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OTTAWA — A Conservative senator lashed out at the NDP MP who represents his riding in the House of Commons on Friday, saying her constituents find her “useless and powerless,” and suggesting she never would have been elected without “spontaneous sympathy” in Quebec for Jack Layton.

The letter from Sen. Jean-Guy Dagenais stoked the ire of the New Democrats, who quickly went into the House of Commons to demand parliamentary retribution for what they argued was an “incredibly personal attack” on Charmaine Borg.

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Dagenais said it was a taxpayer-funded mailer from Borg — his MP — about abolishing the Senate that made him write the letter. He said he found the flyer in his mailbox when he arrived home Thursday.

The flyer was part of a petition to abolish the Senate. It touches on the number of senators under investigation, and says the actions of former Conservative senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin have plunged the upper chamber into disgrace. It ends by saying power should be placed in the hands of elected MPs.