Duffy 2.0? Ottawa lawyer’s allegations about then-MP Jason Kenney’s expenses sets off Internet tempest

Allegations about United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney’s Calgary domestic and travel arrangements during the years he was the Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore circulating on social media over the weekend had turned into a full-blown Internet tempest by last night.

Parliamentary expenditure reports and flight records as well as Calgary land titles unearthed by rural-Alberta-born Ottawa lawyer Kyle Morrow indicate that while Mr. Kenney lived in the nation’s capital he listed his parents’ Calgary address as his principal residence and did so in a 2013 Elections Canada disclosure document even after his father had died and the house had been sold.

This prompted Mr. Morrow to suggest in a Tweet Mr. Kenney was lying to Elections Canada and Parliament’s Board of Internal Economy, the quaintly named office that oversees expenditures by Members of Parliament. “This is sounding a lot like Mike Duffy 2.0,” Mr. Morrow asserted.

Mr. Kenney denied this forcefully. His Chief of Staff, Matt Wolf, told the CBC the Elections Canada filing was simply an error by an election volunteer.

Obviously concerned by the attention this was getting on social media, the Alberta Opposition leader issued a statement of his own insisting that for 30 years he has “always owned, co-owned, or rented my principal residence in Alberta. … I paid my taxes in Alberta. My driver’s license and health card were from Alberta. My doctor and dentist were in Alberta. My Parish and…