It seems only one in 10 Canadians believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he says he didn’t know his chief of staff wrote a $90,000 cheque to Senator Mike Duffy.

The secret bailout deal was intended to help Duffy repay housing expenses he improperly took from taxpayers, and since the news broke, the prime minister has denied previous knowledge of it.
Harper maintains he didn’t hear about the secret deal until May 15, the day after the news broke.

According to Ipsos Reid, only 13 per cent of Canadians actually think that Harper is telling the truth, while 44 per cent aren’t really sure and 42 per cent are convinced he knew about the deal the whole time.

“There’s blood in the water; this is a very serious circumstance,” says Darrell Bricker with Ipsos Reid. “It’s not something that’s going to be going away anytime soon, and the government has to come up with better answers.”

On top of the skepticism about Harper’s explanations, it’s clear Canadians want to see an independent body investigate the scandal.

Three quarters of us think this scandal needs to be investigated by the RCMP or a judicial inquiry. Only six per cent think the Senate can handle it on its own.