First of all, let me say that I agree with Paul Wells that Bernard Shapiro should resign. There’s no point in having an ethics commissioner if no one is willing to accept his legitimacy. And so long as there is no rule against floor crossing, I really don’t think these matters should be investigated.

That said, this entire affair is just bizarre and raises a ton of questions. I won’t even begin to try and answer them.

1. Why did Harper strengthen the ethics commissioner’s power, in one of his first acts in office, so that his findings could not be overturned? If he thought Shapiro was illegitimate then, he certainly wouldn’t have done that. So if he thought Shapiro was legitimate a few weeks ago, has he only changed his mind now that he disagrees with Shapiro’s decision?

2. Why did Harper make reference to Shapiro not investigating Brison crossing the floor when Shapiro wasn’t even the ethics commissioner then? Should he also investigate Jack Horner?

3. Why did Shapiro choose to investigate this incident, but not Belinda’s crossing?

4. Given that the Tories wanted Shapiro to investigate Belinda’s crossing, shouldn’t they want him to investigate this one?

5. Why did the Tories applaud when Shapiro decided to investigate Ujjal during the “comfy fur” fiasco, but not this incident?

6. If Shapiro stays on, will Harper put any stock into future Shapiro investigations? Or will he only boycott investigations he disagrees with?

7. Isn’t it kind of disingenuous of Harper to use a technicality to get out of this by saying “the House wasn’t sitting” when this occurred? Wasn’t he supposed to be above this sort of stuff? Or was that just campaign talk?

8. If a new Ethics commissioner is put in place, would it be OK for a future PM to refuse to work with him after taking office? Doesn’t that sort of politicize the position?

9. If a party disagrees with the choice of the new ethics commissioner, could they refuse to co-operate with him in the future? How would Harper react in that situation?

10. David Emerson said he’d resign if the Ethics commissioner found him guilty of any wrong-doings. This sort of implies to me that Emerson doesn’t mind being investigated. Right?

11. (via the comments section) Why has Shapiro chosen to investigate a matter involving a Tory when the house wasn’t yet in session when he said during the election that he couldn’t investigate Tony Valeri’s landflip?