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The end of the Mike Duffy trial — one of the most high-profile political scandals in recent memory — offers a cautionary tale to politiciansas well asinsight into how the justice systemworks. And it leaves big questions about how the Senate must reform itself.

Canadian politicos have been gripped by the Duffy trial, which ended Thursday with the dismissal of all 31 fraud, breach of trust and bribery counts against him.

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In Duffy, the Senate expenses scandal found its poster boy, alleged to have ripped off taxpayers. There was even a bombshell, an apparent smoking gun: a $90,000 cheque from Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, used to pay back Duffy’s living expenses.

Without the intense centralization of politics and policy in the Prime Minister’s Office, this crisis may never have achieved such heights. There may have never been a $90,000 cheque, meetings that PMO staff may or may not have been in on, or decisions made that staff may or may not have heard of. This, for the current government, and future governments, is a lesson.