On my Facebook profile under the section reserved for users to insert their "political views," mine says, "They're all lying corrupt bastards," partly because I thought it was clever, but mostly because that's kinda how I feel about politicians.
Maybe it's because, as a journalist, I'm programmed to be completely cynical about everything, or maybe it's because I never could trust anyone who wanted to "be in charge" because usually it was about their egos or personal agendas, and rarely about altruism.
OK, sure, there are those anomalies like Gandhi or MLK, but peruse the headlines over the past 10 years and you'll see politicians and scandals go together like tar and feathers.
Take the current brouhaha (please excuse my technical terms) in our Senate over expense claims.
Sure, we've heard about taxpayers having to foot the bill for $14 glasses of orange juice or half-block limo rides, but now it appears that some senators may have been fraudulently claiming living expenses, as well as travel per diems and other expenses, from the money you and I shell out every April come tax time.
Although there are several senators in the expense claim spotlight, it's Mike Duffy - a former political journalist and pundit - who's giving the story its sturdy legs.
In brief, Duffy apparently messed up on his living expense claims to the tune of $90,000 (basically, it boiled down to Duffy saying he lived in PEI and claimed Ottawa living expenses, when in fact he lived in Ottawa). He agreed to pay the money back to Canadians, and he did except he didn't.
See, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff Nigel Wright actually paid the money back for Duffy, in some sort of deal to get leniency on a "fraudulent expenses" committee report (which, looking at the whitewashed report he got). Once the press and public got whiff of the deal, though, Wright resigned and the Prime Minister, infamous for his tight control of his political agenda and minions, said he knew nothing of the deal brokered through a lawyer for the PMO.
You can't see me, but I'm rolling my eyes. Trust me.
And trust is what the problem is with our senate, because all their expenses and per-diems are on an "honour" system. No, I'm not kidding. The senators don't have to submit receipts, or show any evidence. All they have to do is say, "I took a $30 taxi to the airport" and they get reimbursed for $30, no questions asked.
I have a question: "Whose dumb idea was that?"
It's clear our senate needs reform or abolishment, and quick.
Let's get senators off the honour system, and back to acting a little more honourably because until that time, my Facebook profile is still going to call it like I see it.
