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EDITORIAL: Worth addressing

Here’s a trick question: Where do you live? Is it A) In Ottawa? or B) Not in Ottawa? While it seems straightforward, to those senators occupying Canada’s house of sober second thought, apparently it’s a real stumper.

Here’s a trick question: Where do you live? Is it A) In Ottawa? or B) Not in Ottawa? While it seems straightforward, to those senators occupying Canada’s house of sober second thought, apparently it’s a real stumper.

The seemingly perplexing question of whether Mike Duffy has lived in Ottawa or PEI for the past several decades is one at the heart of his criminal trial focused on Senate expenses.

Turns out, he’s not the only one who can’t figure out where he lives. As pundits have pointed out following auditor general Mark Ferguson’s scathing examination of Senate expenses released this week, amnesia is rampant in the upper house.

Senators — who stand to pocket considerably more cash if they conclude their principal home is outside the nation’s capital — appear to have a lot of trouble figuring out where most of their waking hours are spent.

They also have trouble figuring out when they’re working and when they’re not. In the senators’ alternate version of reality, golfing, fishing and attending a friends’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration are all considered work, and therefore to be paid on the taxpayers’ dime.

We’re guessing most people in Averageville, Canada will be none too happy with that.

The auditor’s report is not a flattering document. It details a culture of entitlement so entrenched that the idea of paying for one’s meals, taxis or airfare while on personal business occurred to very few. Given the option of beer or champagne, senators always chose champagne. With caviar on the side.

Canadians have the right to be revolted and to demand reform.