All in­di­ca­tions are, at least as re­ported widely in the news me­dia, that the fed­eral New De­moc­rats have en­gaged in a scheme to use tax­payer money to help fund their party op­er­a­tions in Que­bec and Saskatchewan.

The nor­mally so sanc­ti­mo­nious Dip­pers have al­legedly set up a satel­lite of­fice in Mon­treal that vi­o­lates par­lia­men­tary spend­ing rules. The of­fice housed both party work­ers and gov­ern­ment-paid work­ers who are sup­posed to work ex­clu­sively on non-par­ti­san con­stituency work. The Mon­treal of­fice was also, al­legedly, signed as an NDP of­fice with its party logo.

NDP leader Thomas Mul­cair, ap­par­ently, got all huffy when pressed by re­porters. He in­sisted his party had done noth­ing wrong, and that du­ties were sep­a­rated to en­sure par­lia­men­tary staff only does par­lia­men­tary work and po­lit­i­cal staff does only po­lit­i­cal work.

More: Russ Campbell’s Blog: Mulcair on the Hot-Seat, NDP Not So Sanctimonious Now