Conservative senator Michael MacDonald claims he was drinking the evening he verbally accosted a number of Ottawa residents for complaining about the trucker protest/occupation of Ottawa back in 2022.
If that’s the case, maybe MacDonald should either stop drinking when microphones are around or drink something a little less likely to cause him to embarrass himself and his province on the national stage.
The senator from Nova Scotia, appointed by Stephen Harper in 2009, decided to join in with protesters, disrupters, and occupiers during the so-called “Freedom Convoy” fiasco. At one point, he came upon some Ottawa citizens who were negatively impacted by the intimidation, noise, horn-honking, and general poor behaviour exhibited by more than a few of the participants.
MacDonald held nothing back.
“It’s everybody’s fucking city, this is the capital of the country. It’s not your goddamned city just because you have a six-figure salary and you work 20 hours a week. You haven’t worked a full week in two years. It’s sickening.”
Nine of his Senate colleagues submitted a complaint about his behaviour, but, while he’s apologized to the Senate citing the drinking excuse, he’s done everything he can to obstruct the Senate ethics watchdog as it investigates the occurrence more fully.
MacDonald is the prototypical political hack, his only claims to anything substantial having to do with his work as a researcher and assistant to several provincial Conservative politicians. He’s also a four-time loser as a candidate for both federal and provincial seats in the province, meaning that Nova Scotian electors have an inherent wisdom about them.
So what do you do with a party hack with an 0-4 win/loss record? Well, you name him to the Senate, of course. Because there couldn’t possibly be anyone more qualified in the whole of Nova Scotia than MacDonald. And now he’s set, at least until age 75, with a lovely pension to follow. He’s currently 68 years old, and obviously his liquor is getting the better of him. In seven short years, he’ll be gone from the Red Chamber, and for many people who value integrity, that will constitute good riddance.
This guy couldn’t get out of Nova Scotia by being elected to anything, but he somehow got there by appointment, and now he shits all over the city where he spends a lot of his time.
The ethics committee has ruled that MacDonald has breached no fewer than six sections of the code that governs senators, leaving a bit of a stain on the credibility of the institution.
“Senators are expected to represent Canadians, not denigrate, mock and demean them, while encouraging illegal activities at a time when a state of emergency had been declared,” wrote Pierre Legault, the ethics officer investigating the incident and its aftermath.
Sanctions are expected to be levied against MacDonald by the Senate, including censure, a condemnation by his peers owing to his behaviour and intransigence in obstructing the investigation. Censure is one step short of expulsion, so maybe there’s a need for the Senate to simply take bigger steps and send this guy packing so he can go back to running his motel again and show us all what hard work looks like. And if I’m ever in town, I’ll make sure not to drop by.
Go back to Nova Scotia, friend. I’m sure the Senate can get by without you in the room. If we need you, and we won’t, we can always Zoom you.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 