There's a name that looms large in the Mike Duffy scandal that doesn't appear on the witness list at the suspended senator's blockbuster fraud trial.
I'm not talking about Stephen Harper, though the prime minister won't be making an appearance on the witness stand, to the dismay of circus fans everywhere.
No, I'm talking about Justin Trudeau, leader of the federal Liberal party, who hopes enough muck and slime oozes out of that Ottawa courthouse to drown Harper's re-election chances.
There will certainly be lots of fetid goop flowing out of the Duffy trial, much of it leaving a muddy trail right back here to B.C.
Duffy's alleged frauds include a 2009 Senate-sponsored trip to attend the Saanich Fair on Vancouver Island, for example.
The Crown alleges Duffy did not attend the quaint ring-toss games and pie-baking contests but went to Vancouver, where he attended a play starring his actress daughter, billing taxpayers for his expenses.
In 2010, the Crown alleges, Duffy made another trip west for what he billed to his expense account as "Senate business -- speaking engagement and meetings."
It happened to be the same day his daughter gave birth in a Vancouver hospital and Duffy and his wife used the trip for a joyous family reunion -- at taxpayers' expense, the Crown alleges.
Duffy faces 31 criminal charges including fraud, bribery and breach of trust. The former television journalist has pleaded not guilty, and he's clearly furious at his so-called friends in the Conservative Party for throwing him to the wolves.
That's where Trudeau hopes Duffy will become his new pal come election day.
Trudeau and his Liberals hope Duffy and his lawyers tip over a hamper full of dirty Conservative laundry in the court, stringing it up on a national clothesline for an entire nation of voters to gawk at.
But will the Duffy sideshow be enough to swing the election in Trudeau's favour? The scandal certainly wounds the Conservatives, but I'm not so sure the injuries will be politically fatal.
Consider that the federal election isn't expected until October and the Duffy trial is scheduled to wrap up in June. Four months is an eternity in politics and potentially long enough for voters to forget and calm down.
Harper's Conservatives, meanwhile, will portray Trudeau as a free-spending, high-taxing, economic-disaster-in-waiting.
Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver will table a balanced budget two weeks from now. Oliver announced Wednesday the government will also bring in a balanced-budget law, requiring future governments to stay out of the red.
Is balanced-budget legislation just a political gimmick? Of course it is. These laws always contain loopholes allowing the government to run deficits if necessary.
But the Harper Conservatives still hope the Trudeau Liberals vote against the balanced-budget legislation. It will help them portray Trudeau as a bad economic risk.
Think about what happened in the 2013 B.C. election. Adrian Dix, then the NDP leader, promised to rescind the governing Liberals' balanced-budget law -- and lost the election.
Like Christy Clark's Liberals, Harper's Conservatives hope voters will be thinking with their wallets at election time, and not thinking about scandals like the Mike Duffy affair.
