At Issue: Mike Duffy on Trial

The At Issue panel on The National weighed in Tuesday night with host Peter Mansbridge after the first day of the long-awaited Mike Duffy trial in Ottawa.

Jennifer Ditchburn of The Canadian Press described the scene from the courtroom, in which public spectators and members of the media "hung on every word" in a session that provided a lot of detail from both sides, including hints of what may come when former Stephen Harper chief of staff Nigel Wright takes the stand.

Postmedia/National Post columnist AndrewCoyne said it will be interesting to see how the narrative shifts in the trial from the prosecution of a single Conservative senator who may have engaged in wrongdoing, to broader questions surrounding the culture of the Senate and the Prime Minister's Office.

Pollster Bruce Anderson of Abacus Data, meanwhile, said there will be no victory for the governing Conservatives regardless of the outcome of the Duffy trial, but rather a question of precisely how damaging the details will be to the PC brand in this election year.

Watch the full segment above, and findmore stories and features from The National here.