Source: National Post

There's always professional squeamishness when journalists are granted a juicy patronage plum from the government they are paid to objectively cover.

Mike Duffy has been a CBC or CTV icon since most of today's national press gallery members were in diapers. He's entertaining, informative, plugged-in and, as that incessant rotation of ego-stroking MP testimonials on CTVs' Newsnet suggests, genuinely liked or begrudgingly respected by all political parties.

But at the stroke of noon on Monday, he went from being last week's host of Mike Duffy Live to being next month's Mike Duffy Sedate as one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's lapdog Conservative senators.

Whether real or imaginary, journalist appointments by government are viewed as the reward for obedient conduct, a perception further tainted by having Mr. Duffy's appointment lumped in with a trough-full of patronage payoffs for Conservative fundraisers, defeated candidates and party toadies.

The added complication for the charismatic Mr. Duffy, who has always held conservative political views, is that he agreed to Mr. Harper's pre-conditions before joining this unprecedented orgy of senatorial stuffing.

When Mr. Harper added 18 senators and their $135,000 paycheques to the taxpayer's tab with job security until age 75, they had to first pledge allegiance to Conservative policies on Senate reform in the future while promising to oppose any coalition of opposition parties that included the Bloc Quebecois.

Harper's demand goes beyond the standard expectation of senators being generally loyal to their patronage saint. It demands their specific votes as the pre-condition for their appointment.  

Ok, ok, all you true-blue Tory believers, it's true the Duffy appointment was balanced off by having former CBC personality Pamela Wallin elevated to the upper chamber. And, yes, former prime minister Jean Chretien gave former CTV reporter Jim Munson a winning ticket to this political lottery.  

But Ms. Wallin hasn't covered politics for decades and Senator Munson was laid off by CTV and ended up inside the Liberal government more out of paycheque necessity than personal preference.

Ironically, when I wrote a column four years ago questioning the rash of journalists hired by various government ministers or agencies after the 2004 election, Stephen Harper sent rare congratulations though the grapevine, noting they were proof of a payoff to reporters he suspected of a Liberal bias.

So what does that make Mike Duffy?

Stacking the Senate with members of the national press gallery and assorted political partisans is hardly the sort of reform Conservatives wanted from their prime minister, who always vowed to nudge the Senate toward the election of quality representatives from provinces with vacancies.

This one-day pile-in does nothing more then solidify the Senate's image as payola heaven and harden its reality as a partisan divide under the control of respective party leaders.

Surely Mr. Harper could've found reform-minded Canadians with gold-plated public service records that voters in the respective provinces might've elected, if given the option. Yet he opted for the wearying same-old, same-old mentality of the Senate as the official clearing house for partisan IOUs.

Would Saskatchewan voters elect upper crust Pamela Wallin as their Senate representative? Not a chance.

Would the voters of Newfoundland elevate former Conservative Fabian Manning just nine weeks after they voted him out of an MP's job? Would the B.C. electorate choose Yonah Martin for an appointment when she couldn't even land a winnable seat last Oct. 14? Would Ontario voters embrace Irving Gerstein, whose only political claim to fame was serving as Canada's top Conservative fundraiser? Would Quebec pick former Canadian Alliance candidate Leo Housakos, best friend to a PMO communications official, who was tainted earlier this year by allegations of meddling in a public works file? Hell no -- to all of the above.

Instead of reforming it, Mr Harper has reconfirmed the Senate as the pigpen for party has-beens, cast-offs, party bagmen and political pals with a couple honorable mentions thrown in to make the Conservative rebalancing project go down a little easier.

But don't let the warming optics of the Nancy Greene senatorial appointment fool you. She may be the iconic face of Canadian skiing, not to mention Mars bars, but she's a non-partisan anomaly on the Christmas appointment list.

Perhaps the best that can be said for the sheer audacity of having Mr. Harper carbon-copy the Liberal Senate-stacking playbook is that it makes Mr. Duffy's elevation less professionally offensive.

At least Mike Duffy put in time trying to keep MPs honest. With few exceptions, the rest are being rewarded for helping keep Conservatives elected.

© National Post