Mike Duffy’s rise from high school dropout to ‘the Old Duff’ of Ottawa’s power elite

National Post ^ | July 21, 2014 | Don Butler

[Squawk 8888]

Once, before the Senate and the scandals and the infamy, Mike Duffy was the most recognizable broadcaster in Canada, beloved by millions who relied on his insider accounts to interpret the machinations of political Ottawa.

That seems a long time ago now. Since Stephen Harper fulfilled Duffy’s most ardent ambition in December 2008 and named him to the Senate — be careful what you wish for — he has been in a downward spiral of epic proportions.

That spiral reached a nadir this week, which began with a report in Maclean’s magazine about legal action in Peru by a woman claiming to be Duffy’s daughter and ended with the RCMP laying 31 criminal charges over his Senate expense and travel claims.

[Squawk 8888]

A sad tale. Duff used to be known as one of the best political reporters ever.

[Squawk 8888]

The trial should be explosive. Duffy is probably the only man in Ottawa who knows where all the bodies are buried.

To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.

Canada Ping!

[Jonty30]

I don’t know how guilty he is, especially compared to other who’s-who in Ottawa, but he forgot to practice the simple adage.

If it looks bad, don’t do it.

[Squawk 8888]

Yep, very true. I also think that he was naïve to expect other journalists to be as scrupulous about keeping confidences as he was; one of the reasons he knew everything that was going on was that his sources all knew he wouldn’t betray them.

[Nextrush]

I was watching Mike Duffy on the satellite dish from the US when he worked for CBC, then online at CTV.

He had quite a career and an appointment to the Senate to top it off.

Underneath such a good looking public life lurked a secret life that wasn’t so nice.

A lesson to learn?

[Squawk 8888]

The same can be said about the Mayor I helped elect in 2010. Even with the drinking, drug use and hanging out with gangsters he's still done a better job than any of his predecessors.

[Nextrush]

There’s a negative side to the qualities that make someone good in other aspects.

Ford is being drummed out in favor of John Tory, from what I gather....

[Squawk 8888]

It's hard to gauge at this point because the serious campaigning won't start until after Labour Day. The last Tory/Chow/Ford poll was roughly 36/32/23 but that was before last week's debate in which Olivia Chow had her ass handed to her by the other four participating candidates. No polls have been released since then so I suspect that there was movement that scared the campaign teams and/or media elites. So far this election looks like it's Tory's to lose but anything can happen between now and October.

I'm not comfortable with Tory due to his crony-capitalist record as CEO of Rogers, but I can live with him at City Hall. I will vote strategically to ensure the defeat of the marxist welfare queen Olivia Chow, whose late husband went to a lot of trouble to make himself look like V.I. Lenin:

[golux]

I don’t understand this cartoon. Can you explain it to me?

[Squawk 8888]

It’s a shot at Toronto Mayor Rob Ford about his drug use.

[golux]

Yes I understand that. I was wondering what the routine was with knives... I never heard of getting knives hot to do drugs.

[Squawk 8888]

All I know is that hot knives and hot spoons are used for some sort of drug prep. I have no idea what’s involved.