Government fights back as Opposition hammers away on Senate expense scandal

OTTAWA – Opposition politicians have been hammering away at the Senate expenses scandal during question period, but the government is getting in some jabs of its own.

With Prime Minister Stephen Harper skipping the Monday session, as is his practice, it fell to Heritage Minister James Moore to deflect a barrage of Senate questions.

But recent missteps for both NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau made it easy for the government benches to blunt their attacks.

Mulcair’s own aggressive questions prompted Moore to mention NDP MP Tyrone Benskin, who was fired last week from his critics job after admitting he owed almost $60,000 in back taxes.

In Trudeau’s case, it was his comments about Senate reform, published Friday in Montreal’s Le Soleil, that landed him in hot water.

Trudeau was expressing his opposition to abolishing the Senate when he pointed out that it gives Quebec more seats than Alberta and British Columbia.