Camille Labchuk

Mike Duffy: Worst Senator Ever

I’ve been planning a post like this since I first got my blog up and running. In fact, you may even be reading the first entry in a series of posts on the merits (or should I say, lack thereof) of those lucky few who won the patronage lottery with Senate appointments. Today, I’m conferring the esteemed title of Worst Senator Ever upon Conservative senator Mike Duffy.

Anyone who followed the news this week will understand why Duffy is the obvious choice for this distinct honour. You will recall that on CBC’s Power & Politics on Thursday, Duffy appeared (ironically, while wearing a tuxedo) to respond to an NDP report on what Harper’s new Senate appointments cost to taxpayers. NDP MP Peter Stoffer, who presented the report, held his own during the interview while the unelected Duffy spewed a volley of unbelievable insults, repeatedly calling Stoffer a “faker” who pretends to support the military but votes against them at every opportunity. He interrupted and talked over Stoffer throughout the brief interview, and left viewers stunned and likely sickened by his inappropriate behaviour. (It says something about the veracity of Duffy’s allegations that among the first to jump to Stoffer’s defence was Liberal MP Glen Pearson, who pointed to the tremendous respect MPs from all parties have for Stoffer, and his long history of working to support our uniformed men and women.)

As Don Martin at the Post wrote yesterday, “It takes considerable effort to become a complete embarrassment.” Well, in recognition of this massive effort, my reward to Mike Duffy is the title of Worst Senator Ever.

On a standalone basis, Duffy’s stunt on Power & Politics certainly makes him a top contender for this award. But don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m judging Duffy on the basis of only one such incident. Oh, no. This latest performance is only the culmination of a series of incidents that have defined the good Senator in the first year of his tenure, and in the lead up to his appointment, while he still claimed journalistic neutrality. For your reading pleasure, here is a chronological recap.

January 2006 — December 2008: Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is elected in January of 2006. Duffy hosted the CTV politics broadcast Mike Duffy Live during this period. Many Ottawa observers have described his reporting during this period as a severely biased, three-year job interview for a Conservative seat in the Red Chamber. His show became the closest thing Canada had to Fox News.

October 7, 2008: During a live interview on his show, Duffy tries to frame Green Party leader Elizabeth May as out-to-lunch compared to her Conservative electoral opponent Peter MacKay. Duffy describes May’s comments at a May/MacKay debate as “off the wall” and “pretty bizarre,” and asks MacKay if it’s tough to debate someone who is “never going to be in power.” May reams out Duffy for a “significant violation of journalistic ethics.” Duffy cuts the interview short, and May is not invited back on his show.

October 9, 2008: With the Liberals rising in the polls following Stephane Dion’s performance in the leaders’ debates, Mike Duffy airs the infamous Dion interview, where a poorly-phrased question left the Liberal leader asking for a do-over. Despite CTV’s word the false starts would not be aired, the clip appears on Mike Duffy Live that evening and Duffy does his best to make Dion look bad. Many regard the damaging interview as a turning point for the Conservatives in the campaign, and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council later found Duffy was not fair, balanced or even-handed in his coverage of the interview. In other words, journalistic ethics had been thrown to the wind.

December 2008: Less than three months after he helped throw the election to the Conservatives, Duffy is rewarded with a (possibly constitutionally-invalid) Senate appointment. Prince Edward Islanders are outraged that Duffy, who hasn’t lived on the Island for over 40 years, will represent their province in Ottawa. The only consolation is that at least his show will be off the air.

Pork barrel politics: Duffy fits right in

February 3, 2009: In his maiden speech as a Senator, Duffy insults PEI premier Robert Ghiz, Newfoundland premier Danny Williams, and the gay community. In comments over PEI’s and Newfoundland’s disappointment with the federal budget, Duffy attacked Ghiz for “climbing into bed” with Williams. “You know what happened, what a grotesque scene that is. You know what happens when two politicians climb into bed together. One of them comes out on top and I’m afraid when you’re in bed with Danny Williams, he’s going to be on top.” Many found these comments sexist and homophobic. Even Harper found analogy inappropriate, and Duffy later “withdrew” the metaphor (whatever that means). What is perhaps most galling about this chain of events is that Duffy had the nerve to attack PEI’s premier for looking out for the province’s interests in the federal budget. That’s Ghiz’s job, and it should be Duffy’s job, too.

May 2009: Duffy discards all dignity in a New Brunswick speech by calling Danny Williams “that whack job over in Newfoundland,” and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May “Bucky the Beaver.” I find this particularly low, as he has claimed to find comments about his weight and personal appearance very hurtful. Always a class act, isn’t he?

June 11, 2009: Duffy’s on the road, “hosting” a scripted, by-invitation-only, televised event for Stephen Harper, where the Conservative deliver the first of their economic report cards promised in exchange for the Liberals’ support on the budget. The supposedly-once-neutral former journalist shills for Harper at the bizarre, stage-managed, one-hour event, that a Canadian Press investigation later reveals cost taxpayers $108,000.

June 23, 2009: Duffy tells the Peterborough Examiner he was never interested in a Senate appointment. And what’s more, he would have preferred to sit as an Independent, because he was always a journalist, not a Conservative. The questionable veracity of these statements makes them no less hilarious. Scott Feschuk puts it best: “Mike Duffy was not interested in the Senate the way Kirstie Alley is not interested in whether you’re going to finish that Twinkie.” It was widely known in Ottawa circles that Duffy was shilling for a Senate seat.

November 5, 2009: And now we return to the most recent in this string of embarrassments, where the unelected Duffy attacks the elected Stoffer over the NDP report showing Duffy spent $44,000 on travel in only the first three months of his term as a Senator. Most egregious is Duffy’s defence — that he is spending the money traveling the country and listening to Canadians. First of all, he’s a PEI Senator. Let him spend most of his time traveling back and forth to PEI, listening to Islanders. But this is absolutely not what he’s been up to. Duffy has been traveling the country on taxpayers’ dime, holding private, expensive fundraisers for the Conservatives, and trying to drum up partisan support. He’s not doing the job of a Senator, he’s doing the job of a partisan agent. He’s listening to the needs of Conservative donors, not average Islanders.

One could easily go on about Duffy for the better part of a day — and indeed there are more examples of ways he has embarrassed himself. He said he didn’t want a Senate appointment, yet he took one. He pretended to be non-partisan throughout his career, then belied these words by showing his true colours as as a nasty, venomous, undignified Conservative shill. I suppose it’s possible that Duffy’s pattern of behaviour is actually part of a Conservative master plan to destroy the reputation of the Senate, but I think it’s more likely that he’s simply a mean-spirited hypocrite of enormous proportions who hasn’t an iota of respect for our democratic institutions. For these accomplishments, I’m proud to deliver the Worst Senator Ever award to Mike Duffy. Congratulations, Duffy, you’ve earned it!