlement.
What might seem like an innocent comment about cheese leaves many of us wondering — yet again why we need this branch of the government anymore.