It was with some interest that I listened to the first major interview with new Senate Speaker Leo Housakos over the weekend, and in it, there was the requisite amount of tough talk with regards to the recent spending allegations that some senators face. To wit, Speaker Housakos spoke of recognising their problems internally, bringing in the Auditor General on their own, the willingness to name any names that the AG does in his report, and as far as the three suspended senators are concerned, those suspensions are likely to continue into the next parliament until their legal situations have been resolved one way or another. Where Housakos did not talk tough, but instead shied away from answering, was regarding questions of the complicity of some senators in changing the internal audit to protect Mike Duffy. Housakos mumbled about it being before the courts, but as the Speaker and the new head of the Internal Economy committee, he had an opportunity to make a statement about past practices that will no longer be tolerated, or the staking a claim about Senate independence and severing the ties to the PMO, or anything like that. He didn’t, and it’s not too surprising to me because Housakos is known as someone who is close to the PMO, in with a tight cabal that surrounds the current Government Leader in the Senate, Claude Carignan. In other words, Housakos is no Pierre-Claude Nolin, who had some fairly high-minded ideals about the Senate and its independence, particularly after the Supreme Court’s reference decision. The fact that Housakos did not make any claims for institutional independence is telling, and reminds us that he bears watching so as to ensure that he personally does not become implicated in more of the PMO machinations into the Upper Chamber and its workings. The Senate needs an independent Speaker, and I’m not sure that Housakos is it. Meanwhileback in the Commons, the government refuses to answer questions on residency requirements for appointing senators.

Good reads:

• Conservative MP Patrick Brown won the Ontario PC leadership over the weekend, which means he will likely vacate his federal seat this week.
• Rosemary Barton gives her take on part 1 of the Duffy Trial, while some BC mayors say that Duffy didn’t meet with them as he said they did.
• Conservative-associated lawyers are trying to figure out how the wife of his alleged American victim can sue Omar Khadr in Canada.
• The Conservatives are still winning a lot of fundraising races on the ground at the riding level.
• Politicians using Mothers’ Day for crass electioneering? You don’t say!

Odds and ends:

Elizabeth May got rambling, awkward, and a bit profane during the Press Gallery Dinner on Saturday, which she later apologised for.

Also at the Dinner, The Canadian Press reporter Jennifer Ditchburn was given the prestigious Charles Lynch award.

Here’s some politics as satirical artwork.