Editor:
Regarding your editorial ‘All we want is an explanation, Senator Duffy’ (The Guardian, Feb. 9, 2013), may I suggest that it goes beyond an explanation.
No matter whether the senator's residence is P.E.I. or Ottawa, he was living in Ottawa and, in my view, was ripping off the taxpayers for tens of thousands of dollars in so-called expenses which he, in fact, did not incur in that he had a home in Ottawa and was not entitled to the living allowance. Where I come from here on the Island, people have gone to jail for lesser offences.
Even moreso is the interesting observation made by the long-time serving former Senator Lowell Murray, a constitutional expert in his own right, on CBC radio Saturday morning. He stated unequivocally that if Senator Duffy is a resident of Ottawa then he constitutionally cannot be a senator from P.E.I. in that he is required to reside in the province he represents and as such, the Senate seat becomes vacant meaning that he will be toast.
Had greed not got the better part of Senator Duffy, he would not have got himself in the difficulty he now finds himself.
Alan K. Scales, C.M., Q.C.,
Charlottetown
