Sometimes you read clueless columns, and sometimes the columns are so utterly clueless that you have to wonder how they ever got past an editor in the first place. The Globe and Mail featured one such yesterday morning from Campbell Clark, who asserted that it’s now Justin Trudeau’s fault that Mike Duffy is claiming expenses because cabinet ultimately has control over expenditures.

I. Can’t. Even.

The Senate is a parliamentary body with institutional independence. The executive does not control its budget. pic.twitter.com/4gdir8VL4e

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) August 10, 2016

The complete and rank civic illiteracy coming from a columnist in a national newspaper is galling, and looks a hell of a lot like he’s just making stuff up as he goes along. And no, I’m not chalking this up to a mid-August phoned-in column, because this isn’t the first time that he’s made this suggestion before, and it needs to stop. And it’s such an elementary part of civic literacy that Clark is apparently unable to grasp, which is that it’s the job of the legislature to hold the executive in check and not the other way around. In fact, it’s the job of the House of Commons to grant supply to the government for its operation and not the other way around. The Senate most especially exists to serve as a check on an executive that has a majority in the House of Commons. Neither the House of Commons nor the Senate are a government department – they don’t report to the Cabinet, nor does Cabinet control their expenditures because fundamentally they have institutional independence. Can you just imagine what would happen if Cabinet did control their purse strings? It would be nothing but a constant string of threats to cut of MPs’ or senators’ salaries or office budgets if they didn’t fall into line. That’s not how the system works, and Clark’s suggestion makes as much sense as giving cabinet the authority to go after judges’ salaries if they strike down that government’s laws. Add to that, Clark’s suggestion that the government should start clamping down on how much Senators can spend is so ludicrously boneheaded that it boggles the mind. You see, if MPs go after senators’ expenses, then senators will turn around and go after MPs’ expenses, and veto any budget until their independence is no longer being threatened. And why? For cheap optics? The Senate has a job to do, and democracy costs money. If Clark thinks that things work differently under our constitutional arrangement, then he is sadly mistaken, and he needs a remedial course in basic civics post haste because what he’s written is wholly and completely irresponsible. So no, it’s not Justin Trudeau’s government’s problem that Mike Duffy is claiming housing allowances, it’s Duffy’s problem (as we established yesterday). For anyone to claim otherwise doesn’t know or understand how our system operates.

Meanwhile, it’s a good thing someone wrote a book to give a primer on the civic literacy of these issues. https://t.co/RTe6yZxTBP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) August 10, 2016

Good reads:

• Mike Duffy, incidentally, won’t talk to the media about his expenses or even what work he’s been up to in the Senate lately.
• Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin says we need more Aboriginal justices in lower courts who can work their way up the system.
• RCMP shot and killed a terrorism suspect over a bomb he was apparently about to detonate.
• For proponents of online voting, here’s a terrifying look at how vulnerable US elections are to being hacked.
• Oh dear – HMCS Charlottetown is facing an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease among its crew.
• What’s that? The Office of Religious Freedom’s work was tainted by the perception of political bias? You don’t say!
• The revised plans for a relocated Victims of Communism memorial are behind and over budget. Of course.
• Kady O’Malley tries to figure out why the NDP never seems to need to return bad donations, as well as the state of leaders’ riding-level fundraising.
• Paul Wells looks at the budget building process, which is being impacted by persistently slow growth projections.

Odds and ends:

Alheli Picazo reminds us of what Colin Powell said in 2008, and why the Republicans should have heeded it then.

There are questions as to when Stephen Harper plans to resign his seat.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/763516097261924352

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/763516466574594048

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/763517168973733888