It is hard to have much sympathy for the predicament that Conservatives find themselves in today.

The party that claimed for years to be different from its Liberal predecessor in terms of its ethical fortitude has been exposed as just as vulnerable to the corruption that seems inevitable when politicians are handed too much power for too long.

It’s not just the Patrick Brazeaus, Mike Duffys, and Pamela Wallins who have erred. That most Conservative MPs seem to be satisfied that the three senators have been expelled from caucus, rather than from the Senate itself, is equally disturbing.

Indeed, the standard Conservative solution to scandals of any sort over the last seven years has been to try to make them disappear – to ignore what seem to be systemic problems within the Canadian political system – and to move on as if nothing ever happened.

And for this strategy, which is as morally repugnant as the actions that have preceded it, Canadians have only themselves to blame.

One might recall the last time that a federal leader attempted to deal more transparently with a significant ethical lapse. Prime Minister Paul Martin, after leading the country through a period of budgetary surpluses and general prosperity, was rewarded for his public investigation of the sponsorship scandal with a defeat in the 2006 election.

In contrast, immediately upon entering office, the Conservatives made no effort to investigate a questionable decision by the RCMP to make public, in the midst of a tight election, faulty suspicions of professional misconduct by Liberal Ralph Goodale.

Two years later, the party that had promised greater government accountability broke its own fixed elections law – and nonetheless emerged from the 2008 electoral campaign with an increased minority.

Over the next three years, the Conservatives twice prorogued parliament controversially: first to avoid defeat and banishment from power by a Liberal-NDP coalition, and then to negate an investigation into the treatment of Afghan detainees.

How did Canadians respond to such contemptible political chicanery? They did not just re-elect the Harper government; they granted it a majority.

Today, the Conservative caucus is almost certainly debating whether it should use that majority to shut down the House of Commons and thereby hopefully limit the impact of the latest controversy.

Such action would be despicable, but not politically unreasonable. After all, Canadian voters have made clear that unethical behaviour, if forgotten quickly enough, will go unpunished.

Adam Chapnick teaches defence studies at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto. His column appears on thestar.com every Tuesday.

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