Article content continued

The onus should be on the Conservative party to pay for the audit, he said, because it was Prime Minister Stephen Harper who defended Wallin earlier this year and he appointed her as a senator in the first place.

[np_storybar title=”Rex Murphy: Rewarding party faithful with taxpayer money has long been the Senate’s only purpose” link=”http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/08/17/rex-murphy-the-most-elite-vip-only-club-around/”]

How does a person get appointed to the Senate in the first place?

Let us take the case of Senator Fabian Manning, who was a Conservative member of Parliament from Newfoundland before he lost his seat in the October 2008 election.

The year after the loss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper placed him on the soft, deep-dented and kindly cushions of the Red Chamber, shrouding him in the status of “Honourable,” and gifting him one of those remarkably versatile expense accounts that are one of the principal boons of membership in that great Club.

Continue reading …

[/np_storybar]

“We’re saying, look, given the fact that it’s the prime minister who vouchsafed her expenses and the Conservative party’s role in this scandal since the beginning, that it’s the Conservatives that should be paying for the audit,” said Mulcair, referring to a statement made by Harper in February.

During question period on Feb. 13, Harper told the House of Commons that Wallin’s expenses weren’t out of the ordinary. “I have looked at the numbers,” Harper said. “Her travel costs are comparable to any parliamentarian travelling from that particular area of the country over that period of time.”