The bizarre scandal that ended Nigel Wright’s political career
Laureen and I are shocked and heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of Nigel Wright.A unique and deeply accomplished person, Nigel combined intellectual acumen with incredible capacity for work. Nigel loved his country and believed in the value of public service, having… pic.twitter.com/bpIlJdk74Y
— Stephen Harper (@stephenharper) September 30, 2025
What was Duffygate?
At the centre of the scandal: expense claims.
In late 2012, Senators Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, Mac Harb and Pamela Wallin claimed travel and living allowance expenses from the Senate for which they were not eligible. Deloitte LLP was brought in to make an independent examination into the claims.
Harb retired, and the others were ultimately suspended from the Senate without pay. Brazeau, Duffy and Harb were criminally charged, although Duffy would be acquitted, and charges against the others were eventually withdrawn.
What was Wright’s role?Wallin and Harb repaid expenses that were deemed ineligible, and Brazeau had his salary as a Senator reduced to recoup the expenses. In late March of 2013, Duffy repaid $90,172 with a cheque drawn on his own account.
However, in May of that year, media reports surfaced that the original source of the repayment was a personal cheque from Wright, delivered to Duffy’s lawyer in the form of a bank draft on the same date as his own cheque was written. Wright worked in the Prime Minister’s Office for Harper at the time.
The following month, Harper said in Parliament : “It was Mr. Wright who made the decision to take his personal funds and give those to Mr. Duffy so that Mr. Duffy could reimburse the taxpayers. Those were his decisions. They were not communicated to me or to members of my office.”
However, Duffy’s lawyer claimed the PMO had pushed Duffy into accepting the cheque.
What was the fallout for Wright?The federal ethics commissioner opened an investigation into Wright’s repayment of Duffy’s expenses. The RCMP was also investigating him, but ultimately stopped , saying: “The evidence gathered does not support criminal charges against Mr. Wright.”
Wright left the PMO in the fall of 2013, although Harper said in an interview that he had been dismissed rather than resigning. Although Duffy was eventually acquitted of all charges against him, Wright’s actions were condemned by Justice Charles Vaillancourt as “mindboggling and shocking … in the context of a democratic society.”
Wright’s career neither began nor ended with Duffygate, however. As a law student at the University of Toronto in 1984, he got a call from Brian Mulroney asking him to work for Charles McMillian, a senior policy advisor to the then prime minister. He took the job , returning later to finish his studies.
In 1997 he joined Onex, helped establish the firm’s London office in 2014, and was by the time of his death the co-head of Onex Partners, one of Onex’ longest tenured employees and, the company said, “a recognized leader in the investment and business communities.”
What were the repercussions of Duffygate?The scandal led to many Canadians demanding Senate reform or even abolition. A poll in 2013 found that 49 per cent wanted the Senate to be reformed, 41 per cent wanted it abolished, and only six per cent wanted to leave it as it was.
In response, the Senate said it had “made several significant changes including tightening expense provisions for travel, hospitality and procurement; requiring proof of residency; implementing a new Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code that ranks among the toughest in the Commonwealth; and the establishment of an independent Office of the Senate Ethics Officer.”
In 2017, Duffy sued the Senate and the RCMP for $8 million alleging a negligent investigation. The suit was dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court, and an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was ultimately dismissed as well.
Duffy retired from the Senate in 2021, aged 75. He spent much of his final address to it complaining about the way he had been treated.
“The Senate is unelected and unaccountable to anyone other than itself. Sadly, that concept has been twisted to mean that Senators are not permitted the procedural fairness available to every other resident of Canada,” he said. “Even the Charter of Rights has no application here.”
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