Wake up!

There’s plenty of blame—and responsibility—to go around over the Senate expenses scandal that continues to engulf Ottawa.
You’ve got senators showing scant regard for taxpayers’ money by filing dubious housing and travel claims, and Senate rules so ambiguous to allow such a fiasco.
Then there’s the antics of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Conservative Party, complete with disturbing allegations of conspiracies, cover-ups, and intimidation—and far too many questions of just who was involved and who knew what.
It’s almost impossible to predict what the final fall-out will be from all this. What is clear, however, is that the real cost of these shenanigans is Canadians’ faith and trust in our political system.
Already tenuous, as evidenced by dismal voter turnout of late, the danger is that the electorate simply will tune out even more—shrugging their collective shoulders and saying, “Why bother to vote?”
That’s understandable—but wrong. What’s desperately needed at times like this is for Canadians to care; to show an interest in the day-to-day workings of Parliament and, more importantly, to demand better of our politicians.
Opening one eye only during election campaigns doesn’t cut it.
The Senate scandal is as much a case of Canadians being asleep at the switch. It’s time we woke up.