PETERS – Just like Harper, it looks like Trudeau has his own PMO to rein in

DO YOU REMEMBER the last time the Prime Minister’s Office was in the middle of a big scandal?

It was Stephen Harper and the Conservatives in government, and the PMO had been accused of wielding far too much power in the Mike Duffy Senate spending scandal.

In 2016, when an Ontario judge dismissed 31 charges against Duffy, he tore a strip off Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright and the PMO he led.

Justice Charles Vaillancourt said the PMO had been treating Senate leadership like “mere pawns on a chessboard” doing their bidding.

When the Duffy spending scandal popped up, the PMO devised a complex strategy to sweep it under the rug, demanding mindless adherence from the Senate.

Now, the PMO under Justin Trudeau is under the microscope again.

Read More >>

James Peters is the radio anchor at CFJC, coming to Kamloops in 2006. He anchors the afternoon news on B-100 and 98.3 CIFM, and contributes weekly editorials to the CFJC Evening News. He tweets regularly @Jamloops.