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.

SUPREME COURT TUSSLE: Harper’s frustration with the courts came to a head in 2014 when his appointment of Marc Nadon to the top bench was rejected because Nadon failed to meet eligibility requirements. Harper accused Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin of making “inadvisable and inappropriate” attempts to reach him on the issue, an episode author John Ibbitson describes as the “nadir” of his time in power. “Not only did he lose the fight; he tarnished his reputation and damaged what should be the sacrosanct separation of powers between executive and judiciary,” Ibbitson wrote in his book, Stephen Harper.

G8 FUNDING: In the lead up to the 2010 G8 meeting in Huntsville, senior cabinet minister Tony Clement personally directed a $50-million “legacy” fund, funneling millions in infrastructure to his Muskoka riding. Municipalities far from the actual summit site were given hundreds of thousands of dollars for sidewalk improvements, parks, and most infamously, a gazebo. A subsequent investigation by the auditor general showed funds were doled out with no bureaucratic oversight or paper trails. Clement was later promoted to president of the Treasury Board, the department that oversees government spending.

CONTEMPT RULINGS:

In 2011, Speaker Peter Milliken ruled the Conservative government was in contempt of Parliament on two separate instances: when the international aid minister lied about the defunding of charitable organization KAIROS, and cabinet’s refusal to reveal the costs of corporate tax cuts, criminal justice measures, and the beleaguered F-35 fighter jet program. The rulings were a major blow at the time to the Conservatives, and helped precipitate the 2011 federal election. Voters however didn’t seem to mind — the Conservatives won a majority.

PROROGATION: An arcane parliamentary procedure turned into a political scandal for Harper in 2008. Harper’s minority government was about to be defeated by a coalition of Liberals and New Democrats, with the support of the Bloc Québécois — a perfectly legitimate parliamentary option in Westminster democracies. Harper convinced Governor General Michaëlle Jean to dissolve Parliament — a move that saved his government. In 2009, the Conservatives prorogued Parliament to shut down embarrassing revelations about the Afghan detainee scandal.

SEARCH AND RESCUE FINDS PETER MACKAY: Then defence minister Peter MacKay was caught using a Cormorant search and rescue helicopter in 2010 to pick him up from a private salmon fishing lodge on the Gander River in Newfoundland at an estimated cost of $16,000. The revelation came at a time when the Canadian Armed Forces’ top soldier, Walt Natynczyk, was under fire for using a military jet to get to a Caribbean family vacation. MacKay suspected he was set up by top Harper spin doctor Dimitri Soudas, according to evidence revealed in the Mike Duffy trial.

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