Once Again, I Urge You To Join The Call To Abolish Canada’s Senate

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

If you are paying the least bit of attention, you may already know that this November 1^st, the RCMP filed documents in an Ontario court that Stephen Harper-appointed Senator Pamela Wallin defrauded Canada’s Senate and through that equally discarded body, Canadian taxpayers who are covering the cost of this ongoing pig fest of a mess.

Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin can rant on about how badly persecuted she is being persecuted all she wants. But why should we, the taxpayers, pay for it? Enough is enough, already. Abolish the Senate.

But here is the real sucker punch in the gut for for the rest of us. Even though Wallin has reportedly repaid a total of $152,908 in what federal audits deemed to be improper expense claims on her part, the cost to Canadian taxpayers, so far, of auditing her books since Prime Minister Stephen Harper so proudly appointed her to the Red Chamber some three or four years ago is $390,000.

What value are we, the taxpayers of Canada, getting for that Mr. Harper? More than two bucks of our hard-fought tax dollars going to audit the expenses one of your errant senate appointees for every dollar they pay back? What private company would put up with that? They may want to fire you as a CEO rather than putting up with any more of a net draining of dollars down the toilet like that. But Harper continues to get away with that and with a pledge to audit the expenses of all 105 members of this useless, unelected, unaccountable body of partisan hacks in the Senate. And if it has so far cost almost $400,000 to audit one senartor, think of all the waste of taxpayers’ money in auditing all of the rest. By God, it might add up to enough money to help some of our young people struggling to pay for a college or university education in this country. 

So forget about costly audits (indeed, one might want to investigate the auditor’s expense claims to find out what a $390,000 auditing figure is all about) and all of the ongoing expense of RCMP investigations and so forth.

Here’s to Mr. Harper and company. Just do us all a favour. Cut our losses and get rid of this body of useless party hacks. This country would be better off without it, sir.

I will repeat a view I’ve expressed in previous posts that even Harper Conservatives who claim they want less costly government, would be leading the charge to get rid of the senate now.

I urge you once again to contact your federal MPs with your views on this subject and to not let Harper government reps like Rob Nicholson in the Niagara Falls riding of this region and Rick Dystra in the St. Catharines riding off the hook. Put them on the spot in calls or emails or whenever or wherever you may see them at a public event.

Demand to know from them whether or not they are in favour of abolishing the senate, and make your decision what party you vote for in the next federal election accordingly.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)