OTTAWA—Here are a few of the scandals and controversies that Stephen Harper has weathered since his Conservative government took office in 2006.
SENATE APPOINTMENTS: The Senate has been the source of Harper’s most damaging scandal, one that goes to the heart of his office. Unsuccessful in efforts to reform the upper chamber, Harper began to stack it with Tory loyalists. Several appointments now haunt him. Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin were suspended from the Senate for allegations of improper expense claims; Duffy and Brazeau face criminal charges related to their spending. Harper’s own office has been embroiled after it was revealed that Nigel Wright, his chief of staff at the time, cut a $90,000 cheque to cover Duffy’s questionable expenses. Don Meredith, a Toronto senator, quit the Conservative caucus earlier this year after the Star revealed allegations he had a sexual relationship with a teenager.
ELECTION SCANDALS: The Conservatives have found themselves at the centre of multiple investigations over their election activities. In the 2006 “in-and-out” scandal, the Conservative party pled guilty to exceeding national election advertising limits. In the 2011 election, robocalls misdirected voters away from the polls. A Conservative staffer was convicted in that scandal. Former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, once Harper’s parliamentary secretary, was convicted of breaking spending rules in the 2008 vote. And in 2013, then-Labrador MP Peter Penashue was forced to quit Harper’s cabinet over illegal campaign donations.
MAXIME BERNIER: The debonair Quebec MP showed up at Rideau Hall in 2007 to be sworn into cabinet with girlfriend Julie Couillard on his arm. But she had reported past ties to biker gangs. A year later, Bernier was forced to resign as foreign affairs minister after it was revealed that he had left classified NATO documents at Couillard’s home.
VETERANS AFFAIRS: For a government that boasts of its support of Canada’s military, looking after veterans should have been a no-brainer. Instead, the Tories have been in the crosshairs of veterans, upset that ill and injured soldiers have been short-changed and angry over the closing of regional veterans affairs offices. The Conservatives have repeatedly tinkered with programs, boosted funding and finally installed Erin O’Toole, himself a veteran, as minister in charge of the file, all in hopes of quelling the controversy.
AFGHAN DETAINEES: Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin appeared before a parliamentary committee in 2009 and made a bombshell charge — that detainees taken captive by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and transferred to local authorities were almost certainly being tortured and abused. The issue escalated into a political crisis when the Conservatives refused to release documents on the issue and prorogued Parliament in December, 2009, shutting down the parliamentary committee that was probing the abuse allegations.
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