OTTAWA — Sen. Mike Duffy says he was specifically advised by a senior Conservative colleague to file expense claims for his home near Ottawa.
Duffy is testifying for the second day in his own defence, at his trial on charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.
Duffy says when he was appointed to the Senate in late 2008, he became worried over public criticism that he was not qualified to represent Prince Edward Island because he had lived in the Ottawa area for so long.
He says he was told by Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk, then deputy chairman of the powerful internal economy committee, to file living expenses on the premise that the Ontario home was his secondary residence and his P.E.I. cottage his primary one.
That way, Duffy says he was told, it would help remove any doubt that he was resident in the province he represented.
Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges, most of which revolve around his living expenses and travel claims.
SOME OF WHAT MIKE DUFFY SAID IN HIS OWN DEFENCE ON THE WITNESS STAND TUESDAY
OTTAWA — Some quotes from Sen. Mike Duffy's first day of testimony in his own fraud, breach of trust and bribery trial:
On his years as a cub reporter: "I wasn't a particularly great writer, and I wasn't particularly talented, but I could see what people wanted was output, so I tried to minimize the goofing off during business hours and maximize the throughput."
On covering his first political conventions: "I realized that while it was a spectacle, it was spectacle that mattered because it allowed for the debate and discussion of ideas, and at the end of the day it would affect how every single Canadian lived their lives."
On the breakup of his first marriage: "I lost my kids, they moved away, eventually as far as B.C. I basically had a lost decade. When I walked by a schoolyard, I wondered how my kids were doing."
On having a heart attack three days before his second marriage: "Nothing in my life ... has been simple or straightforward."
On why he, a non-partisan journalist, was appointed to the Senate: "What they were trying to do was put people in the Senate who would in effect provide third-party validation of Stephen Harper as someone Canadians can trust."
On being appointed to represent Prince Edward Island: "I said, going in for P.E.I. would not be popular. I'm from P.E.I., but many people will complain I'm not of P.E.I."
FIVE THINGS TO TAKE AWAY FROM MIKE DUFFY'S FIRST DAY OF TESTIMONY
OTTAWA — Five things to take away from Sen. Mike Duffy's first day of testimony in his own defence:
1. Duffy travelled on the road with the Canadian rock band The Beavers in the summer of 1964 at the age of 18. The band members, who sported matching Mohawk haircuts, had him travel in advance to cities to set up for their arrival. They later changed their name to the Great Scots.
2. Duffy was an ambitious and shrewd young journalist, freelancing stories about football games in his mid-teens, and later working any small radio jobs he could get. In 1967, he paid his own way to Toronto to cover the Progressive Conservative convention for a Halifax radio station.
3. Duffy suffered a heart attack three days before he was set to wed his current wife Heather. The two had met years earlier, when she was his nurse for another ailment. Duffy said he went through a similar emotional conundrum when his daughter was born precisely the same hour that his father passed away.
4. Duffy's health is poor. He takes 12 different medications daily to treat his heart disease, diabetes and ulcers, and sleeps with a device to treat apnea. He has six doctors, and has been a patient with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute for two decades. Duffy has had open heart surgery twice, including two years ago.
5. When Stephen Harper asked him to sit in the Senate in late 2008, Duffy says he suggested he represent Ontario instead of Prince Edward Island. But Duffy says Harper was adamant it be PEI, and was fully aware that Duffy only owned a cottage there that he intended to winterize in the future as a retirement home.
